wcbcruzer

What do you mean by "Canadian MPG?" 24-26 sounds greatfully high.

johnny5.9

The biggest limiting factor with good mileage in our trucks is, of course, aerodynamics. Aerodynamics might be the only difference with some of these trucks that are yielding poorer results. Air gates aren't going to help. Having the tailgate down or missing isn't going to help. Caps and tonneau covers won't help. Also not just tire size but design will make a difference. Some tires generate less rolling resistance than others. And, of course, air pressure needs to be taken into account. Even things you wouldn't think about like a heavy winch bumper is going to reduce the rolling resistance of the front tires besides simply adding weight to the vehicle.

xtoyz17

Imperial Gallon is what he's referring to, I think, which is almost a full liter more fuel.

2003Summit

1 UK (or what I was calling Canadian) Gallon = 1.2 US Gal = 4.546 litres.

26MPG, in UK gallons is 21.65 MPG in US gallons.

Katmandu

My 98 12 valver is averaging around 19 MPG. It's a 4x4 with 3.54s and 285s.

BTW, 19 MPG is around what my wife's 05 Jeep Liberty 3.7L gasser gets!

Also, I use the Fuel Logbook on www.GasBuddy.com You have to Log in and Sign up for an Account. GREAT way to keep track of your fuel usage!

RowJ

Yes, add 7% (if I remember correctly) for 285's.
There is city driving, and then there is big city driving.
There is northern winter fuel, and southern year round (non winter) fuel.
Only accurate mileage for each individual, IMO, is a 1,000 mile test... than rationalize it with "live in a big city" or I tow 25% of the time", etc.

IMO, Anyone averaging over 20 mpg with a 7000 lb CTD is...
-driving a manual tranny
-driving 99% of the time empty
-driving mostly Hwy (slowly)... no big city traffic
-possibly using their overhead readout
My gut feeling is, on a 1,000 mile test, nobody is over 20 mpg! Just my $.02.

I'm with Herb above...from my experience, any automatic, 4x4, 7000 lb CTD, getting over 16 mph should feel blessed.... and than maybe recheck their math.

RJ

Shovelhead

Last tank I decided to go REAL easy on the Loud Pedal.
Eeeeeasing off of stops, keeping the boost levels low, trying to avoid smoke, highway speeds <60mph, anticipating stops and getting off the accel to coast to a stop.

Tank before acheived 14.6 mpg....."Normal driving"
This one 17.7 mph.
Both hand calculated, outside temps almost the same, about 50/50 city/highway.

You CAN improve your mileage.

Barry St John

Yep, me too. I might do slightly better possibly because of the M1.6's but this post just about sums up my experience. What surprises me is that I can't do it consistantly from tank to tank. One will be 19 or so and the next will be over 20. That is comparable freeway mileage on cruise, hand calculated, same long trip and compensated for tire size. Sometimes I wonder if it could be inconsistancy in the fuel?

dspencer

I have no overhead readout and I compute all my tanks. Have an ashtray of receipts that I remove every yearend. (Don't blame me a bad habit from when I used to do contract work)
My usual tanks are 17 to 19mpg for a tank. My usual driving is 7 miles roundtrip to work. Two or three trips to see the inlaws in an assisted living home here in town, about 20 miles roundtrip, 10 miles hwy. Three or four trips to the tackleshop or a store for what not. One hundred fifty to 300 miles per tank pulling my bass boat.
Trip to NC to pick up bass boat. Stops in Va to sell motor and Tn to pick up new motor and back here to Texas all in 55 hours. Just under 2900 miles and mid 19 mpg if I remember right.
Fast trip back from Little Rock to Grand Prairie(near Dallas). I drove 80 when I could but with Friday traffic there was alot of slowing and speeding up. I got just at 20 mpg on that trip.

Some trucks can get 20 and better. Mine is just one of them. I did just find my lift pump has a leak due to ULSD and my last tank was under 16mpg. I am waiting on a new lift pump Monday.

I have gotten over 23mpg on one tank. I have also driven my truck over 700 miles several times on one tank. With original sized tires and my odometer appears to be accurate.

RowJ

I reread my post after entering and figured I might ruffle a few feathers. No offense intended. I agree that there are many hand calculated 'individual tanks' of fuel that show over 20 mpg. My problem is those who post "I get 20+ mpg" when they did it once.... and it becomes gospel!

For new members asking an honest question about mileage, I fear this kind of input is misleading. With the possible exception of a very long, slow, empty, hwy trip... I stand by my original thought.
"My gut feeling is, on a 1,000 mile test, nobody is over 20 mpg! Just my $.02."

RJ

JyRO

RowJ - I understand your train of thought. But your 1,000 mile idea is just an arbitrary number. A lot of guys on here rarely tow anything. And quite a few of those may be able to push 20 mpg consistently. If I never towed I'd frequently hit 20 mpg because I'm a cheap ---! With diesel being ~$3 a gallon, I keep my foot out of it. But any more, the only time I crank my truck is to a) take my oil pan to drain it, b) gas up the (mower) gas can, c) tow my enclosed trailer or camper. On the last tank, I took my buddies motorcycle (that I was working on) up to the cycle shop and back in my enclosed trailer. That was at least 45 miles round trip with 4,600 lbs of enclosed trailer. That tank averaged 19.5 mpg on 305.8 miles (~15% of that towing).

As for your list of items:

IMO, Anyone averaging over 20 mpg with a 7000 lb CTD is...
-driving a manual tranny YEP!
-driving 99% of the time empty 100% driving empty to get 20+ mpg
-driving mostly Hwy (slowly)... no big city traffic YEP!
-possibly using their overhead readout NOPE! When I get 20+ mpg, my overhead is reading ~23.5 mpg (due to EZ box)

annabelle

I get 24mpg highway-empty(US) at 1800RPM(hand calculated). Biggest improvement came(2MPG) when I inflated my tires from 55PSI to 80 PSI. I"ve driven trucks all my life and didn't notice a big differece in ride.

Rare1

I am not offended, but you are wrong. I can get 22 MPG anytime I drive empty on the freeway at 70 MPH. But why not, just loafing along with no load on the engine? Now we have 16 MPG SUVs, but do you remember the big old American sedans with the overpowered V8's that could cruise all day at 20 to 30 MPG, or are you too young? Those were unmodified family cars. Most unmodified or sensibly modified CTDs in good tune will do that. Problems start with 4WD, lifted suspensions, big tires, and BOMBs not designed to work efficiently in combination. Most owners don't care, the macho factor has priority.

In fact, I don't care. My truck is a workhorse, not a commuter. I ride my motorcycle or a small car around town. Most miles on the CTD are with the camper and/or boat, and unladen milage is irrelevant. I do care about towing ability, reliability, and WORKING milage, so I tune to optimize those. I am happy to average 15 MPG with my load, in the mountains.

John Faughn

Some of this is just repeated , truck to truck stuff , look at how many bearing there are in your drive train , are every one of them good quality when made ?
Now what condition are they in now ?
Then take the same truck , when you filled up was the pavement flat [ trying to get tank full to were you can see it ?
Is there the same amount of anti foaming additive , so that what your looking at when you fill is the same [ let alone all the other aspects of the fuel ? ]
Then like mentioned already , road conditions , weather on & on ?
To get a real reading you would need to average many tankfuls .
Now to answer the original ?
My light comes on about 635 miles , on average , but I see a large variation from tank to tank with very little known differance , I suspect a large vary in fuel , I get my fuel from about 3-5 places , depending on price and when & where I'm at .

XLR8R

Wow - I don't know if I'm too young , too old or if I just fell off the turnip truck - but I sure can't remember cars like that (even though I got to drive them!)