How do you do it????

[DMyran]

I don't know if this falls into this forum or not but here we go.



How does everybody get this great milage your talking about?

Such as 18-22 mpg. The best I can seem to get from mine is around 16 mpg on the highway driving nice about 74-77 mpg

Normal driving to and from work which is about 3 miles and back and forth across the valley only yields me around 13mpg.



Now I can here it already about driving style, and how much you step on it but even when I try to get decent milage it still seems like everyone else is getting better milage than me. Is there something that I am not aware of such as a reflash for the ECM.

My truck was built in Jan '03.



Otherwise i am very happy with my ride.



Any info would help. oh yeah i have 26,000miles on



Dane

 

[CClements]

I think most people getting the high mileage are driving in the 60 MPH range. If I drive 62 I get great mileage but at an "easy" 74-77 I get 15-17

 

[klenger]

One thing to keep in mind about milage comparisons is that most members quote their best milage calculations when the subject comes up, not their average. You, on the other hand, are putting fuel in it every week and are thinking average. I suspect that comparing average milage of trucks under similar driving conditions would show fairly close numbers. Try (yea, right) running a tank of fuel at 55 - 65 mph over flat terrain with no load and you will probably see 18 - 20 too.

 

[JNutter]

I've been running mine hard since I had the trouble inside the engine a couple weeks ago. I wanted to see if anything was wrong. The motor has been fine. The worst I could run the mileage down to was 18. 3 unloaded - with my worst right foot down driving habits. Combo stop and go and 75+mph freeway, checked over a full tank and calculated by hand (which matched the display to within . 1 mpg).



I get 14 with a Jeep on a trailer behind the truck.



Short trips are really bad for mileage. If I re-set the display and check when doing little 1 to 3 mile trips, 13 to 14 is about right unloaded.

 

[JRMora]

Dane,



I agree with most of the replies here on the TDR concerning mileage:



Whenever someone states "I get so & so", it's usaully followed by "gee, that's not what I get".



While my truck is almost the worst of the bunch (for mileage), I have run some of my own little tests:



I drive nearly 100 miles a day (75% highway, 25% rural city). I get 16-16. 5 driving 77-78 mph.



Doing this same trip at 65 mph, i get around 19-20.



Doing it at 50-55 (really hard to do without getting run off the road by every grandma and semi truck!) I can see 22-24 mpg.



I haven't tried 80-85 yet (I value my cheap insurance too much), but I bet I wouldn't see much above 14.



These things push a huge amount of air, and aerodynamic drag is a function of the velocity squared (double the speed = 4 times the drag).



Aside from that, ther will always be manufacturing tolerance/fit issues and that means that for every guy that gets 20, ther'll be someone else who gets 15 or 16. Unless your motor war hand assembled and matched fit (big $$$), you'll have to take your chances.



In the end, I drive a truck that's 8 feet wide, 6½ feet high, weighs 7500 pounds, and I'm loving it! I used to drive a Honda Civic on this same route (37 mpg), but I don't miss it even . 0001%. The extra cost is worth it many times over for me.



Hey, at least I'm not driving a big block Chevy and getting 6-8 mpg!



Juan