4 Bangin, Fuel Sippin, Full Tank Challenge!

If that was the dealer supplied tank, it may not have been totally full. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

I ran my truck with a 1000 lb payload through the mountains of Arkansas recently for a week and both tanks were right at 25 MPG.

 

That bites. Must be the cost of the expensive California custom gasoline blends.

 

Dunno. But .20 cents off is only at Chevron stations which are generally 15-20 cents higher than the low cost stations anyway.

 

Good luck with your new truck!

 

I think here the Max is $1.20 and max 30 gallons, too bad I don't have a bigger tank.

I think that with the monthly prescriptions me and the wife have we get $0.40 from them and then groceries add from there.

 

Lucky!

 

Too bad the points expire every 30 days.
We don't buy enough groceries in a months to get .20... and if we did, and bought from Vons (Safeway still uses the Vons name down here), we would spend more "extra" money on the groceries than we would save on gas.

$0.20/gallon, 20 gallon tank, woop-tee-doo.... $4 on an $80 purchase and I would have spent $50 extra on the food.

 

I spend the grocery money anyway. Getting gas knock offs is new and is atleast nice to see. If I spend $400 anyway, why not save $4..

Spending more on groceries JUST to save cents per gallon is pretty fucking smart.

 

Oh. And when I say smart, I mean really stupid.

 

The program at Hy-Vee in the midwest is not on your grocery total, but on items that have ¢'s off per gallon. An example is 2 lb baby carrots recently where on sale for $1.99 and you got 2¢ added to your fuel saver card. There are a couple hundred items per week that have fuel savings. It is a fair program for all, expecially single folks.

 

That's rad. Wish our region afforded that!

 

That's nice. We have to spend $200 before we get anything, and it resets every 30 days, so even spending $100/month doesn't get anything.

But like I said... the $4 saved on THE tank of gas would be a small fraction of the extra money spent buying from Vons compared to Winco, Walmart, and Food4Less.

 

So far this summer, I have been getting around 25-26 MPG with A/C on almost 80% of the time. Some of these tanks include about 2 hours of idle time with the A/C on while I do paperwork in the truck. Not bad. With the A/C on, it's really hard to get a smooth gear shift in. The compressor robs so much power from that 2TR-FE. Quite frustrating. I wonder if V6 Taco's even notice when the A/C kicks in.

This last week, it's cooled down a bit where I live, A/C was only on about maybe 25% of the time, and MPG went back to 26-27. Looking forward to fall to see what I will get MPGwise since the truck should be fully broken in by then. Might even change the tranny fluid to synthetic.

 

Afternoon traffic and weekend shopping with the wife has been killing mine.
Last 3 tanks were only 23. Had a couple of decent tanks before that, and before that a string of 24.

 

Similar phenomenon for me. On the week's I don't drive on the commute and on days I take the convertible, the truck is available to my wife. So I see some landscaping going on, meaning the truck is used as a truck, and she drives in her normal fashion back and forth to local venues. I keep reminding myself that the drop is not indicative of the overall gains of commuting, essentially doubling the distance for about half the fuel.

 

I've been getting between 21 - 23 mpg the past few tanks. That's with the AC going all the time and probably 6 to 8 hours of idling per tank while I'm doing email or returning phone calls.

I'd do a lot better if I went in somewhere to get a cup of coffee and sat there, but I don't want the background noise and distractions while I'm on the phone.

Yes. Several stores here are starting fuel perk and rewards programs. The store down the road from me that's the closest does a point system where you get 5 points for every $100 spent and that gets you 5 cents off up to 20 gallons of gas. Basically 1% back. You have to use the points in increments of 100 though so if you get only spend $99 there and get 99 points, you're screwed, and they expire the next month and you can't combine them. So if you're not careful, it's not 1% back.

I was able to get 15 cents off per gallon though last week so I made sure I was really empty and took a gas can with me too (for lawn equipment) in order to get it up to the 20 gallons. It was a lot of work for $3, but $3 is $3.

But to your point, if you can get food for less somewhere that doesn't have a rewards program and can use the Gas Buddy app to find gas for less somewhere else, that's the way to go. Someone could save $100 instead of $3.

 

26.5 mpg this last tank 98 tacoma 5 speed with bed cover before the same trip i made with out cover i got 25 so i guess the 100 bucks i spent on it was worth it in the long run

 

Another stellar tank 663.3 miles on 18.595 gallons for 35.7 mpg.

Last 3 tanks averaged 35.5 mpg. 2041 miles on 3 tanks.

 

Great tanks Ws! Current tank for me at the halfway point was 243. It might last the short week ahead. On this road trip I have the MDX. The current burn on this trip is 24.8 with some stop-and-go. Not bad for a 3.7 V6 on the highway.

 

Just out of curiosity what kind of tires are y'all running? Ever since I took off the lift and 285's years ago I'm lucky if I see over 21 mpg. With my old tires I saw 20-21 usually with a very rare 22. Currently I'm better than it was back with the lift/big tires but nowhere near the mid to high 20's I was seeing in the first 5k miles of ownership while carrying a load near 1000 lbs. Most of that was driving through Canada so I guess the whole not going over 70 mph has some merit. These days I'm driving much faster trying to cut down the time on my long commute and it probably doesn't help having all the elevation changes I experience.

I know my tires hurt some because they are heavier LT's but stock size, 245/75-16. Previous tires right around 20 mpg were P265/70s. I've been seeing 19 lately by going back to the "rev out" mentality instead of trying to keep the revs low. IIRC that was how I did it in the brand new days of the truck. Not revving really high but not lugging it either.

It just sucks that a couple hills in my commute require me to be going 75-80 with full throttle to not need a downshift to 4th. This has me craving more power so I don't need to downshift and can just give a little more throttle and keep on chugging. It's not fun to lose speed at full throttle, these aren't the Rockies, been there and done that while towing a serious load. I've been thinking about a light regear or maybe going crazy with a supercharger to make it possible to stay in 5th at lower freeway speeds, 60-70 mph. Maybe then I'll actually slow down. Haha.