First road trip. Horrible gas mileage

Drove from Sacramento to Medford, Or with a full size Traeger plus some other stuff in the bed. Tonneau cover for the drive. Barely 14MPG. Drive home was empty and cover rolled closed...same mileage. I spent most of my time around 80MPH but expected WAY better (17-20) from a V6. Anyone have any ideas? Besides driving under 80 LMAO!! Brand new plugs and filters, MAS cleaned within the last couple weeks as well as fully detailed paint...so way slicker....LMAO!!! TIA friends!!!!

 

At 65 mph or so you’d have a better shot at your target mileage but yes 14 seems poor even at 80mph. I get 20 on the highway in the 60’s, flat, with cruise control. Sometimes slightly better.

I had to look up what the heck a Traeger is. Learned something today.

 

I don’t know what a Traeger is?
If you have a lot of weight in the back and you are trying to maintain 80mph, MPG isn’t going to be great. Yes, 14 is lower than I’d expect. I don’t think you’ll see much over 17mpg.


I guess you could look at your long term fuel trims?
That would be a starting point?

 

Driving under 80mph is the only way you're going to get there.

 

Headwinds?

 

It's the shape of the truck and there's nothing you can do about it. Even doing 75 will help, but 70 should really be your max. Got a headwind? Might as well do 65.

 

bigger wheels + tires, lift, bumper?

 

Switch the rear diff oil to synthetic, maybe

 

That mileage sounds about right based speed, load, and the nature of Toyota's 4.0.
I'll get 18 to 20 mpg on highway if I'm around 60 mph on mostly flat road. Going over and down our mountain, around 16 to 17 mpg. In town, maybe 13 mpg. 70 to 80 mph just kills my mileage.

 

I get 22 mix of town & country driving at 60mph max., very lightly loaded.

You are loaded and doing 80mph. It's just physics.

 

True....but I was empty coming home and same mileage

 

Nope....bone stock

 

Nothing worth mentioning

 

Traeger will change your life bro.....LMAO

 

Oversized knobby tires? Lifted?
No air dam? etc?

 

My 07 will get 19-20mpg on the road if I keep it close to 70. I might hit 75 for brief periods, but not on a regular basis. Getting 14 @ 80mph doesn't surprise me at all. I've gotten 22 mpg once or twice in ideal conditions where road conditions where 55-60mph was as fast as practical to drive and there involved lots of hills to coast down. I've gotten as bad as 16 mpg on a stretch of road where I was driving into a steady headwind for hours.

For ANY truck around 65-70 is the sweet spot for fuel mileage. Above that and a vehicle with the aerodynamics of a brick is going to suck gas.

 

Things that come to mind are:
-tire pressure
-poor alignment
-wheel bearings
-fluids of any kind in drive train
-you like to speed up and brake constantly like a mofo
-blinker fluid low

 

Traeger is a pellet smoker

 

If by change my life you mean deplete my bank account…yes!

 

Mine's a manual but that sounds about right maybe a tad low, it drops off pretty quick on hilly roads and over 65. Never really drove 80 (speed limit on most roads here is 60-70) but I've done 75 on the interstate a few times and it ran about 15 or so.
I drive a hilly road to work 65 mph and it usually runs around 16-17 but then again I didn't buy it for fuel milliage I bought it for reliability and a manual transmission.