What can be done to increase fuel mileage? What really works and what kind of REAL world mileage increase can be expected?

A few items on my short list:

1) Exhaust - what can be changed and/or deleted and what kind of increase
2) Tail gate - up/down, removed? I am experimenting with the "down" position this week.


I have already installed a K&N style air filter. Only noticeable difference was changing the filter less often.

I commute 80 miles a day and hate driving little cars.

 

get rid of the k&N it will ruin your motor,tailgate up, do a turbo back if you want it quieter add a 4040xl aero resonator muffler. i am interested in mileage improvements only and found a way to test changes fast under real driving conditions, the worst detractor was the afe stage 1 the best was the smarty jr

 

An egg under the skinny pedal .

 

It was busted on Mythbusters that tail gait down would increase fuel economy!

 

I would say make sure your tires are inflated to the max psi for less rolling resistance. I found a mpg increase in the Quad Xzillaraider and then later bought a Smarty Jr. and it also gave a mileage increase over stock. Right about 1.5-2 mpgs for me. Just my .02

Wood

 

I just drive everywhere at 55 mph. I must not be the only one interested in fuel mileage in my area because people draft me all the time. Right on my bumper.

 

The only thing exhaust mods will change is the sound your truck makes.
A tonneau may add .2 mpg, and using power service can add .5+

 

My mileage improvement suggestions:
Get vehicle up to 50 mph. Wait for transmission to engage intoth gear. Set cruise control to to as low as say 42 mph. Reset overhead and watch the mpg go up. Oh, yes try and plan routing with the least number of hills. I think you will find that people will pass you but by the time you get to the next stop light you will only be one car length behind them.
Another technique used by hybrid car fanatics is driving pulse and glide method. This method was used by the old Mobil economy run. What you do is to rather quickly accelerate in as high a gear as possible to a speed of 42 mph. Then taking your foot off the gas pedal coast down to 30 mph. Once at 30 mph reaccellerate back to 42 mph. Repeat and repeat until you get to where you want to go.

 

Explain the issue with the AFE STAGE 1 system please. Add the little spoiler on the tailgate the new ones come with.Might try a www.rokktech.com modded crank sensor.Quad has a MILEAGE only box out also.

 

Never knew there was a problem, please advise, Scott

 

Use the SEARCH function on this site.Lots of reading about K&N filters.

 

Driving the speed limit and never being in a hurry will net you some serious gains. I do believe the lighter Smarty tunes will help out as well.

 

in testing we found a loss of 10% efficiency with the stage 1 afe two 400 mile trips towing confirmed the test results we went back and searched our tdr's in the new issue 59 and issue56 explaned the results , its the hot underhood air, also we thought the straightning vanes in the torque tube was a muffler to keep turbo sound down we gutted the tube with a hacksaw and pliers, when we tested we lost efficiency and could not put it back togather , that is why we tried the tag . it not only brought the efficiency back it improved it. we have a junk box full of stuff on the intake that did not work , the combo psm, cool hose,afe proguard 7 filter and tag did the best but will be a long long time recooping our cost

 

Before you start buying things for mileage you may want to figure out how much you will really save. For example if I had to drive 80 miles per day I would drive it 70 mph and most likely get 17 mpg. That would take me 1.14 hours round trip and consume 23.53 gallons per week say gas is $3.5 per gallon, I would spend $82.35 per week. Now if I drove 55 mph and got 19 mpg I would save $8.68 per week and going slower would spend almost 2 hours in the truck per week. For me it would not be worth it but may be important for you. Assuming you would drive 50 weeks per year you would end up saving about $434 a year going slower. Probably some add on stuff may give you 1-2 mpg better, just figure when it will pay for itself in fuel. Just my $0.02

 

Some RV mag I read recently did a few tests on our deisel motors and determined that 1700 RPMs is the perfect range for fuel efficiency. I can't remember if it was towing or not towing but I resolved at the time of reading to shoot for that range. It's 52-53 MPH for me.