31 foot travel trailer

[mdschadler]

Back to the original topic- I’ve been thoroughly impressed with the towing power in my 2020, 5.7 e-torque with 3.92 gears. I live in western PA and pull my 33’ (tip to tail) down to Myrtle every year through WV. On this trip I average 8 mpg overall but mileage is tremendously better once I’m out of WV, lol. The tiny 23 gallon fuel tank is a little frustrating though.
As mentioned, payload is the limiting factor. My advice/opinion: if you are good on payload when the trailer is loaded up, the truck will tow it just fine. I use an Equilizer WDH and the airlift bags for stability. No sway, easily pull out into traffic, very stable on down hills and turns. Don’t over do the bags (I run 10psi), let the rear of the truck sag into the WDH.

 

[Rickyrocket]

Mine was a 2015,I'm pretty sure it was 93 omly

 

[Casull]

Mine was a 2015,I'm pretty sure it was 93 omly

Premium is only 91. That's racing fuel.

 

[Rickyrocket]

Must be many race cars because in Rhode Island they sell 87 91 & 93 everywhere

 

[Jimmy07]

Must be many race cars because in Rhode Island they sell 87 91 & 93 everywhere

Doesn’t matter. If you had a 2015 6.4 Hemi in a heavy duty ram, it didn’t need 93.
This is something that’s very easy to research because all of the owner’s manuals are available online.

 

[Darksteel165]

Must be many race cars because in Rhode Island they sell 87 91 & 93 everywhere

Tons of vehicles that use 91 and 93, has nothing to do with "race cars"
My G35x required premium and it was just a regular old v6.

If the engine was designed for it, is what matters.

 

[Rickyrocket]

Well I see it calls for 89 on the forums so I'll be done with this but I had that beast from new and I thought I had read premium only, my SS camaro was the same. Makes me think about going back to a 2500.

 

[TampaLaramie]

Isn't the job of all modern tech on all these new cars/trucks is to “listen” to knock/timing? Yes, owners manuals can “recommend” 110 octane, however, if you put 87 in an engine with variable timing, it will just retard all the way and compensate for it. It can cost very minimal power but does it really matter?

My buddy is a trooper with the Florida Highway Patrol which has 5.7’s in each of the thousands of patrol cars. They beat the **** out of them going after speeding people for the cars entire life. They only put 87 in it because the state government doesn’t want to pay premium prices along with conventional oil every 5k miles. The engines run just fine until the agency trades the cars near 140k to 160k miles.

Does anyone have actual proof or knowledge based on fact that running proper octane really matters?

 

[Darksteel165]

Isn't the job of all modern tech on all these new cars/trucks is to “listen” to knock/timing? Yes, owners manuals can “recommend” 110 octane, however, if you put 87 in an engine with variable timing, it will just retard all the way and compensate for it. It can cost very minimal power but does it really matter?

My buddy is a trooper with the Florida Highway Patrol which has 5.7’s in each of the thousands of patrol cars. They beat the **** out of them going after speeding people for the cars entire life. They only put 87 in it because the state government doesn’t want to pay premium prices along with conventional oil every 5k miles. The engines run just fine until the agency trades the cars near 140k to 160k miles.

Does anyone have actual proof or knowledge based on fact that running proper octane really matters?

Police vehicle are heavily modified and tuned. Terrible example.

 

[TampaLaramie]

Police vehicle are heavily modified and tuned. Terrible example.

They’re bone stock R/T chargers. The police packages have different settings in the behavior of the transmissions when the car is being used heavily, like our tow mode to keep RPM’s bumped up a little. An upgraded alternator. No governor as he’s told me it stops accelerating at 150mph due to wind drag… But I’ve talked about this with him and found it interesting. They’re not tuned at all

 

[Bt10]

Isn't the job of all modern tech on all these new cars/trucks is to “listen” to knock/timing? Yes, owners manuals can “recommend” 110 octane, however, if you put 87 in an engine with variable timing, it will just retard all the way and compensate for it. It can cost very minimal power but does it really matter?

My buddy is a trooper with the Florida Highway Patrol which has 5.7’s in each of the thousands of patrol cars. They beat the **** out of them going after speeding people for the cars entire life. They only put 87 in it because the state government doesn’t want to pay premium prices along with conventional oil every 5k miles. The engines run just fine until the agency trades the cars near 140k to 160k miles.

Does anyone have actual proof or knowledge based on fact that running proper octane really matters?

Your last sentence may lead some to confusion. Proper octane is set by compression, a hardware constant, and timing, a variable, and other variables, such as heat, VVT, etc. Proper octane includes 87 with reduced timing for 385hp? 89 octane for 395hp? If the knock sensor and computer are pulling timing to only give 385hp when I'm towing, can I tell a difference? No. That is proper octane according to my wallet.

 

[CalvinC]

Isn't the job of all modern tech on all these new cars/trucks is to “listen” to knock/timing? Yes, owners manuals can “recommend” 110 octane, however, if you put 87 in an engine with variable timing, it will just retard all the way and compensate for it. It can cost very minimal power but does it really matter?

Agree with this completely. You can even throw in some terrible gas or race gas, and the truck will throw itself into Limp mode. It has a range, an operating window.

With variable timing and knock sensors informing such strategy, it should be obvious that octane will have an impact on any engine's performance.

Timing makes power. Higher pre-detonation protection (Octane) enables greater timing advance. Retarding timing reduces power, all other factors equal*.

What is debatable is how much, whether it's detectable.

Generally the impact is greatest on engines which benefit from greater protection against pre-detonation, so that would be engines which:

- Run high compression
- Are forced induction
- Run super advanced timing
- Run high ECTs / 230F+

Obviously the Hemi and most mass produced N/A motors don't really meet these criteria.

So no, I wouldn't expect the performance difference between 89 and 91 or 93 to be detectable pretty much anywhere outside of a drag strip, and even then doubtful. Maybe +/- 5 hp.

*What I'd expect to be more noticeable is MPG, because the less you rely on timing to make power, the more you rely on air/fuel. Even then, bet it's negligible. (That said, I would be one of the few to attest a noted, repeatable difference myself, on a N/A 5.4 Ford V8).

The real crime is, if you believe in/desire those Top Tier ingredients, they usually only put those in the most premium octane. If there is a benefit to those detergents, etc., they'd be equally beneficial to all octanes and engines.

 

[silver billet]

The 5.7 is tuned to run by default on 89. When you put in 87, the engine knocks/pings, then the sensors detect that event and then the ECU pulls timing. So yes your engine can adapt to poor gas, but its still better to have the proper gas to reduce knock/ping in the first place.

Does too much ping matter? Don't know. That's one of those questions, like how long of an OCI can I get away with, and how thin oil can I go? There are no charts or quick answers, but we do know in theory: less knock/ping is better, cleaner oil with more anti-wear properties remaining is a good thing, thicker oil offers more protection especially in the heat etc.

Serious answer, not trying to troll or start another oil thread, just an example of other issues where the theory says one thing, how much damage are we actually doing by running lesser octane gas or higher OCI's etc, that's a very hard thing to nail down "with proof".

The theory is what I use to make my decision, that, and my ears which hears much more knock and ping on 87.

If you're not planning on keeping your truck long term, just run 87 IMHO. But I tend to keep my stuff around.

 

[devildodge]

Mine was a 2015,I'm pretty sure it was 93 omly

The 6.4 was built to use the MDS and 87 octane.

It never not once ever said anything about 93.

Some years the manual says 87 acceptable 89 preferred...but that was due to customer and web pages saying oh my I could feel I lost 5 hp running 87...

I run E15 88 in mine. Save another 25 cents and sometimes....a whole buck to buck fifty...

You wasted a lot of money running 93... but, it was yours to waste!

And makes a diesel even less desirable, when under the GCWR of the 6.4 or 5.7...which is also gone from the lineup for a reason.

I own both a 2015 with the 6.4 and a 5.7 and I can tell you...the difference between the BGE and the 5.7 de tuned light duty engine...is a lot more than paper says...