Interesting Air Dam Find

Last Friday I removed my air dam on my TRD Sport and experienced something quite interesting. For the last few months I’ve been averaging around 19-20 mpg’s on my daily suburban commutes getting as high as 23 mpg if I really tried. But after removing the air dam I am now seeing 26 mpg without even trying!

Above are a couple of photos showing my mileage for a 9.2 mile, 16 minute suburban trip averaging at 26 mph. Roads travelled were 25, 35 and 45 mph speed limits and a few stoplights here and there.

the third photo shows the mileage from a 2.2 mile trip to 7-11. Usually it takes a slightly further trip to build up the mpg numbers but I was able to get 27.2 mpg by the time I pulled into my driveway (26.3 by the time I finally took the photo).

Of course this is not a very scientific finding nor is it very controlled. But I have a theory that if you are not hitting higher speeds, air dam removal actually helps your fuel mileage.

 

Plus all that weight reduction probably helped. You don’t see top fuel funny cars with a big snow plow hanging off the front.

 

Yeah, that 3lbs reduction is amazing?

 

The idea is to reduce drag from under the truck, so it won't affect anything under 40mph I imagine, drag is more of a highway concern. Curious how it did better at lower speeds.

 

200 miles range with a mostly full tank is crazy lol

my last estimated range with a full tank was 350 lol

 

Also went 205 miles in 16 minutes at an average speed of 25 mph.

 

You have 7/8ths of a tank of fuel, averaged 26.3 mpg yet 202 miles to empty. The math ain’t mathing.

 

Good catch there, I didnt notice that. I wonder if this is because I do a lot of driveway idling.
Or maybe I need a calibration done and my findings are too good to be true.

 

Or just ignore the Distance To Empty bullship and just pay attention to the fuel level, filling when you're low.

 

And don't trust the fuel "level" too much either. It tends to "stick" and then change suddenly when you reset it.