Just drove 3300 miles to the coast and back in my 3.5 Auto

I get the bad mpg on I-5 from No. Cal to Eugene, there is very little flat traveling so you are either pulling up a hill or easing down one almost the whole way esp in bad weather.

 

Mainly just for fun! We both had the whole week off and wanted to get out to the coast with the dogs as well as visit relatives that we haven't seen in a while.

 

I-5 on this particular day was like a scene from a Zombie movie. It was snowing pretty good and the roads quickly became snow-packed. You could tell most of the people out there during the storm were caught off guard. People with rwd and/or shitty tires all over the place. Truckers parked in the middle of the road trying to put chains on, etc... Luckily there was room to go around most of it.

Not knowing the area, we followed google's recommendation to divert off of I-5 at the Weed, CA exit and take that two lane hwy to Eugene. Hindsight tells me we should have stayed on I-5. The two-lane hwy was pretty desolate and the weather was terrible on it as well. The only plus was there was no traffic...probably for a reason.

 

I have been on that klamath falls hwy many times. Lots of hazards up there, so yes staying on I-5 most likely would of been better. It's great that it all worked out well for you, an adventure that ended well!

 

Great write up and glad to hear your travels were safe and memorable.

One thing in particular that struck me — and that I 100% agree with you about— is the responsiveness of the truck in manual mode coupled with the ECT button.

I’m in an ‘18 DCSB TRDOR on stock suspension with TRD T4R 17” Sema wheels and 265/70/17 BFG KO2s in C load. While I’m not winning any awards for gas mileage (averaging about 17 MPG average of both town and freeway) I drive in manual mode and ECT on 98% of the time because of how fun and easy the truck is to drive in a pretty spirited manner.

I have a 10 mile long little two-lane back road that I drive at least once a weekend just for pure fun. Its got some twists and turns and a decent elevation change. The truck loves to be driven in the 3-4K RPM range and nothing is more enjoyable than dropping it into S3 from S4 while slowing into a turn at maybe 50 MPH. It screams a bit at first but the engine braking really works well to slow you down without forcing you to get on the brake pedal too much. The RPMs in S3 seem to stay in that sweet spot because once you step on the skinny pedal coming out of a turn, the power is there to accelerate nicely out of it.

 

Nice thread Olas! Sounds like you had a fun trip! Good for you!

 

Great post. I just paid over $4 gallon yesterday for ethanol free premium in Eagle Idaho. Yikes

 

I live in Southern CA and the gas prices always seem to be $1 more per gallon than other parts of the USA. I am disappointed with the MPG on my 2019 ORDC auto, 3.5, no real mos other than a 2" lift anf the PRO grill and on a good tank I get 16mpg, not driving it hard either. Took it in for the 1st service and had the dealer look to see if there was anything wrong. They claimed with the scan tool it was getting 21.6mpg - it has never broke 16!

 

What an awesome trip, congrats!