Observations on MPGs in a Third Gen Taco

I recently went on a ~1000 mile round trip, filled up a few times and kept steady speeds mostly with the cruise on. What I found is as follows:

Speed/MPG
80MPH/~16MPG
75MPH/~18MPG
70MPH/~20MPG
65MPH/~22MPG

The numbers aren't exact, but this gives you an idea of the expected MPGs depending on how you drive. These are highway numbers and represent a truck with slightly heavier tires, sliders, and no air dam. The numbers are read from the in dash monitor after a fill up with gas. I drove at the said speed until the MPGs stabilized. While not perfect, the in dash monitor has given reasonable indication of your MPGs when compared to actually calculating the MPGs. The driving conditions were generally flat with some mild hills (Baton Rouge to west of DFW), but nothing like driving up and down in the Rocky Mountains.

Hope this gives some idea on how your driving can impact the mileage you are getting in your truck.

 

Kewl

 

I have found the same to be true with any vehicle. 65 mph is there sweet spot.

 

for my truck the "sweet spot" is lower mph than 65.

I live in hill country which destroy's my mileage BUT
If I keep my speed around 59mph (speed limit is 55) I get roughly 25mpg

a couple months ago there was road construction on a portion of my trip (around 100 miles).
speed limit was down to 45 mph - I averaged 26.2mpg on that trip.

 

I call it sweet spot because 65mph is the slowest you can go on our highways without getting ran over. 55mph is the minimum speed on the highway but little too slow.

 

My results are very similar on my stock 2016 OffRoad. I live in Central Texas where we have highway speed limits up to 85mph and people often drive 100mph. I'd extend your list to show 55mph/~24mpg in one direction and 85mph/~15mpg and 90mph/~13mpg in the other. 85mph is legal here by the Taco factory so it's valid to talk about the importance of gas milage at the higher speeds.

My deisel VW, gets 55mph/~45mpg and 85mph/~38mpg for what it's worth which is amazing. Being a highway driver at these higher speeds, I'd vote for a diesel Tacoma, or even better, a diesel electric hybrid. Mostly electric in the city, mostly diesel on the highway... I'd gladly pay more for that.

 

I'm getting 15 mpg (75/25 city/hwy)...I'm not happy...

 

@hiPSI
The sweet spot for fuel economy is right at the perfect pitch for the diff howl. Thanks Toyota

 

I drive 60 most of the time, avoid cruise unless it is fairly flat(the first south leg of my drive to work is pretty hilly compared to the latter 2/3 of the route), and get 21.0 pretty much with my stone stock 2017 SR5 Double Cab V6.

 

I get 11 mpg uphill and 45 mpg downhill in the Rockies. Average....19mpg with all types of driving combined

 

Interested! Got a 17DCOR with 3 in lift and 33 BFG KO2's. Cant get above 14.0 to save my life

 

Seriously. My commute from work and back is at 55mph. Good mileage and my truck sings to me the whole way.

 

@speedtre
How fast do you drive? Is your truck stock? Do you drive aggressively?

 

From reading some other threads it seems like a few guys got better MPGs after swapping out the CPS, could possibly be his issue too.

 

Not a fast or aggressive driver. Truck is completely stock TRD OR DCLB. In other vehicles I've had I usually get slightly better than the average MPG compared to other drivers of the same vehicle based on forum reports like this for those vehicles...I'm beginning to think I MAY have gotten one of the bad CPSs....

 

No idea what a CPS is.... but I too drive a TRD OR DCLB. I live in the Seattle area, so we have some hills. I drive about 60 mph and get 21-22 mpg per tank (onboard computer and hand calculations on receipt).

 

Please let us know how it turns out.

 

"Let me sing you the song of my people: https://youtu.be/rXu61z8yiMc"

-3rd Gen Toyota Tacoma

 

Crank Position Sensor.

 

And the dealership says that you just have to deal with it?

Wow.