hi all, sorry if this has been posted a million times already, but i'm finally in a position to get a new truck. I found an 04 5.9 cummins with 150k miles for a good price, but it will be my daily driver. my drive to school and work is only about 2.5 miles. it also gets really cold here in the winter. my question is if I plugged my truck in every night during winter, and let it warm up a good 15-20min. every morning before school or work, would I still run in to problems because of short trips? other than in town, it would see a couple 30 mile trips out to my farm every week. and no I don't need a diesel, but I really want one, just wondering if the short trip thing will cause me problems, thoughts?

 

You mentioned it's cold where you live. You may need to apply light throttle (up to 1,000 RPM) to keep the engine running if it is very cold. Allow two or three minutes of idling time for oil to circulate in the engine before driving away. Use light throttle until engine has fully warmed up.

On a 3rd Gen Dodge Cummins, short trips won't hurt anything, but realistically, short trips and long idling is harder on your engine, than highway driving. My opinion would be to drive the truck more on weekends, and then should not have any problems.

Something to consider if the truck is being used as a grocery-getter or has long periods of idling there can be an effect on fuel mileage.

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"On 2007.5 and later trucks with the 6.7 Liter engine,
if you do a lot of slow or short trip driving, the diesel
particulate filter will load up and set an engine trouble
code if driving time at higher road and engine load speeds
aren’t sufficient for the particulate trap to go through a
full regeneration cycle.

If your driving includes short trips on 2007.5 trucks,
slow speeds, and/or slow speed cold weather operation,
drive your truck at least 20 miles at highway speeds (55+
mph) once per week to allow the system to complete a
diesel particulate trap regeneration cycle."
Jim Anderson/TDR Writer

 

you say to drive the truck more on weekends, by that do you mean get it to full operating temp, at least every weekend? because I do have a few 30 miles trips a week like I said

 

I would not let it idle excessively...get in it, drive it to school. It should have an auto fast idle (manual trans) or you can have a manually activated fast idle enabled by the dealer that is controlled by the cruise control (auto trans). Excessive low RPM idling will cause cylinder wash down and premature cylinder wear...the fast idle is meant to address that issue, but its still not a good idea.

If it gets cold, plug it in...but it won't do much other than help for a cold start.

If you do a couple 30 mile trips a week, your short trips shouldn't make any difference. But the short trips are probably the worst thing for any engine, not just a Cummins.

 

how long does it take to warm up a diesel in the cold? my gas truck will almost reach operating temp. by the time I get home if I start it few minutes early, do diesels take way longer?

 

A couple of 30 mile trips weekly are fine. Agreed, excessive idle is more trouble, and can cause problems over time; get the oil pressure up, then drive. Your truck will be fine.

Hope this helps.

 

I agree a couple 30 mile trips a week you should be fine, I am in a similar situation and I haven't seen any problems, I have put about 120,000 miles on my truck over the years doing that.

 

What Steve said--
PLUG IT IN-