TJPlatinumEB

I think personally that a lot of people (not speaking of anyone in particular) have a false expectation of what the EB can/will do and can/will get as far as MPG goes. Unless you have the 3.31 or lower number gears, you aren't going to do better than 17 or so city. I'm sure there are people who can, but that's not the norm. And again on the flip side of that as far as highway mileage if you can get 19 or so, be happy! EPA ratings are not always going to be consistent with every truck. We unfortunately can never duplicate the conditions and parameters used for those tests.

HOWEVER, if someone can't even get 15mpg in city and only a few better on the highway, then yes of course there is cause for concern. I also think that the motor hasn't been out long enough for people to get enough miles on them to really let it settle in to the MPG that it's going to get. Some vehicles will be more inconsistent than others, but it can take 5-10k miles for a new motor to truly be broken in and consistent.

With that being said, I consistently (verified by math, not the display) get 16.8-17.2 around in the city (FX2 Supercrew, 3.55LSD) and on a trip from Austin to Dallas (roughly 175miles) averaged 21.7mpg and spent most of my time at or just above 70mph.

My trick/technique was I left the display on the "green bar" screen that fluctuates with everything you do. I spent about 4 tanks of gas watching it and seeing how different things I did would effect it and tried to keep the green bar above that white line average in an attempt to increase the average. Since doing that I keep it on the Trip A screen and am still averaging the same MPG now that I have sort of figured out how it responds. Every truck will be different there too. I did notice I also am seeing a little better MPG with the mid grade 89 octane. Here in TX we have had 80+ 100 degree days this year and I noticed the higher octane has seemed to help it a few tenths here and there.

Andini

DISCLAIMER: These ideas are only to be used to try to improve mpg. If you enjoy keeping your right foot to the floor (or there is a connection between your truck's speed and your insecurity with your endowment ) that's perfectly ok, but don't be surprised when the truck isn't turning stellar mpg numbers...)

Three basic ideas that work on pretty much any vehicle, in my experience.

1. Accelerate more slowly. Ok this doesn't mean you creep from light to light, but don't stretch out every gear either. Let the auto get up to 6 quickly. Manual trans is much better for this, but I know that's not an option on this truck.

2. Pump up the tires. I was very surprised to see just how much less efficient underinflated tires can be. I got an easy 1 mpg+ pumping up my tires to 45. There is a max pressure on the sidewall of the tire. You don't have to be at that max, but something more than the usual 30 psi or whatever they normally give it at the tire shop.

(I'm bracing for the feedback on this one.)
3. Slow down - do somewhat closer to the speed limit. The increase in gas consumption goes up drastically at highway speeds for every 5mph increase in speed - a lot more than the speed increase would indicate.

There are of course lots of other tips for getting better mileage, some particular to certain vehicles and some pretty general. There are guys doing some interesting, amazing, and even bizarre stuff at www.ecomodder.com all in the quest of getting better mpg. Me personally, I'm not so interested in the absolute best mpg for it's own sake, but I like doing the best with what I've got. That can be most output one day, and best mpg the next day. In my current vehicle (EPA says combined mpg of 20), I've gotten as good as 30mpg combined for one tank, and as low as 8mpg in another tank. All depends on what I was trying to do at the time.

Buzam

*Drive like an old man*

I do most of the time and I'm already getting 21MPG out of my 5.0

MadocHandyman

Geezus, it says Ecoboost! We don't want 5.0 mpg!!! When will you guys give it up?

SICKQK

+1 on that.....very noticeable to me here in the Northeast with a lot of hills. It's just like riding the brake down the hill.

Buzam

The tip works the same for any engine

engineermike

I posted this a while back (ignore the EB specific stuff):

Mechanically:
- A bed cover helps by 1-2 mpg, depending on who you ask. I tried testing mine with and without and found an increase of 2.5, but later found that wind direction and speed affected my mpg's by +/-1, so the test wasn't really valid.
- Lowering the truck helps a little. Numbers vary because it depends on how "dirty" the underside of the vehicle is.
- Better exhaust might help. On most vehicles, the exhaust pressure runs near zero at cruise, so a better exhaust doesn't help. But on a turbo motor that runs in boost sometimes at cruise and moderate acceleration, the exhaust pressure could be relatively high, so an exhaust might help.
- USE 100% GAS! The EPA itself admits this is worth 5% mpg, which is about 1 mpg.
- Warmer intake air will actually improve mileage in most cases, so forget about CAI's. As for the EB dumping in fuel to cool itself off, I don't think it actually does that. I have both factory wideband readouts where I can see them. I've never seen it stray very far from 14.5/1 A/F unless I floor it, when it richens up to 12.5 for power, as all other engines do.
- Increasing tire pressure may or may not help, depending on how well the tire was designed.

Driving:
I use some hypermiling techniques, but not enough so that people even notice. Just today, I drove 80 miles and averaged 24.0 mpg going 65-75 mph (supercrew EB with 3.15 gears). You can easily gain 3-5 mpg by tweaking your driving habits slightly.
- Draft when you can. If you can get into a string of cars running 75 mph, you'll get metter mileage than running 70 mph alone. Drafting an 18-wheeler helps the most, but you'll spend more money repairing windshields than you will save on gas. Also, I was testing mpg's one day at 70 mph and a civic came up behind me pretty close. At first I didn't think it would help that much since he was behind me not in front, but on that 5 mile stretch I averaged 26 mpg versus my usual of 21-23 at 70 mph.
- Drive slower. As others have mentioned, slowing from 75 to 70 helps more than you would think. I haven't tested it, but I think the sweet spot is around 50 mph. I've pegged the green bars at 30 mpg when running slow speeds for a few miles.
- Brake as little as possible. Most say to use the gas as little as possible, which helps a little, but not nearly as much as using the brake as little as possible. Consider that using the gas converts chemical energy into kinetic energy. The energy isn't actually wasted until you apply the brakes and turn it into heat, which is lost to atmosphere. If you floor it to 60 mph, then coast to a stop, you'll use far less fuel than if you gradually accelerate to 60 then slam on the brakes. When you're coasting, you're getting infinite mpg's - no exageration. When driving, look out for red lights and cars stopping ahead and coast as soon as you realize you'll need to stop. Coast as far as you can down interstate off ramps too. If you know you're going to have to stop shortly after accelerating, then just go slow for that stretch. THE BRAKE PEDAL IS YOUR ENEMY!

redstanger

I dont know if this would help but has anyone rotated there own tires. i have the chrome package rims. My god are they heavy. I wonder if getting rims that weight less would help. shoot maybe its pirelli's that do it.

matt_d_83

I have the exact same setup and I've wondered the same.

truckerdude

Dude, The chrome on them rims is plastic. Sure ain't heavy.