V6 MPG less effected by weight and wind than I4?

I find my I4 is happiest in stock form 245/75R16s with just me driving and no load. Then I get 26-27mpg all day... now with some Wildpeaks and family on board and hauling junk all the time it's closer to 20-21mpg and dipped into 19s in the cold...

For everything else like yours I'd guess the V6 is best as it doesn't have to work as hard overcoming the extra drag. My I4 has to work a lot harder with the new, larger tires and extra load.

Probably the only good thing is when I leave the A/C on when I'm parked I burn a little less and the I4 is oldschool and will run forever.

My opinion is get the V6 unless you plan to leave it stock and not haul anything.

 

I'm in OD but there are some factors... taller tires (235/85r16), 2" lift, back bumper, rock sliders, RTT, toolboxes, and 4.88 gears... all eating away at MPG, I think. Plus hills on many of my drives. With original gears, the MPG was better but I had to manually shift the AT all the time just to get up hills and onramps.

 

I’ve got a 2.7l access cab with a 2” lift and 32x11 tires on it and get the same mpg as what you’re talking about too

 

Hey OP,

Nevermind all the BS numbers ppl are tossing around in here, just keep driving your truck and enjoying that rare gem. I've had a reg cab with manual transmission OME lift, heavy bumper, 32 inch MT tires a Leer cap and it was not much if any better on fuel than my 2018 TRD off road access cab on 33.5 tall Toyo MT's. Both were shitty on fuel compared to my current rig (diesel so not a fair comparison, if you want good MPG's you'll be leaving Toyota)

 

Get that RTT off of there, that is likely the biggest problem

 

Thanks, that all makes sense to me. I think the tire size along with all the gear weight I put on kinda maxed out the I4's capacity. Since the main goal now is the access cab and to bring more gear, the V6 sounds like it'd be the choice.

 

That and the tires, yea I think you're right, that's what I noticed the most. However, I'm planning on taking a lot of time for road trips in the next year so the RTT and the extra storage of an access cab is gonna be pretty important, I think.

 

Oof! Well, the main thing for me now is I think I'll be needing more cab space for keeping some of my equipment safe on long road trips... but I could consider an I4 access cab, perhaps... almost wish I could turn it back to stock (no bumpers, no armor, no lift or tires) and see how it would handle the RTT then

 

I don’t have any solid numbers for you, but any light trailer or heavy load it’s pretty easy to drop the mpg a few