djh3

Mike I think your kinda at where your at mileage wise. you can probably pick a little up with new plugs and an air filter/tune up and some sea foam. It is a throttle body injected engine right? Or is it direct injected. With the weight of the truck and the smaller engine I think it just has to work that hard. This site I just looked at gave the average for your vehicle that most folks have reported is around 14-15. I think realistically your doing OK, even though you think its killing you. My wife since she started her job last year drives a lot. The old durango 4wd has a 4.7 v8 and around town I'm lucky she gets 12 maybe 13 mpg. Traveling she gets maybe 16, I can squeak 18. but something newer would cost me probably 18k or more. On the mog front it might gain me 3-5 mpg. My thoughts are I know what I have now, I know what maintenance has been done and @ 18k I can buy almost 5500 gallons of gas. Even if you buy say a 2012 or 13 truck of similar size, I would bet you look the milage up and you might see 19-21 highway. Like I said before least expensive way to get highway milage out of it is gearing. Go taller and it wont wind as hard. kind of like the V-max rearend deal.

Yea I Was thinking that also as a possibility. Are these earlier year ones the key down by the seat or something? I can fix the newer ones like on the RSV. Well sort of.

Me thinks its Experienced Rider Course. but yea folks thats rode before. I'm thinking I really need to go back to a brush up course. I haven't been since I was teaching it like 30 yr ago.

I'm not real familiar with the earlier version of the TD. But I know on the later ones that look like the RSV there is a main 30 amp fuse under the left floorboard, by the starter solenoid. As mentioned they are terrible about corrosion being they are mounted where all the road gunk gets splashed around. If you have lights etc and no starter you might try jumping the solenoid with a screw stick or something to get the starter to engage. http://venturers.org/Tech_Library/attachments/FuseBoxLocations.jpg http://venturers.org/Tech_Library/attachments/solenoid.jpg

Shoot with a new set of points in one I think you could guarantee one for six months. Even though you know its going to fail, it shouldn't be in six months.

Like Steve said. Look it over before committing to buy a new one. Some of these have little "tic" switches on them to change patterns. So say it use to flash 5 times and come one full. By moving a switch or 2 it may flash 7 times come on steady flash 2 more and then steady. The place where it is now may just be "burned out" Its free to check and may save some gas money.

Well the bad thing for the rebuild/repair one thing would be you have to charge the guy a core charge. And enough shipping to cover it. So if a new pump is $130 or whatever, your probably in for another $20 shipping. If you sell for $75 + 20 shipping and add in the core charge Oh My!! Unless the fellow would send you the broken one first.

I had it happen to me. I just gave it a slight squeze on the end to make it oblong by end. Not enough to distort it the length, just enough to make friction. Then I put some red lock tight on it and tapped it back in. No leaks.

Puc your right. The old drive by vacuum gauge still works. I had an "economy gauge" years ago and basically all it was, is a vacuum gauge with red and green range marks to help you see where the higher vacuum was. More vacum= more mpg. Easy on the take off better mpg. http://images.jcwstatics.com/is/image/Autos/GRP-garbo54469_is?$JCW_MAIN$

LOL gotcha. Ya I'm kind of the same way here in Fla. If its in the central part of the state and looks like it can get me from one side to the other I have probably been on it.

I would say Chaffee Ny to Louisiana is a good test ride. If you have rode an RSV in the past then I dont know as you really need a test ride. You kind of know what your in for. But I have to agree with Barry on the Kawai. I was pretty set on buying a Voyager. Then I read up on the heat issues. They still really have not got them sorted out and its been like 5yr. You might also look through Cycle Trader for "NOS" bikes.

If I remember my days in the shop at the Dodge dealer the 3.7 like the 4.7 is a coil on Plug set up, no distributer when was the last set of plugs put in. Good place to start. Clean air filter for sure helps. Weather you go with one from autozone or a K&N. At this juncture I think I would go with the $10 OEM replacement type. Depending on how the air intake is set up you may gain a little by letting it get cold air. Highway milage you can gain some by decreasing the gear ratio. Least expensive way to do this is tire size, go with something tall. but if you have to pull a trailer with it your killing that end of the truck because it wont have enough guts to start off. 15 mpg aint terrible on that little engine in that big truck. My 96 3/4 ton cummins gets about 21 mpg last I checked if I keep it around 65, @ 70 its about 19 and goes down hill from there. But its 3.55 gear with stick shift. when I bought it it was a 4.11 and 72 mph was tops. That Had to go. LOL So Plugs, new air filter and ........... Sea Foam!!!!! Seriously sea foam or the Berrymans B12 or other injector cleaners once a month help the 4.7 in my wifes durango. She gets about 12-13 around town and best I ever got on highway was 18

I might think about that 69 that runs south and then on to the 25. 6-2-1 1/2 dozen the other I suppose. Run down one way and back the other. No experience on those roads. All my experience thru there is either I-10 or up the 45 there to I-20.

Maybe I should put my ole junker up for sale. I can recoup over half of my replacement one.

How odd. My good friend I have put 10k miles in with since 2007 passed this last weekend also. He was diagnosed last year with cancer and had treatment and cleard around first of year. All was good until mid Sept. He had a kidney stone issue and when be went to doc they found the cancer had come back very strongly evidently. He spent his last days with a great view of a lake in Minn. I feel blesse x to have known him and call him a friend.

I put a "leash" on the wifes phone a couple years back. Its a camera strap really. But it keeps her from dropping the phone on the road somewhere. She takes pictures with it. Texts her friends, plays games. Mostly when we are stuck on the interstates. Seating makes a big difference and the pillow top is aces. If she is getting numb butt form sitting I would bet its leg/foot position vs seat itself. Headsets I think are necessary for longer trips. We usually stop every couple hours 165 miles or so.

Yea Mike we have been checking the weather for our trip leaving Fla down here on the 10th. It aint looking good for the whole week for us so far. Better than 50% chance rain almost week. Not ideal for motorcycle riding. I'm hoping the front moves it some so we get some decent days in.

Victory off and on changes the time limit on the warranty. I dunno why. Few years back they were 5 yr then a couple of yr only 2. I had one all priced out, left over model, military discount, some other discount (less than $1000 for sure) By the time I convinced my CU it was A: American bike (which they had a lower rate for) B: got the paperwork through the hoops I called the dealer and he said WOW thats to bad, cause it went out the door late yesterday afternoon. So the ad says proof of ownership. Dont say nothing about trading it in that I saw.

Well there is a much much less expensive fuel filter that work folks. Available at most part house. duralast FF3330DL or a WIX 33095 or FRAM G3606. Also I dont know if previously I linked the write up I did on the Mr Gasket pump but here it is. If you decide to use the more expensive Facet it would be very similar but may have a couple fittings different. Anyways the listing of what fittings are needed is in the write up so even if you have to go somewhere else you know what kind of fitting you need. The OEM is trouble just looking for a place to crap out on you.

OK so back up there and look for the ground. If I think about it I will go look mine over tomorrow and see if I can give you a heads up. There is a service manual available but I hate tryin to read schematics.

The horn is one things on this bike that are bass a c kwards. The power is at the horn all the time, but the button completes the ground so the horn works. To me its a completly backwards deal. I have probably had more troubles keeping horns working on this bike than anything else. I have a stebel and speed somethin is the other one.

biofractal; The tire sounds like exactly what my E3 was doing before I replaced it. I was looking for a picture I know I saw but I cant find it right now. suprized huh? But did you look this thread. Look here No air in front shocks is what a lot of folks run. With not having a lift you wont be able to do the steering head or change tires yourself. There is a way to lower the bike some by slipping the forks up in the triple tree. But here again you need access to a lift. Maybe we can get you hooked up with a maintenance day.

Glad to hear you got it figured out.

Nope, no birds. But I have 2 cats that would probably like to have a bird. Also have an Australian Sheppard. He goes about 70 lb and short of a bomb going off not much bothers him. He and the one cat are best buddies. Wifes dad use to have a cockatiel. He was a hoot. If you were eating a bowl of cereal you better watch it close.