Findings In 2 Months, 10,000km In A Gmc 2500hd Duramax

[dmoonen 54]

Yesterday marks the 2 month mark of ownership of my 2006 GMC 2500 Duramax. Since I own a private business and most of us are OCD here we record all our milage and input all our recites like any business should do . . . well mine at least. This truck is only used for deliveries, driving to job sites and driving to trade-shows. In a nutshell when we can't fit things into the Smart cars.

Personal information and opinion:

So I never did a "Introduce yourself" thing a long time ago so here's some information about myself

I've been pretty spoiled in the vehicles I driven and have grown up with which set the bench mark pretty high. My family always had either Mercedes, Audi, or Volkswagens. The first vehicle I've ever driven was an custom 06 Mercedes S500 Pullman Guard my father bought for my mother. My father had a vast background of being in the R&D field specializing in aluminum casting for many companies and with many patents under his belt. He was in charge of castings, machine design and factory design for the Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Cruze, BMW Z3, BMW 3 series and also when he was in Belgium he was on the R&D team for the Mercedes W124 rims in the 80's . . . and oh yes did some R&D for the Smart Fortwo (450) at Magna International. The showroom at Magna (Cosma) was given a Smart Fortwo for display in the showroom as a gift in the early 2000's for the work they've done. When I was younger visiting my father at his work I'd use to run around the show room and admire the Smart car which later on became one of the reasons why I'd buy one later on. Working in R&D he'd mention working with the german car companies because they were pretty specific and demanded insanely high quality products. He said one time and I quote "Parts that Mercedes call scrap is what GM would use every day, they're good parts but aren't good enough".

We had a corner of our hobby farm dedicated as the "Mercedes Grave Yard" basically we'd buy them put a ton of milage on them and park them and forget them. When I was 15 I started disassembling many of the w124's and w140's and selling the parts on ebay as a small summer business. Taking the cars apart you really learnt the full beauty of the vehicles especially the w124 series. Mercedes are a beautiful complex puzzles that you can admire for their workmanship.

I've always disliked american vehicles for multiple reasons but it basically comes down to the quality and care of the build of the vehicle and how the company runs their business. GM takes a vehicle and slaps a new face on it every time with way too many models to choose from (Seriously name the modles from 2000 to now ). BMW (3 series, 5 series, 7 series, M series, etc) and Mercedes (B Class,C Class, E Class, S Class, etc) are simple and you know what your getting (may be the OCD coming out in me). Also the fact is the same with fuel economy; Europe allways paid more for fuel compared to us in North America so their cars ended up being more fuel efficient only untill recently our prices started going up North American Car manufactures started becoming more competitive making their cars more and more fuel efficient.

Simply I'm an young entrepreneur grown up in a family of business owners and engineers that owns a alternative energy manufacturing company. My girlfriend buys shoes and I buy/have too many vehicles.

So back to the point in vehicles I was getting to the point where I needed a brute to do deliveries and wanting a diesel truck the only route I could go it Unimog or American. . So I went american with an 06 GMC 2500HD Duramax assembled in Flint Michigan. Safe to safe its pretty basic but hey its a work truck it isn't exactly built to be a sports car. I wanted something simple to destroy and maintain without having the german costs of owning

I was truly surprised from our findings, some things I believed helped with the fuel economy:

[*]Tires are fully inflated and checked every trip

[*]We use a diesel additive every third tank

[*]Slow upon excelerating

[*]Try to keep the RPM's around 1,600

[*]Highway speed we keep at 107km/hr (or around 1,600rpm)

[*]Quite a bit of highway driving with limited stop and go

[*]RWD is quite a bit lighter then AWD (Reduced Weight)

[*]Bought the truck with 228,xxxkm so the engine was already broken in

[*]2006 was the only year they introduced the 6 speed transmission before the new body style

[*]2006 they re-did the engine control to get more power and fuel economy

[*]Larger fuel tank, 100L vs 80L, allows us to travel longer distances and plan fuel ups (reduces stop and go acceleration)

KM Driven

[*]I've done exactly 10,327km within the two months

Truck details:

[*]6.6L Duramax Diesel

[*]6 Speed Auto Transmission

[*]RWD

[*]Crew Cab (4 Door)

[*]Long Bed, Open Box (8ft) with tail gate closed

[*]Wrangler Authority tires (aggressive thread and winter rated)

[*]NO CRUISE CONTROL

[*]BONE STOCK (Minus the hitch and side bar)

[*]100L Fuel Tank

[*]Installed side bars, the girlfriend is 4 foot 11' and couldn't get in without them.

So in total (with help with my book keeper) we averaged 11.76L/100km since ownership and went through 1,214.45 litres according to the recites. Thats including towing a 10 foot open bed trailer, 10 foot enclosed trailer, and a 14 foot enclosed trailer fully loaded. We commonly drive with products in the 10ft enclosed trailer or in the bed of the truck. Driving is mixed city/highway driving roughly 20/80 ratio.

Maintenance:

[*]Blown front tire (Tire was recalled)

[*]Alternator failed

[*]New winshild wiper blades

[*]4 New tires

[*]This weekend will be its first fluid change since ownership (Made last owner change all fluids), I know I'm behind in maintenance time isn't on my side. Also jst fiqured out this thing take 10L of oil vs the 2.8L in the Smart

[*]New trailer hitch and wiring

Income:

[*]To be calculated, we charge $75+$.68 per KM

[*]Will be hard to properly calculate because its within quite a bit of invoices and we don't do just deliveries all the time (trade shows, job sites)

Some things I could do improve fuel economy:

[*]Invest in a set of summer tires

[*]Change over to an better free flowing air filter

[*]Drive with the trail gate down or invest in one that allows air flow.

[*]Invest in a cruise control

I originally bought the truck just because we needed one and we charge for delivery so fuel economy wasn't on my mind since the customer pays for it. I was a bit picky on what one I wanted but got this one came up forsale from an owner of a road cleaning company that was only driven in the summer time so I jumped on it for $7,700 certified and etested (paid cash and knew the guy). Ironically the truck gets better fuel economy then my 2008 Chrylser 300 (18.5MPG). . . but in the end I still prefer driving my Smart car.

Dillen

Edited April 26, 2013 by dmoonen

[bilgladstone 13]

Sounds like you got a good deal on that lightly used pick-me-up truck.

A number of years ago when I had a small fleet of service trucks for my HVAC company, we did research and determined that the best mileage was had with mesh tailgates something like this:

That way, you can still toss gear in the back, nestled up front behind the cab, and not be afraid of dropping it on the road.

Bil

[dmoonen 54]

@ Bill thats exactly what I had in mind the boxes I move are quite big so it cant fall through either way, did it make much of an improvement? I saw the myth busters episode when they were testing fuel economy on trucks with different bed settings that it made a difference.Never knew you had an HVAC company? Was is in Ontario or BC?

[dmoonen 54]

Here's a link to Cosma (Magna's) site where my father was lead of the R&D team. You'll find some information on the Smart Fortwo and some photos here and there of the manufacturing process.

http://www.magna.com/capabilities/body-cha...oducts-services (Note the photo for body systems)

http://www.magna.com/capabilities/body-cha...es/body-systems

I'll see if I have some photos of the old showroom.

Edited April 26, 2013 by dmoonen

[bilgladstone 13]

I can't remember mileage numbers - it was in the early 1990s - but do remember the bookkeeper remarking that the fuel costs did go down noticeably. once we went to the mesh tailgates.Two brothers-in-law and I had a Lennox dealership in Kelowna - "Specialty Heating Solutions" at a time before provincial HAVC standards came in, and we were driven out of business by less scrupulous competitors who were quoting and installing systems in the "spec house" market that were cheaper and undersized; many that wouldn't work properly at all. Imagine buying a $350,000 house (that was on the upper curve of SFD market prices back then) with cold bedrooms in winter and sweltering hot upper floors in the summer! Ethical contractors like we tried to be were thin on the ground in those days.B

[MikeT 745]

M-B guard, now there's some heavy duty armouring! I am surprised that anyone in Canada owns a M-B Guard.

[cruise_carter 1]

Hi Dillen, last year bought my 1st diesel truck.

Sold my gasser and with my buddies help (he is long time diesel truck owner), we found a one owner 1998 Chev Silverado 1500 that was custom ordered with a 6.5 turbo diesel (these engines were built by Detroit Diesel).

Truck has all options including on demand 4wd.

The intent is to eventually buy a travel trailer to haul with it.

I really love my truck as it takes everything I can throw at it and never even a hiccup.

Hauls loads easily and very respectable mileage.

A good source of quality performance parts is available in New York. pm me and I can send you the info. (just remembered they only work with 6.5, not the 6.6 Duramax)

I have ordered from them and will be ordering a new stainless exhaust (4") to open up some performance.

check this read for tailgate mileage... http://www.trucktestdigest.com/TTDfeatures...ateUporDown.htm

pic of my truck and that is the original paint (oil sprayed from new)

Dale

Edited April 27, 2013 by cruise_carter

[bilgladstone 13]

Gate up v gate down is a binary comparison that confirms again that up is marginally better. Watch this for comparison of several other configurations

Bil

[dmoonen 54]

Yeah it was quite the memorable machine both the good and the bad. My father moved around quite a bit setting up factories in South Africa, Venezuela and some other "interesting" places of the world which could be some of the reasons why we bought it. I'm not entirely sure where we bought it but I know we bought it second hand (Not from Canada). If we bought it new depending on the specifications they's run from three hundred thousand to a million dollars.

One major issue we ran into was snow. The thing was so heavy there were two issues, finding tires for the thing and the momentum of the vehicle. We found snow tires later on that could hold the machine up and they ended up being a commercial grade truck snow tire.

It got to the point after diving it throughout the lovely salted roads of Ontario that we had some serious electrical gremlins. Try having your automatic shutting doors fly open as they please, 12 speakers and four subs going as loud as they can, and the engine deciding when to rev. We ended up selling it on eBay to a buyer in Quebec in the end after spending over 30k in trying to get the doors fixed and the dealer no long wanting to touch the vehicle in the end.

[MikeT 745]

Sounds like a typical Mercedes

[dmoonen 54]

Hi Dillen, last year bought my 1st diesel truck. Sold my gasser and with my buddies help (he is long time diesel truck owner), we found a one owner 1998 Chev Silverado 1500 that was custom ordered with a 6.5 turbo diesel (these engines were built by Detroit Diesel).Truck has all options including on demand 4wd.The intent is to eventually buy a travel trailer to haul with it.I really love my truck as it takes everything I can throw at it and never even a hiccup.Hauls loads easily and very respectable mileage.A good source of quality performance parts is available in New York. pm me and I can send you the info.I have ordered from them and will be ordering a new stainless exhaust (4") to open up some performance.check this read for tailgate mileage... http://www.trucktestdigest.com/TTDfeatures...ateUporDown.htmpic of my truck and that is the original paint (oil sprayed from new)Dale

I prefer diesel vehicles over gas vehicles any day, a friend of mine has the same truck as mine but gas and he's happy when he gets 14mpg Also the with trucks diesels hold their price better is another bonus. Its a nice truck you have and good job rust proofing it, I did mine day one also :)I really needed one for work and on top of that we own a bunch of rental properties and a clothing store so the trucks never driving around empty. Before we'd have to plan bringing the trailer in but not anymore just chuck what you need in the back it makes life so much more simple. Check out Bills video he posted, both of you seem to be correct. Seems I'll be investing in a mesh tailgate later on.

Gate up v gate down is a binary comparison that confirms again that up is marginally better. Watch this for comparison of several other configurations

Bil

[dmoonen 54]

@Mike you'd think they'd work out a deal with these gremlins by now. The S Class was a money pit really, spent more time at the dealer then anything else. The day the speakers went crazy we actually pulled over and stepped out of the vehicle, even with the car off it would still do it. We had countless other Merc's and had no problems until we had this one, could easily call it a lemon. Its really the luck of the draw with vehicles it seems.

[dmoonen 54]

Thought I'd update this thread, I'm just passed 300,000km today so 72,000 since I bought it in March. Owning the truck is nothing like the smart. . nothing breaks down. Only regular fluid changes and regular maintenance and that's it!

Fuel economy actually went up with my EFI tuning which I'm supper impressed about! I had a buddy do a custom tune that allows the turbo to spool faster and a bunch of other things, he calls it the daily driver/tow tune and says it give out another 120hp which I wouldn't be surprised it does because I can easily slay the rear tires as I please.. . regardless I'm getting around 1100-1300km to a tank now without towing, Towing I get around 900km to a tank.

Took this photo a couple weeks ago, did a delivery with a 10ft inclosed trailer (not a V Neck) for 624km and the rest was just around town with my tools in the bed 9.15L/100km!

Edited January 7, 2014 by dmoonen

[MikeT 745]

Good economy!

[dmoonen 54]

Yeah I'm pretty happy about it, I was afraid when I first bought it since I herd really bad fuel economy readings on fuelly on the duramax but they didn't have the 06/07's logged. It turns out the LBZ engine was the last engine they made (06/07) before they discontinued the classic body style so its hard to find information on let alone trying to find a truck forsale with the LBZ engine. I joined the Duramax form and a bunch of guys PM'd me wanting to buy it (its not forsale) so I guess its pretty rare.

"2006 – The coveted LBZ Duramax was introduced for the ’06 model year and featured a number of improvements that enabled the engine to produce up to 360 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque. The LBZ became a quick favorite of tuners, thanks to a stronger block design, larger connecting rods, new piston design, and heads that could handle more pressure. Higher fuel pressure levels, larger fuel rails, six-hole injectors, an improved variable-geometry turbo, and a larger EGR cooler setup were also added. An advanced, 32-bit engine computer helped improve power, efficiency, and emissions. Although the engine was saddled with EGR, the LBZ was the last Duramax offered without a fuel-economy-robbing diesel particulate filter (DPF). This meant the exhaust system could be altered while keeping the truck street-legal. 2006 was also the year GM introduced the six-speed Allison transmission to the Duramax powertrain.

http://www.dieselpowermag.com/features/130..._diesel_engine/ "

Seems I accidentally bought a pretty good truck

Edited January 7, 2014 by dmoonen

[GoFaster 9]

Hmmm, so you have connections with Magna/Cosma ...I deal with various Magna plants all the time and most of them are part of the Cosma division. I deal with robots and automation equipment. Name any late model North American or European vehicle and Magna probably had something to do with it - in many cases, a lot to do with it.

[dmoonen 54]

Father (Peter Moonen) was mainly based at the Cosma R&D plant on steels in Brampton till 2009 and started working for me full time since then. If you know him he's the guy with an impossible to understand Belgium accent, talks to himself, smokes like a Belgium and drove a yellow VW Tdi beetle. He also did contract work specializing in basically cleaning up factories processes world wide.

Edited January 8, 2014 by dmoonen

[smartnhappy 218]

cruise_carter.... I'm partial to the GMT400 platform myself. It was used for both pickups and SVUs. I've had 6 of them (all Chev Tahoe LTs) between 1996 and now. Clocked 100+km per year on 3 (1-'96 2door and 2-4doors,'98 & '99), a used '98 4-door (plow truck), another '96 2-door bought used (stolen) and a used '96 2-door diesel (currently my plow truck, with 300km on it). I don't have any fuel figures on my 6.5 diesel because a snow plow truck's consumption is inaccurate due to the nature of its use. Call me if you want to sell yours.dmoonen.... Do you have a comparison opinion on pre-2000 and post-2000 GM trucks?

[dmoonen 54]

Since the rest of the toys have been getting allot of love I decided to give the truck some love and gave it some typical "truck" upgrades

[*]Sinister Diesel EGR Delete

[*]Full black front bull bar

[*]PPE Xcelerator Tuner set at level 5

[*]Transgo jr Transmission build

[*]Deleted the CAT and 4" straight exhaust

[*]PVC Reroute

[*]Upgraded Transmission lines

[*]Bank IQ monitor

[*]PPE HD Belts

With the current specs I should be realistically around 520bhp/900lb ft (build specs say 585bhp/985lb ft but only a dyno will prove it). Its actually dam scary when you lay down the pedal. Big cloud of black diesel smoke with a mix of burning tires and still gets a 1000km a tank, 800km when towing.

Edited May 9, 2014 by dmoonen

[dmoonen 54]

Some other more normal things I added but forgot to list:

[*]CRUISE CONTROL, $50 and just plug and play best thing I bought.

[*]Back rack for luging around laders

[*]Upgraded rear leaf springs

[*]20% tints all around

[*]Side step bars, needed since my mother and the girlfriend are only 5ft tall and couldnt get in.

[*]Cat fuel filter upgrade

I'm now just shy of 300,000km!

[dmoonen 54]

Sorry smartnhappy didn't see your post from before. I haven't driven and older 6.5L diesel, the LBZ 6.6L with the 6 speed allison trans is just amazing in both fuel economy and reliability the only thing I had to date was the alternator and changed the serphtine belts at the same time @270,000km. Apparently the engine/transmission combo is super rare, I have guys asking me all the time to buy it.

[dmoonen 54]

My last tank, drove to and from Collingwood to Owensound for training the past month and 1234.5km/115l tank! *Sorry about the edit still wasn't the best tank

Edited July 18, 2014 by dmoonen