Tuesday, October 1, 2019
After leaving La Pine State Park, we headed south on US-97. Gordy’s Truck Stop in La Pine Oregon has DEF at the pump, something that isn’t as common as Diesel drivers would like.
TRUCK, CAMPER AND TOWED VEHICLE INFO:
2017 Ford F-450 Dually Crew Cab
2017 Lance 850 Camper (3,500 lbs. with cargo)
2013 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 2 Door (4,900 lbs. with cargo)
Normally, we buy 2½ gallon containers of Blue DEF at Sam’s Club when needed. Sam’s pricing seems to be consistently low between $4.392 and $4.792 per gallon. This is a much better price than the $6.396 per gallon price at the Winslow Arizona Flying J last year.
In general, buying DEF at the pump is considerably less expensive. Last year at the San Antonio Texas Travel Centers of America (TA) truck stop, DEF cost $2.869 per gallon. Gordy’s in La Pine Oregon charged $2.990 per gallon, a slight increase over last year’s San Antonio price.
This tank of DEF has 10,259 miles on it. It took three 2½ gallon jugs of Blue DEF (bought and added to tank over 16 months) plus 4.383 gallons of DEF from Gordy’s. DEF mileage is running at 863 miles per gallon.
At this rate, the truck’s 7 gallon DEF tank would have a maximum range of 6,000 miles. The last time, DEF range for this truck was estimated to be around 7,000 miles. The engine is broken in now and the new range is calculated, not estimated.
So far, for this trip, starting in mid August 2019, the truck’s gas mileage comes out to 9.91 MPG. Not so great but we did cross several mountain ranges. The truck has been reporting fuel mileage between 9.9 and 10.1, depending on the day.
The Jeep gas mileage for the same period hasn’t been that good either. The Jeep got 16.4 MPG. Mileage seems to be down since we added a roof rack. The roof rack catches the wind and the added wind resistance can be felt when driving at highway speeds.
Hope to see you on the road ahead!