Surprising increase in truck MPG

Yea, 22 rather sucks. My 3500 has a 34 gal and it's not really adequate. I've been thinking about relocating the spare tire, installing a 30 gal Suburban tank there and replumbing to a dual tank setup. Still haven't got around to it though.

Once you get below around half a tank, the vertically mounted fuel pump is no longer submerged. The motor still gets some cooling from the gas flowing over it inside the pump, but you loose all the thermal conductivity of gas around the outside of the metal pump housing carrying heat away.

That's a definite possibility and march / april would likely be when it would change in most areas.

Cite.

So you don't drive the truck, you use it to store your investment gasoline. :)

LOL.

My Jeep has had a gas gauge that works when it wants to, like maybe 2 years out of the last ten and I use the odometer all the time for fill-ups.

We even take it on 3 and 4000 mile camping trips to the east coast. When I hit 350 miles on my 20 gallon tank on a trip I know I need fuel soon. I ran out once at 386 miles I think it was fully loaded running hard (70+ mph which would be about 19 mpg). If I keep mine under 65 mph, I can get 21-22 mpg. Not bad for something with the aerodynamics of a brick.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 'New' frame in the works for '08. Some Canadian Bush Trip and Build Photos:

*gallons per topoff as his gauge-needle approaches 'empty'*. And to be more nearly accurate, it is all obtained as the needle approaches, but never reaches 'E'. Remind anyone of "limits" in Calc 101? In older times a prof. I had would say "as the needle approaches "E" asymptotically". Enough of my bull***t. Romain and others got it right. I esp. enjoyed being reminded of the variables mentioned: esp. the one about which spouse is driving (quite true in my case as well). And I want to add one more: expansion of gas with heat. Fill the tank *early* one morning when temp. is much colder than it will be that evening when you return to the same spot to re-fill it. Even with top-of-the-brim fills both times, the increased temp., both ambient and of the vehicle itself, will yield an inaccurately high mpg. Good way to impress a friend with how good your mpg is. Also to help sell your used gas-hog to your penny-pinching, unpopular neighbor--heck, let him fill it back up! Luck to you, iggy, and you're correct to not expect great mpg with a 3/4 ton pickup. And as always, my input is based on my personal mileage and/or beliefs. With price of gas, thanks to all who can help us do better. s .

Any other changes? Tire pressure? Add a cap (shell or bed cover)? Break in usually adds 5-10% mileage because of less friction throughout the drivetrain. Like others stated, running the fuel pump dry is not good for it, plus the injectors should not run dry either since they rely on fuel for lubrication.

Clifto, it's really simple.... they take 10 gallons of gasoline and then add a gallon of alcohol. They then divide the miles driven by ten to get their mpg figure.

Now if they divided by 11 it would go down because that gallon of alcohol had less energy than a gallon of gasoline, but when they just add alcohol and neglect its volume, they've added energy in the form of alcohol but haven't corrected for its volume.

"SteveB" wrote in news:vXmOj.12525$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe12.phx:

Reducing speed by 5 MPH can also have a noticeable impact upon fuel economy.

So can adding a bit of air pressure to the tires if they're not already at maximum.

In city driving, shutting off the engine while waiting for the traffic jam to resolve itself can save quite a bit as will any other technique that reduces engine idle time. [Sweating uses less fuel than staying cool.]

The difference between winter and summer blend will *not* produce a 25% improvement in fuel mileage. There's something else going on.

It shouldn't be. Ethanol has about 80% the energy by volume as gasoline, but gasohol is only 10% ethanol, so it shouldn't make that big a difference. The E85 users will really see the difference, though.

Jon

Pete C. wrote: Axle ratio can make a pretty

Really! I had an MR2 years ago, tiny bug of a car, and was APALLED that it got about 16 MPG! My Corolla station wagon has a similar engine, but carburetor instead of FI, and gets about 34 MPG in mixed driving, and 39-42 on the highway. Both had 5-speed manual trans. But, I can tell the Corolla has a MUCH lower final ratio. I even thought of swapping out the final gears in the MR2, but got offered one of those insurance settlements you can never pass up, especially as an increasing family size was looming, so I let them have it.

Took a couple years to figure out why I was having so many "incidents" with the MR2 - people just DIDN'T SEE the thing! At least once a week I had somebody pull out of a driveway or side street RIGHT in front of me!

Jon

no it doesn't.

nate

That's a little better than my '95 Cherokee with the 4.0 liter. I get a fairly steady 19 MPG at 60 MPH. Haven't tried it too much faster, there are no roads in Michigan's U.P that are over 55 MPH. Like you mentioned, aerodynamics of a barn door.

That's basically what I figured. The few times I've gotten any REAL gasoline without alcohol in it lately, my mileage has gone up.

Yike, it used to be 70 or maybe 75 in some parts of the UP. But gas was 36 cents/gallon then. d8-)

It's 65 here in NJ. Does anyone stick to the 55 mph limit up there?

(Of my two cars, the one that gets the worst mileage is around 31 mpg highway. 'Sure glad I don't have a truck right now. )

-- Ed Huntress

"Ed Huntress" wrote in news:480a63d0$0$25050 $ snipped-for-privacy@cv.net:

The onetime car that I miss most these days was my '62 MG Midget.

948 cc 4-banger with 2 side-draft carbs, mechanical tach driven off the generator, Lucas electricals, and all. 33 MPG City and 55 MPG Highway.

'Course, it'd only do 85 MPH falling off a very high cliff...

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:10:24 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm, "T.Alan Kraus" quickly quoth:

That 1.2gph figure at 60 and 65 equates to 50 and 54mpg, Alan, so you're as accurate as Iggy's "about the same gallons."

Heh heh heh.

-- The only difference between a rut and a grave...is in their dimensions. -- Ellen Glasglow

RCM only

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:02:24 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, clifto quickly quoth:

Yeah, I'd like to see that, too. In every report I've read, MPG goes down with ethanol. In every physical test I've done with my own vehicles, MPG goes down by at least 10%.

-- The only difference between a rut and a grave...is in their dimensions. -- Ellen Glasglow