Initial MPG thoughts?

Thanks again everyone! I sure wish I could come close to 18 mpg… 16.7 just calmly driving with nothing in tow and no mods is sad

 

I've been tracking MPG on Fuelly since I put the topper on about 6 weeks ago. I'm in Florida also, and 95% of my driving is short trips around town. My average over 1,239 miles has been 16.8 MPG. This truck gets about the same gas mileage I got in my 2015 Ram 1500 with the hemi. It's a great truck otherwise, love driving it, but I expected more from the gas mileage especially with stock suspension and tire size. Had I known when I was looking I might have just gone with a full size pickup again. I loved the interior room.

 

Lift and tires will make it worse.

A tune 'might' negate the lift and tires. Or not.

Is your current MPG dash provided or hand calculated? If dash, do a few tanks by hand to verify dash accuracy. Because they aren't perfect.

 

@Clearwater Bill, my calculations were all done by hand using the trip meter and actual replacement gallons. Surprisingly, my dash mpg on this truck is extremely accurate so far, a lot closer to the truth of my last one was.

 

Wow that's crazy. I'm in a lifted way up 2nd gen with 35's and I average about 17.7 MPG.

 

I get similar mileage around town, stop and go / slow and go.

But on the freeway ( flat arizona freeways ) doing 70-75 I get my best MPG in the low to mid 20's... I think my record
is 26 MPG. I'm easy on the pedal and keep RPM's at a minimum. Steady as she goes up to speed and then rock-steady.

These are flat freeways mind you, but I can consistently get those types of MPG out of it.

 

what is your average mpg with the 2.7L? i do pizza delivery sometimes and usually I average 21-22 mpgs per shift. Filled up with some ethanol-free 93 a few days ago and I got 25.8 mpg last night. Drove 110 miles with a mix of stop and go and a little bit of highway driving. Even had a few full-throttle pulls to get onto the highway during rush hour traffic. My alignment was out of whack (bad tire wear with only 27,000 miles) but i got into a collision and they aligned everything perfectly at the body shop so maybe that's why it's so good. My record is 28.4 MPGs with flat 45 MPH roads, no traffic, 93 octane.

your MPGs should improve when everything breaks in. Give it 1500-2000 miles. I also changed the rear diff fluid at 500 miles and I think that helped a bit with the MPGs. I would recommend doing the same because there were a lot of metal shavings in there and the fluid was dark and thick. some people develop a noisy rear diff.

 

I have less than 400 miles on mine and still on the 2nd tank of fuel, I don’t drive it much. This is highway cruising at 65 mph on 93 with 2 gallons of e85. I would run 93 octane.

 

Anything over 70 and your mpgs drop like a stone.

Aggressive or under inflated tires will also work against it.

Cruise control does not improve gas mileage, it just maintains speed regardless of load.

With my 285s, 2 inch lift and 40 mile RT daily commute I average about 19-20 mpgs when I keep speeds under 70 mph.

 

For some reason? Yeah, if you're using that radar CC then it's constantly putting the brakes on to control your speed, which of course is idiotic and if you remember to hold the CC button in for three seconds to bypass that, you'll just be trying to maintain the same speed whether you're going uphill, against the wind, whatever - another killer of fuel economy. The best fuel economy is achieved by not going too fast and keeping a steady foot on the throttle, letting the truck speed up going downhill and letting it slow down somewhat going uphill or against a headwind. Of course, you need to keep surrounding traffic in mind and this is not always possible, but that's what'll help.

 

I noticed I’m barely touching the pedal. I think that’s a big part. Ya in a lot of driving conditions you can’t baby it. But conditions like you describe you just tickle the pedal. It seems doing this as well, the engine is used to it and when I do step on it (passing) it jumps. I don’t see any lag and I think it’s because I’m training it to a light touch.

Would a long bed do anything to mpg?

 

4x4 will definitely make a difference, even if not engaged. Although I've gotten 26 MPG before using 4x4...but I was averaging 45 MPH though. But you should, theoretically, still see better than 16.7. 70-80MPH with upgraded tires will not help though, depending on what the tires are. But I'd imagine as the engine breaks in more, you'll see a bit of improvement.

 

upgraded to larger V6, 4x4, and A/T's,,, sounds about right.
What's another 1.3 MPG going to net you,,, another $41 a year in savings? You can make that up simply by not idling with the A/C on, while momma goes in to the No-No Store to buy toys.

enjoy your new truck.

 

Boy would I be worried if I bought a Prius.

But guess what? It's a fucking truck. A big box.....

 

What he said....

 

I used to get 21-22 average back home, that was a mix of city and highway. As long as traffic wasn’t stopped too much or going over 65-70 I happen to hit the sweet spot and always got 21 or so on my 70 mile commute, that was also going over a 1,800 foot elevation gain in the mountains. Now that I live in Idaho I’m either stopping every 3/4 mile at a stop sign or going 80 on the highway. I now consider 18 my normal average and in winter 13-16 is normal when it’s icy or snowy.

 

Unless you're only doing short trips, and the truck is bone stock, there's no reason it shouldn't be at least 20 mpg. When my truck was new with under 1k miles it always got over 20 mpg, or better.

 

This goes without saying, but when you fill up, reset your trip odometer. This will force the car to re-compute the average starting at that point. Or divide miles driven into gallons pumped. Do not top off!

 

Depends on the in-dash setting.

 

ive been getting 17 to 18mpg recently