Winter fuel is killing me...16 mpg... easy miles

I can count on at least 300 miles before my light comes on..

 

Its 6 miles to work..not much stop and go...but at lunch I ride around in the city a bit...nothing major

..and its babied

 

Damn..

 

Shell..93 Nothing else.. The Taco seems to like it

 

I'm lucky to get 16 mpg in the winter. 15 mpg is about average for me, and like you, I drive like grandpa. But even in the summer I get 17 mpg on average, which is less than I used to get.

I can't figure out why my truck regularly got 19-20 mpg average in the first two years of its life, now it gets WAY less.

I recently overhauled my MAF / throttle body / injectors, replaced plugs, cleaned cat converter, etc and it only made a slight improvement.

 

Wow Benwa...


Maybe its because my old girl has 201k miles on her? LOL could be...she mite be tired..

 

I get 16 in winter, summer ranges from 16-18, but I drive mostly around town and hilly two lane country roads. Mine is a 4x4 too. The 2 wheel drive guys may get better mileage. Idk

 

Well I hope mine never drops to 18mpg let alone 16mpg.
I just figured mine up again yesterday. I got 20.097 using 87 Octane.
The lowest I've seen it so far was 19.7mpg.
I have gotten 23mpg in the summer but normally it is a steady 22mpg.



I drive my truck EASY. I try to never let it get over 2,000rpm.
I'm all stock except for tool box in the back with about 150lbs in it.

Mine is an Auto by the way (4.0, 4x4)

 

bumper winch 265 tires acces cab OR with leer cap. Automatic

17 MPG at 70-75 mph on my trip to Atlanta.

first time i ever gave a shit about mileage

 

I run premium fuel in my 2.7 and consistently get between 20-24 mixed highway and city driving, try running it, I bet it makes a difference. Before I ran premium I got 17-19.

 

There seem to be a hell of a lot of variation in these trucks. There are stock guys regularly getting 19-20 and others getting 15-16. And it's not always about tires or cold weather or short trips or one's driving style either. The guys who are running big mud terrains obviously lose MPG as do the guys who hammer it all the time. But there are guys who drive like a grandma and baby their trucks and take great care of fluids and tire pressure and such who still seem to get suck mileage. I have a 2010 TRD Offroad access cab automatic with a shell, and about 200 pounds of gear on 265/70r16 BFG ATs at 38psi and I don't think I've ever seen worse than 17, regardless of on road or offroad, hot or cold, 4x4 or 2wd. Yesterday's fill up was 18.75, and 3 tanks ago I got 20.7 in the middle of winter.

 

^^^ that's pretty good, considering you have shell and those BFGs.

Premium fuel is cheaper for me as well. Almost all my acceleration is done between 1500 and 1800 rpm and if I run regular swill it'll start pinging a little and pull my ignition timing across the map, sure as shootin'.

I've yet to put warm weather info into Fuelly yet. Actually, I don't think I have a recorded tank with an average over 40F yet.


A lot of mileage woes can be found by looking for friction issues. Look for sticky calipers, a bad alignment, underinflated tires, or old fluids first.

Case in point, my transfer case fluid at just 34k miles looked just terrible. It came out looking like Aunt Jemima's. The stuff that came out of the tranny in comparison was a lot thinner and looked like 75w90 should. I know for a fact my average mileage went up a half a mpg just from getting that goo out of there. I definitely won't be putting the diffs off much longer after seeing that stuff.

Roommate had a case of losing 6 mpg on his sedan. All tires were underinflated by a few pounds.

Friend was getting 9-12 mpg on his Ranger. Was breaking the bank. Drivetrain fluids had 80k miles on them. Change all the fluids with new dino stuff, 17 mpg became the new norm.

Worst part is, with the way efficiency is with big motors, a small change in friction tends to make a relatively large change in fuel economy, so it's all the more a pain to hunt down every little contributor.

 

I just bought my truck it's an 08 with 62k trd off road dbl cab. I can say my mileage with this truck is just about the same as my reg cab 5 speed when I got rid of it... I mean the difference is about 50 miles per tank so it's not really noticeable. I've yet to remove the secondary filter from my new truck... I probably oughtta do that soon...

 

I feel like the shell helps it be more aerodynamic. By shell you mean a cap right? like the part that covers the bed? This could explain the better gas milage

 

Theyve slowly increased ethanol content of fuel which is less efficient.

 

Typically a bed cap is less aerodynamic because of the bigger low pressure zone it leaves behind it. The weight isn't good for mileage either.

I agree with Jay, these engines aren't good at keeping carbon buildup out (not to mention that yellow water slurry that gets in the oil cap). I drive a half hour to work one way and I still have to get on it pretty good every couple weeks to keep it from missing and pulling timing.

Just the nature of a bigger motor. It's not under enough load when cruising. Now if we all had 2.0L inlines we'd never have to romp on it because just going down the highway would be "getting on it".

Best way to improve mileage if you do a bunch of short trips is to use 0w30 oil.

 

My 200lb Leer RCC didn't change my mpg at all .

 

with my 33's, im getting 15.5-16mpg winter fuel, mixed hwy/city driving. My wife makes fun of me all the time for driving slow... im getting about 230 miles, and fill up usually when i have 1/4 tank, and add 10% for the tire increase to get my calculations

 

That's why I left in the word "typically"... haha

My old man lost about 1 mpg on his Tundra with the cap.

The light now comes on at about 360 for me

 

16-18 is what I saw consistantly with my 4.0L auto 4x4 for over 4 yrs.
Same drive as the OP.