Brand New Truck with 7 Hours of Idle Time

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Is it damaged? Will it break in properly? Kind of a bummer for $50K! 2019 Ram Hemi 5.7 Truck had 20 miles on it when I paid for it. Drove it for 400 miles on highway trip. Flipped through the menus and noticed it had 10 hours driving time but 7 HOURS of idling on it. I suspect that employees at the dealership sat in it at a distant dirt lot where it was stored for hours on end last summer to use the A/C and escape the 100 degree Texas heat. My 392 Challenger manual says no extended idle time is recommended. It is high compression 485HP while the 5.7 is only 395 HP
 
I wouldn't be happy about that. I'd take it back and have them give you another one. Does that manual recommend no idle time? It's probably fine though.
 
FWIW, on the Ford if you leave the key in run without it running, the hour meeter clicks away, so they might have only been listening to the radio... might see if yours does that, especially if the radio cuts off after a relatively short amount of time in the ACC positon.
 
Originally Posted by hal26
Flipped through the menus and noticed it had 10 hours driving time but 7 HOURS of idling on it.


I don't see any issues with that. You would see that much idling in less than one week if you lived near a big city and commuted every day in bumper to bumper traffic.
 
So you really bought a truck with about 250 miles instead of 20.
 
I wouldn't let it bother you. It could have been left running at the rail yard waiting to be loaded. It could have been used by dealership employee(s) to smoke crack in.
Keep the truck running on a hot day and do some congratulatory blow after ripping off a customer.
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
Originally Posted by buster
I'd take it back and have them give you another one.


The sales manager will have a good laugh with one.


LOL I know.
 
Go back to the dealer and demand 50% off the truck price. That engine is toast.
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One thing engines do well is idle.
The manufacture would probably prefer you idle it rather than drive a steady 90 mph.
Just a guess. An engine built to avoid idling sounds like a lemon to me.
Maybe this was the lunch-run truck at the dealer?
Twenty guys in the shop, some want BK, others pizza, add in the Subway sandwich run & bingo, lotsa idle time in the drive thru.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by Donald
The 395 HP in your truck is for what?


Burning rubber, "make a move on the hwy", sport driving. 0-100mph in safe areas. Having fun, I would guess. Towing.
 
Originally Posted by Donald
The 395 HP in your truck is for what?


It's for turning only the finest of dinosaur squeezins' into sweet sweet v8 noise.
 
Its probably fine, and Id imagine theres plenty of vehicles out there with the same. Dont forget these trucks are probably idled when leaving the factory and loading onto the train/hauler. then idled again when offloading at the dealer (if there isnt a waystop in between) If its not sold it gets parked on the lot, and they probaly start them up every now and then so they dont go completely flat. I wouldnt be surprised if there was a solid hour or so just in transport.
 
I have a new RAM too. What, other than actual idling, activates the idle count? I have rang up 4 hours idle with about 80 drive hours. I know I do not let my truck idle more than 30 seconds or so before driving off, then I shut it off at my destination. Is the meter running even if in Drive gear while stationary at a stop light? This is the only thing I can think of that is making the idle hours accumulate.
 
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