Realistic MPG Expectations?

Im in New Hampshire with my driving mostly highway. Speed limit is 70 but I run closer to 78 or so. Summer I get between 19 to 20 mpg. Winter blend and colder weather I get 18 or there abouts. Trd off road, 4x4, double cab.

 

Do any of you guys actually write down the miles and gallons for each fillup to compare to the computer readout? I've been recording the miles/gallons for 34+ years on every vehicle and it clearly shows when winter gas kicks in or you have something starting to get out of tune. The stock computer seems to over estimate the real mpg every time. That being said, my 2013 reg cab with the 2.7 AT and 285/75/16 tires and 3" lift is averaging around 16.41 since I got it back in late March. I do mostly around town driving which stays under 50 mph and I tow a couple of boats 10 miles back and forth to my boat ramp. It sounds like the V6 trucks get better mpg than the 2.7 trucks.

 

The computer in my truck is surprisingly accurate, anytime I hand calculate it is pretty much spot on.

 

You know people keep complaining about Winter Blend fuel but from last february to today i've maintained the same gas mileage. I think its a bunch of hocus pocus. I think it has far more to do with it being winter than the gas alone.

They say Winter Blend fuel has 1.7% less energy density as summer. So why would your MPG be dropping by 20%+ in winter?

 

I'm either looking at the wrong average MPGs or I drive a helluva lot worse than I thought.

Maybe both.

 

Similar setup for me...Same mileage

 

I still get great mpg even with heavy traffic mixed into highway.

19-20+ mpg

The key is that I don't really accelerate much and instead let the impulse of the iddle engine take me forward and I also leave a bigger gap than usual in front so if I do accelerate, I know it won't be wasted 3 seconds later by breaking.

 

I have a Sport DC. Have 3800mi and I get the as advertised 18 city 22hwy. I have a 90mi drive to work 2 days a week and I’m always about 22mpg at the end of the trip. I also drive 75-80 on the highway so I’m sure I could do better.

Now I know people will tell me I’m absolutely full of shit but if I run a few tanks of mid grade or above I can squeeze out a bit better gas miliage and the truck seems more throttle responsive. I also do not have the latest TSB update. I also don’t think I really need it. Good luck with your truck. I love mine.

 

I use fuelly.com with every fill up. It tracks the actual mpgs. I've had my truck for exactly 1 year this week and you can see my actual hand calculated Avg is 19.7 mpg.

I live in a cold climate so winter I was seeing about 17-18 mpg and in summer 20-22 mpg.

 

I have checked mine a couple times. It was very close. I don't remember the difference, but it was trivial.

 

Are you tracking your fillups with Fuelly?

 

realistically, with no wind, flat road, and no additional weight with the automatic, 22 highway, 18 city. my average is 15, but i also have a manual with about 1500lbs worth of stuff on it.

 

No. As I posted above, I checked a couple fillups and the onboard computer was close enough for me.

I used cleanMPG for years to track fuel mileage of my cars, and was / am a little bitter when they deleted everything. I would have liked the chance to backup my data. So I probably won't use an online tracker again.

 

40 mile R/T daily commute I average 21 mpgs on summer gas, 19 mpg in the winter running at sea level and keeping it at less than 65mph.

Truck has 35k on it.

 

Doesn't that exceed your payload by 20-30%?

 

If you haven't hit it, its coming. Last two tanks for me I dropped from ~20 to 18. Yesterday was the first day below 40.

 

That's surprising. I've now had both the auto and manual. Same commute/errand routes, the auto got 10% better MPG. For all highway, going 70mph, there was only about 1MPG difference (favoring the auto). Both trucks at stock.

 

The free Fuelly app on your Android phone works great. You can then link it to your TW account.

 

your commute sounds VERY similar to mine. 43 miles each way. About 50 mins to 1 hr/ 8 mins. Atlanta area.

20-21mpg (2017 TRD Sport)

 

I guess if I had a cell phone that would work.

From what I understand about the winter gas is that it contains an oxygenate which is like liquid oxygen. So you really are getting less gasoline per gallon if that oxygenate turns to a gas (oxygen) in the combustion chamber. So a simple example would be you normally go 200 miles on 10 gallons of gas and get 20 mpg. With the oxygenate, you pay for 10 gallons of gas but it's really less like getting 9.5 gallons of gas. So you go 190 miles now but based on putting 10 gallons in your truck it looks like you're getting 19 mpg. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but that's how I understood what was happening. Now add longer warmups and higher idle due to the cold and it will burn more gas without going anywhere so that obviously hurts your mpg.