2014 Power Wagon or 2014 Cummins

[Richx76]

Good Morning, Long time lurker, first time poster:

So, I'm currently serving in Korea, and in about 7 months, I'll rotate back to the states. 5 months ago, I sold my 2011 Superduty Diesel, and I have a long line of diesels before that.

However, the crux of my dilemma is this: I don't tow heavy, I just like the power/cruising long distances.

I am extremely interested in a 2014 Power Wagon. My question is, since this would also be a daily driver. How much is fuel going to cost me/how often to fill up the tank if I drive 26 miles of highway one way to work every day? Are these comfortable enough for a yearly road trip from Sacramento to Washington State? Anyone done any long tripping? What kind of road manners does this truck have?

Thanks for the input...and yes, if I buy a PW, it will see dirt (nearly every weekend in NorCal).

Rich

[w2dodge]

Welcome to the form....well I have an 05 and when ever I take it to work ...60 miles one way all highway at 65mph..
averages just above 14mpg...shes all stock..with 305s and a paragon top for the bed...I love the way she rides on the highway and my kids love it too...as for 2014 pw you might see better mpg due to the 410 gear ratios...good luck in you choice..

[Richx76]

I grew up in Oregon, my Grandpa was a WWII vet. He had a 46 power wagon...I drove that beast. Then he at some point in his retired years, had a 54 (before I was born)... I remember watching old 8mm movies with their powerwagons grinding up through the mountains to go deer/elk/bear/cougar hunting in the snow. Fording rivers with truck tied to truck to get across, winches connected to the other sides. Was amazing stuff.

When I was a teenager (pre drivers license) I got to drive a 63, four-door PW to our cabin in the woods. He had spent a good 6 months rebuilding it from the ground up... Put a stakebed on it for hauling firewood. That truck was fun, painted lime green (couple shades darker than what you see cars painted as) with a gloss black frame/axles/wheels/bumpers and bed. When you approached a river crossing...4WD Low, 2nd Gear, you could pretty much just let go of the clutch and cross water up to the hood without touching the gas. Best darn experience for an under 14 year old. Biggest damn steering wheel I ever saw!

Then there was the 70's model...it wasn't too bad...not half the personality of the 63 though. Still had a PTO driven winch though...those things were beastly for pulling logs...You betcha.

[w2dodge]

That's great...my pops had Plymouth trailduster..factory roll cage and temp and pressure gauges oil,tranny all factory...custom coach paint ...we use to sleep in it on our hunting trips to our property upstate ny..before we had the camper and now pole barn..great memories

[TwinStick]

Welcome. I get 10 mpg with mine. Pretty much all the time, even got up to 10 mpg towing once & only once. Usually 6-7 towing our camper. PW's ROCK, but they ain't no diesel. I am uber glad i was able to order mine with a stick shift. 1st gear is 6.3:1 & combined with the 4.56 axles & 2:72: Lo range, it gives me a 78:1 crawl ratio, which is even lower a than manual shift Rubicon with it's 4.0:1 Lo range !!!

The 2014/15's are gonna have a 11.5" rear axle, which means you can go to 4.56's, 4.88's or 5.13's when it is lifted with bigger tires !!!

[azracer]

Right now I'm not a big fan of Diesel anything. The new 2010 and up emissions combined with the Urea/add blue DPF fluid (highly corrosive) has me convinced that if you do not need a diesel for towing and hauling then don't get one. The EGR puts carbon particulates back into the engine adding lots of wear and oil contamination. The DPF adds lots of expense and performance problems too. EGR coolers seem to be prone to cracking and leaking coolant into the intake and EGR passages plugging them up. The new VGT turbo is expensive and have issues with carbon seizing the VGT and the electronic actuator is prone to failure as well. How do I know this? Well we have a fleet of 250 diesel buses that use mostly Cummins engines but we do have some older Detroit diesel series 50.

I like my PW but I'm not sure a PW is what you want with the fuel economy and power. I will say the savings in per gallon fuel cost and maintenance makes it a wash when comparing diesel to gas.

[Richx76]

Thanks for the inputs folks: I see you're pulling a 10K toy hauler Twinstick...I know I won't be pulling anything that big. Hell, my last heaviest pull was only 9.5 K and that was a car trailer, loaded down truck, with a bunch of crap as well. Don't have the trailer anymore...

I only had a DEF/EGR Superduty Diesel, no problems in 28K miles, but ford already had the EGR problems on the previous motors...

Unfortunately, I can't go drive a PW where I am now, so I've got to live through ya'lls experiences.

[Cactus Red]

How much is fuel going to cost me/how often to fill up the tank if I drive 26 miles of highway one way to work every day?

That's a longer commute than I do - I'm 18 miles one way of mostly highway, and I'm averaging about 250 miles for the 5 working days. At that, I've been spending roughly $70.00 @ $3.50 a gallon, averaging about 12.4 MPG. Add in the weekend miles, and it's an easy $100.00, if we don't do a trip.

The kicker is the weekend trips. If I have to air down below 20 PSI, it's just brutal on gas. 6.5 MPG is not uncommon. If I keep'm about 25 PSI, it drops to 9 to 10. So, the 150 mile trip, 80 of it dirt, costs as much or more than a full week of driving. That's one of the reasons we bought a JKU Rubicon - we can get 15 to 16 MPG over the same terrain, 18 MPG on the highway. You might consider that as an option as well - the '12 and up Jeep is a fine vehicle. It's limited on towing to 3500 lbs tho.

Mark

[Dawizman]

My wife just went for a 700km trip (one way) in my power wagon towing a 7000lb camper. I'll let you know what kind of mileage she got come Monday.

I usually fill the truck up every two weeks driving about 5 miles one way to work every day, and racking up miles on the weekend having fun. I sit around 10mpg driving 95% around town with a pretty heavy right foot.

[coder]

Here are my basic truck buying guidelines:

1) If you are going to tow heavy on a somewhat regular basis get the diesel.
2) If you are going to off road heavy on a somewhat regular basis with light to moderate towing get the PW.
3) If you not going to go either but just want a Dodge 2500 get a regular 2500 Hemi.
4) If you are overly concerned about mileage but still want a truck get a 1500.

My PW is my daily driver. I drive about 30 miles round-trip to work everyday, plus driving around town on the weekends. I go through a full tank of gas about every 7 days, that costs me $100-$120 a week where I live.

[RustyPW]

I got an '08 G3. Around town, I get about 9~10 mpg. Highway, the best I got was 16 mpg. Avg about 12~14 mpg. towing my 9,000 lb camer. The worst was 4.5 mpg over RT 68 in WV. Avg is about 6~8. I've used this truck for everything. Heavy hauling (4,000 lbs of dirt in the bed, ) towing a camper, back and forth to work, to driving from Pittsburgh to Moab and back twice (4,000 miles round trip each time).

[CJ8Rockcrawler]

Find a used Ctd with the 5.9 and add Carli suspension. 20 mpg and good off-road performance for a much cheaper cost of entry. You will give up some of the bells and whistles of the pw, but it depends if you really need the lockers, the disconnect for the sway bar etc.

[verdesardog]

I do love my 06 cummins!

[RustyPW]

I do love my 06 cummins!

You got one of the better years. Think you would hate the newer ones.

[JBM Power Wagon]

I use my PW as my everything vehicle:

-long work road trips: VERY comfortable, only gets rough on older patches of freeway. Average 13-14mpg on the highway. Stereo is great, UConnect works awesome.
-trail riding: you can read it in all the magazines, the PW is one of the best factory off road trucks out there. Yes it has its gremlins but I keep up with a lot of lifted jeeps with my truck. I also take it out hunting once per year too, and having the winch when I am stuck on a trail in the bush trying to get to a good moose spot is a life saver!
-towing: I tow a 29 foot travel trailer that weighs in at 8500lbs loaded and get 7-9mpg. The truck tows very good for a gasser. Gets up all the hills and doesn't seem to be working too hard most of the time. I also have trips where I am towing the trailer with all of this in the bed: full size ATV, mini ATV, ramps, 3000 watt generator, chainsaw, gas, and firewood. It handles that load very well.

Now, I should mention that works pays for all of my day to day gas so that does make my situation different than most. But after owning this truck for the last 2 years I can confidently say that even if work stopped paying for the gas I would find a way to keep it. I love my truck that much.

For me it really is the versatility of the truck that I like. It allows me to do everything I like/need to do with one vehicle.

[08TwinStickPW]

Your question is almost impossible to answer to be honest.

The 2014 PW will be drastically different than anything we here currently have experience with.

It will have different gears (4:10 vs 4:56), different motor (6.4 hemi vs 5.7), and totally different suspension. My recommendation would be to drive both a CTD 2500 and a PW and compare them back to back.

My feed back from my 2008 would be the following (keeping in mind I don't need/use a PW to its full potential, but I wanted one )

Gas Milage - Not the best, avg. around 10 daily driving, 12-13 on the highway
(I would not have a PW if I did not have a short commute)

Ride quality - Its a truck, I drove the PW and then a 07 2500 CTD and the PW rode
softer and smother that the 2500CTD. Now that I have upgraded the
tires and they are E rated the highway "bumps" are a bit harsher,
but overall it still rides damn good for a 2500 3/4 ton truck.
(It ain't no 1500, that's for damn sure)

Offroad - Only done some basic offroading but my friends summed it up best...it's a Jeep
Wrangler in the form of a full size pickup truck. It laughs at stuff the avg. truck
would struggle with, it is actually better offroad than on road in my opinion.
(though she is not offroad as much as she should be)

Overall - I wanted it and don't really need it!

[verdesardog]

I do love my 06 cummins!

You got one of the better years. Think you would hate the newer ones.

You are correct, I would not buy a newer one for sure ......

[PWRider]

Economically DD in PW doesn't make any sense. at 26 miles you are looking at $20/day in gas. $400 a month. That's enough to lease god-awful-ugly Nissan Leaf. Charge it and spare PW all those extra miles. I drive 2WD Nissan Frontier to work. Good mileage, cheap. I just replaced all 4 tires on it for just a bit more than cost of single 35" got on PW.

[RustyPW]

Economically DD in PW doesn't make any sense. at 26 miles you are looking at $20/day in gas. $400 a month. That's enough to lease god-awful-ugly Nissan Leaf. Charge it and spare PW all those extra miles. I drive 2WD Nissan Frontier to work. Good mileage, cheap. I just replaced all 4 tires on it for just a bit more than cost of single 35" got on PW.

I wish I could get tires that cheap for my Nissan. 4 Mich Sport Cups tires is $2800.

[Richx76]

Sent an email to Ram, of course the answer to the "would you tell me more about the 14 PW and when it could be ordered question" was answered with "we have no details on that vehicle because Chrysler hasn't released it yet".

Jeez, they suck.