How can I improve my gas mileage??

Ultragauge..if you pick up a mile extra it pays for itself pretty fast.

That said I'm also curious what mods you have.

 

He's not saying he wants the mpg of a civic , he said he wants better mpg . What's wrong with the truck getting better than it has been ? He didn't say he wanted 45mpg

 

I find it funny that people want better gas mileage in a truck. Get another car, that's like saying I want my Jeep to get better mileage. V8, 4sp, 588s, WHY does it drink so much fuel.

 

There's nothin wrong with wanting better ? What's wrong with it ? A better running vehicle ? Because you did a tune up and now it's running better . I fail to see your logic by putting the guy down

 

Did not put him down at all, that's your perception, me? I was just kidding. Lighten up man.

 

Now my truck gets in the 20's ... it still does the same thing as yours just more efficiently ... just because I get in the 20's doesn't make my truck a Prius just more efficient than you

 

Ok. And this is my mall crawler and it gets shitty gas mileage. Just part of this sport we call offroading.

 

Nice truck , it gets shitty mileage because its purpose built . It's made for what you want it to be , mine is stock the way I want it . Everything is a trade off

You can't have a tank that gets 50mpg

 

I don't care what kind of gas mileage my toys get. Bought this for the wife because she wanted something that got better gas milage.

 

Here is my Truck, don't care what it gets also. It's a truck.

 

OP did say he wanted to get some efficiency back, so perhaps he has experienced a recent drop in MPG..just a thought..

 

Buying a new vehicle strictly to save gas is tarded. Full tard. Not half tard, not kinda tarded, full tard.

For the op, there's about 20 million threads already about mpg. A tune up will help, but only if you're out of tune to start with. The only real solution is to adjust your driving. If you've changed tires from stock you're mpg will suffer.

 

If you're offroading the mileage isn't the issue with mileage. It's the range you get out of a tank. How many Jerry cans do you want to carry etc? For rock crawling it's no biggie to 6mpg, right? You're either not really remote or your tow rig has extra fuel so it's not a problem.

For long distance desert stuff to a place with little oppurtunity to refuel...like Baja, your mileage means a lot. I have a 19 gallon auxillary fuel tank so I can carry a total of 37 gallons of fuel. Even with this much fuel I still need to plan. In low range on rough roads I get 10mpg...that's 370 miles if I drain my tank. I like to leave 75 miles or 7.5 gallons in the tanks for reserve...basically when I refuel my stock tank should be about half full.

Now if I could get that to 12 mpg my range would increase to 444 miles...that's 74 miles further...that's my reserve right there.

 

Blow on the windshield, or as Mully says get a Prius.

 

There are three elements that that impact gas mileage. I assume for the same fuel, as high ethanol content fuel for example has less energy than gasoline only. Don't think about octane rating, it is not affecting fuel efficiency for the same engine (as long as it is minimum rated for the engine).

1. Engine efficiency - how many HP hours you get from a gallon. To increase it get engine tuned up to max efficiency. Factory spec will do. Drive within efficient rpm envelope. It does not mean idle nor red line where max power is. I believe for these engines it is somewhere between 1800-2200rpm.

2. Road and powertrain resistance. Under inflated or aggressive off-road (like MT) tires have higher rolling resistance than for example P-tires. If not going off-road ever, drop these nice cool looking monsters and use Prius-like highway tires. And make sure they are inflated according to specs. Flat-soft tires are very comfortable, but not good for fuel economy. Auto transmission or ADD will rub you from power turning gasoline into useless heat contributing to global warming. But if your truck has both, tough luck - you bought the wrong truck for highway fuel efficiency.

3. Wind resistance. Yes, huge tires, lifted suspension and square steel bumper are perfect for parachute-like drag. Actually stock truck, the way it came from Fremont factory was not that bad (especially the second half of the first gen). Any change to stock appearance (maybe except lowering it for street racing) does increase the wind resistance. Now, stock truck is still quite not a teardrop shape , so the wind resistance will be much higher than Prius. The only thing you can do to reduce it is to drive slow. I mean my truck (4-cyl 2.7) after 22 years and 318k miles behind still can do 85mph, but God, the fuel pump works so hard to supply all the fluid the engine burns. At 85 mph (speed limit on Polish freeway) I got 14mpg. At 55mph it is only 19mpg with BFG KO2 (I had 20.5 mpg on P-rated Michelin similar size). Same thing with my 5th gen 4Runner. By the way in my wife's very fuel efficient Nissan Versa Note that gets 44mpg I managed to get 24mpg just by driving a freeway speed limit.

Now besides these three, all common rules apply: don't break - coast instead anticipating stop light, keep good distance from the car in front of you so if he (or she) drives like a maniac (gas - breaks - gas - breaks) you can take a foot of the gas pedal instead of stepping on breaks. Don't push pedal to the metal on green light just to step on breaks in next 100 yards because of "red wave". Drive smooth so your truck will benefit from better gas mileage and less wear, and your girlfriend (or wife) will not smear her makeup all over her face and your dashboard. Keep in mind that big heavy tires are not good for city or stop-go driving. It takes some energy to start them rolling and a lot of heat in breaks when stopping. But if you don't break (using breaks or engine) the tire inertia does not have much impact of fuel economy.

OK, this is the economy driving 101. Everybody should know that. It applies to Tacoma, 4Runner and Prius. But if you just drive for fun or not that much (like me now) then who cares about gas mileage. Enjoy your truck and be worried about something else (like Global warming or World peace).

 

Well said, but I still dont care about fuel mileage both on or off road. I do completely understand the need for better mileage, I used to race off road and had to have a 55 gallon drum full at all times for every race. Here is a trophy shot.

 

Just fill it up whenever the tank gets low. You'll enjoy it a lot more that way.

 

I have 71 lb tires on mine and I get about 18. I try to "hyper" drive when I can. Meaning that I do the following...
1) accelerate slowly
2) coast to stop
3) try to not use my brakes (when you do, you are taking away from gas that has already been spent)
4) try to not go above 60 (when I can, doesn't apply to interstate driving)

Sounds silly, but it works.

 

That's a great shot!
I have a friend who really wants to do the Baja 1000 class 11. I think he's crazy. Your bug is more like it!

 

It cost alot of money, In 7 years I went through 10 transmissions and 4 motors. Too old now, so I crawl on rocks.