So You Want to Get Better Mileage.
03-04-2013, 03:24 PM
#1
Street Queen in the Mud
Thread Starter
So You Want to Get Better Mileage.
After seeing a bunch of posts about crappy mileage and people wanting to make it better, I figured I would make a write up.
To start things off, if you're expecting 35mpg from your truck, you need to reconsider things, and buy a civic. If you want to be getting high teens and low 20's, then you're in the right ball park.
Obviously no two vehicles are the same, so all of this is going to be based off of my truck.
My Truck: (Serenity) is a 1999 F150 Supercab Longbed with the 4.6L V8 and 5 speed manual, 4x4 with manual shift on the fly (floor 4wd) and 3.55 Axels. At the moment she has about 138K on the odometer, and 235/85R16 Tires. I also have a high top fiberglass cap and a superchips cortex on Mileage XS tune.
With this set up, I get 16mpg city and 21mpg highway on average, with a 1,000lbs load.
Here are my tips, broken down into categories.
First things first,
Add-ons: There are a million things advertised you there to help your mileage, most of them do absolutely nothing, or even harm your truck. The handful that do help will likely never pay themselves off. I picked up my tuner used for $220, and the cap came with the truck. The tuner gave me an extra 2mpg on the highway. I haven't taken the cap off before, but in the past they work out about even in terms of decreased drag and increased weight.
Tires: Everyone knows that the 35" mud tires look awsome and howl on the road, but they kill mileage. If you're truck is going to be spending most of its time on the road, consider a smaller, narrower tire with a less agressive tread. I run treadwright axioms which are a mild enough tread to behave nicely on the road, while still being agressive enough to handle dirt and mud on the farm. In addition, make sure your tires are properly inflated. Load range E tires can be safely inflated to 80 psi. I run mine around 60 which help decrease rolling resistance, while still having enough contact patch to be safe.
Highway driving: Chances are, you're driving too fast. On my truck, I drop about 1mpg for every 3 mph I go over 63, meaning driving 72 I get about 18mpg compared to 21mpg. To me the time difference doesnt off set the extra cost, especially with fuel pushing $4 a gallon. Also, drafting can be your friend. If you're driving 63 anyway, why not drop in behind a tractor trailer? I'm not talking about tailgating them or following unsafely close, but you can get a lot of the benefits of the windbreak following a full 4 or 5 car lengths behind them, and you can get an extra couple mpg out of it.
City Driving: Yes, you have the power to spin your tires out of every light, yes you can beat most of the imports, don't. Slow and even accelerations are your friend, and coasting to stoplights helps keep you from turning your expensive fuel into wasted heat.
Maintenance: Not only will taking good care of your truck make it last longer, it will also make the engine work more effiecntly. Synthetic engine oil can add about 1mpg, and can safely be taken to 5,000 miles on normal driving. Making sure your brakes arent dragging and everything moves smoothly will also help with fuel economy.
Hope that helps someone, remember there is a lot a driver can do to help thier milage, and the same truck thats averaging 14 mpg can get 20 if driven differently.
To start things off, if you're expecting 35mpg from your truck, you need to reconsider things, and buy a civic. If you want to be getting high teens and low 20's, then you're in the right ball park.
Obviously no two vehicles are the same, so all of this is going to be based off of my truck.
My Truck: (Serenity) is a 1999 F150 Supercab Longbed with the 4.6L V8 and 5 speed manual, 4x4 with manual shift on the fly (floor 4wd) and 3.55 Axels. At the moment she has about 138K on the odometer, and 235/85R16 Tires. I also have a high top fiberglass cap and a superchips cortex on Mileage XS tune.
With this set up, I get 16mpg city and 21mpg highway on average, with a 1,000lbs load.
Here are my tips, broken down into categories.
First things first,
Add-ons: There are a million things advertised you there to help your mileage, most of them do absolutely nothing, or even harm your truck. The handful that do help will likely never pay themselves off. I picked up my tuner used for $220, and the cap came with the truck. The tuner gave me an extra 2mpg on the highway. I haven't taken the cap off before, but in the past they work out about even in terms of decreased drag and increased weight.
Tires: Everyone knows that the 35" mud tires look awsome and howl on the road, but they kill mileage. If you're truck is going to be spending most of its time on the road, consider a smaller, narrower tire with a less agressive tread. I run treadwright axioms which are a mild enough tread to behave nicely on the road, while still being agressive enough to handle dirt and mud on the farm. In addition, make sure your tires are properly inflated. Load range E tires can be safely inflated to 80 psi. I run mine around 60 which help decrease rolling resistance, while still having enough contact patch to be safe.
Highway driving: Chances are, you're driving too fast. On my truck, I drop about 1mpg for every 3 mph I go over 63, meaning driving 72 I get about 18mpg compared to 21mpg. To me the time difference doesnt off set the extra cost, especially with fuel pushing $4 a gallon. Also, drafting can be your friend. If you're driving 63 anyway, why not drop in behind a tractor trailer? I'm not talking about tailgating them or following unsafely close, but you can get a lot of the benefits of the windbreak following a full 4 or 5 car lengths behind them, and you can get an extra couple mpg out of it.
City Driving: Yes, you have the power to spin your tires out of every light, yes you can beat most of the imports, don't. Slow and even accelerations are your friend, and coasting to stoplights helps keep you from turning your expensive fuel into wasted heat.
Maintenance: Not only will taking good care of your truck make it last longer, it will also make the engine work more effiecntly. Synthetic engine oil can add about 1mpg, and can safely be taken to 5,000 miles on normal driving. Making sure your brakes arent dragging and everything moves smoothly will also help with fuel economy.
Hope that helps someone, remember there is a lot a driver can do to help thier milage, and the same truck thats averaging 14 mpg can get 20 if driven differently.
03-04-2013, 04:56 PM
#3
If I'm not mistaken people are saying they get a 2-3 mpg increase with a tuner and if that is true it would take me a month and a half to pay it off when gas was at $3.50. And I'm not sure on actual mileage but when I got my truck it had a big ugly camper and I drove with it for awhile and when I took it off an 80 mile trip took an 8th tank more gas. So I'm going to be getting both tuner and a toneu cover eventually
