fuel mileage 515+ hp

[David Burris]

Can someone give me realistic milage for a Patroit 500+ hp engines.  The older engines 2007 without the lower emissions and also the newer engines.

Thansk David

[Gerald Farris]

David,
To give you a mileage estimate, I need more information. The 500+ HP Patriot covers 7 years of production with engines ranging from the 505 HP C-12 in the 2003 model to the 525 HP C-13 in the 2009 model.

Gerald

[Tim Bentley Co-Admin]

We have a 2003 Marquis with a 505 Cat C12.  We get 7.5 MPG average  in the hills of the west and 8.5 in the east were it is more flat.  The Patroit is a little lighter and will probably do slightly better.

[Steven Link]

On our 2004 Marquis with a C-12 505 hp we got 8+ mpg if we stayed 68mph or under towing a car. Around 7mpg if we drove 70+.   Our C-15 now gets 5 - 5.5 no matter what speed.  Wish I had my old '04 back for the fuel mileage. Of course it was nearly 10000 lbs lighter.

[Mary Collins]

Our 2003 Thunder averaged 7.97 mpg for 80,000 miles with lots of mountain driving and pulling a 4200 pound car. The 2003 had the 505 hp version of the CAT C-12.

[Bill Sprague]

A friend and I drove to Newfoundland from the 2007 Prineville Rally.  He had a 2006 Thunder.  Another friend was with us as far as Prince Edward Island and also had a 2006 Thunder.  Both were new enough that you could not say they were broken in.  I remember that they weighed about 43,000 pounds, about 11,000 more than mine with an ISC 350 Cummins.   With the smaller engine, I was usually assigned the lead.  The first friend took the tail position to keep an eye on the second friend, who could easily get lost!  As leader, I normally set the cruise control to 62 as did the first friend at the back of the line. The second friend in the middle did not like cruise control and said he never used it.  I got the best mileage at 8.1.  From memory, the first friend (using cruise control) said got about 6.8.  The second friend (that did not use cruise control) got about 6.4.  In conversation we attributed the difference to two major factors.  First was the weight and the extra resistance from the required tag axle.  The second factor was that both of the thunders had a hydraulic powered radiator fan that never seemed to turn off.  We think it required as much as 50 horsepower.  

[Jerry Carr]

We are running the cat 525 in our 06 thunder.

I was tracking the mileage on the aladdin with the following results

From Seattle to Indio we did 7.8MPG
on the run from Weed (Hwy97) to Seattle we did 6.2MPG FYI you have 5 mountain passes on the route but the roads are great.

Jerry  

[Jim and Carol Contratto]

To Jerry with the  06 Thunder, you stated you got  7.8 mileage on your PT with C-13,  I have  couple of questions,  
1.  what speed do you travel
2. what is your mileage on coach
3.  have you had valve adjustment
4. what do you tow

Jim Contratto
Fulltimer in Tampa , Fl
06 Patriot Thunder

[Tom Goodman]

'06 Patriot Thunder, C13 (525 hp), towing a 3000 lb tow'd. Best I can do is 4.5 - 5 cruising at 55mph. I record the number of gallons to fill my tank and the number of miles traveled for each fill-up. I have AquaHot so, if I am parked for a while between fill-ups, the AquaHot uses some fuel and skews my calculation. CAT says I'm getting 6.5 mpg when they hook up their computer to my engine.

[Jerry Carr]

Hi I have a 06 thunder 525 C13, traveling from Missoula MT to Prosser WA,  I was set at 60mph and had 6.5mpg on the aladdin.  WE had 2 1/2 mout. passes on the route (Lookout/4th of july and a small one after Richland)

I have found on a very flat  Hwy I can average 6.8 but any hill will knock it down

Jerry  

[Vern Bauch]

I have a 525 hp c-13 beaver marquis 2006 model with mpg and performance problems
5.1 mpg and 0-20 takes forever
any ideas to get better?

[Roy Warren Co-Admin]

Vern,
The C-13 525 doesn't give you good gas mileage.  You can improve if you improve the air intake and possibly the exhaust to give less back pressure.  I improved our air intake by moving some equipment around to give the intake line fewer sharp 90 degree turns and enlarged the hole in the intake vent to hook the 7 inch diameter hose up to it.  Although still not good, I have gone from 5.3 mpg to around 6 mpg.  Next, I am going to change the exhaust to a straight through exhaust which should provide less back pressure.  Just haven't gotten to that point yet.
Roy Warren

[Jerry Emert]

On a recent 2000 mile round trip we got 7.8 MPG on the Aladdin.  Genny was running with 2 roof ACs on and dash air off.  I was pretty happy with it.

[Dave Atherton]

Gentleman, subject fuel milage. I do many Diesel Diagonostic readouts on many Cat engines
and I can say via history off ECM milage with the Cat C-13 looking at 6-7 mph.
Dave Atherton Retired Cat Mechanic