qwest

2002 ho 6spd 3.55 gears

,,Last 2 tanks, local Jax Fl driving: both tanks ran approx. 500 miles,
( have exact numbers to the tenth...)
filled at same spot, same pump , same direction, filled to the top,
allowing time for fuel to settle.

1st Tank: No Smarty 20.9 mpg 2nd Tank Smarty Sw1 20.5 mpg

I normally drive with a load, ( 3000lb Truck camper )
Last Year : For 10 K miles, Avg 14.5 MPG,


On Smarty sw3 now, see what mpg does.....

Diesel-Dan

HAHA....hand me the keys for a week and ill see......

NOW.....i would love to see what a Smarty would do to my truck. I have never done any long term testing with it...just took hits off it at N. TX DTR meets and such. BUT i have seen it make a difference in RJ's truck first hand.....driving to Waco.....with the windows up.......90*F......NO AC...... digressing sorry! BUT it improved his mileage to (AND CORRECT ME RJ IF IM OFF) about 1.5 MPG....BUT he was no where near 20 MPG at that point......I would just be more inclined to agree if i had personally seen a ISB pull 20+.....BUT i have been in the business of diesel performance since 2003....and seen/driven a lot of trucks.....

I’m not calling anyone out or anything....just know when you tell me that your 98.5-02 is over 20.....my tong will be in my cheek when I say “WOW! That’s great!”

herb

i am on my third dodge diesel 2001 2003 2006 , and have easily been ableto stay over 12 mpg as long as i wasn't towing a trailer.

RowJ

Just to clear some air... I apologize to all 3rd Gen owners. I forgot this thread was on the "General Discussion" Forum.

All my comments above were pointed at 2nd Gen, VP-44 trucks only... which I did not mention!

RJ

dart4forte

That 23 MPG os not far off. I've have a 23.9 at one time going down to California, avg 68 MPH.

steelblitzkrieg

My best so far was 20.2mpg, I witnessed it once. Other than that I have been between 15.6 and 17.2 on average.

If this thread is still alive I will post my MPG from SF to LA and back. I will have 3 adults and 3 children with luggage for 4 nights/3 days.

JyRO

RJ,

I've got a friendly little wager for ya! The following is made out of mutual respect. I'm not angry, or even a little bit peeved. I'm curious myself. Here's the wager:

If I can make it to my parent's house (around 260 miles) and back (around 520 miles) and average 20.0 mpg or better, you pay me THE DIFFERENCE in fuel cost between what my Corolla would have costed, and what my truck costed.

Corolla Costs ~ 520 miles @ 38 mpg = 13.684 gallons * $2.70 ($2.699) / gallon = $36.95

Truck Costs ~ 520 miles @ 20 mpg = 26.0 gallons * $2.90 ($2.899) / gallon = $75.40

The difference is = $38.45


So ... if I averaged 20.0 mpg or better, you'd cover the difference (paypal would work for me).

If I get 19.9 mpg, you pay me nothing. And yes, I am a bit concerned. I haven't done a long empty run yet on ULSD.


The rules would be this:

1. I have to use the cruise control set on 70 mph.
2. I do not have to run any faster.
3. The total distance is from a BP with diesel near my home, and back to that same station to re-fuel.
4. I'm running petroleum diesel only because I don't have access to bio.
5. There will be noone in the truck besides me.
6. Tires aired to my normal 65 psi.
7. I will stick to the rules and be 100% honest.

Is this something you'd be interested in? Would you be willing to trust my honesty? Let me know. I'm not sure when I may get the chance to make a run to my parent's house, but eventually I could work something out.

Barry St John

Wow! I like this. Come on RowJ, take his bet! If you don't I might and I think that I possibly could make it myself. I just want to see how it all would come out!

RowJ

Interesting challange.... and I would trust your honesty... but No thanks!
It's not a 1,000+ mile test run. AND, your bet really has nothing to do with my original point.... "My gut feeling is, on a 1,000 mile test, nobody (2nd Gen) is over 20 mpg! Just my $.02."

I picked 1,000 mile test because it's almost 2 weeks of average daily driving/work for me. Therefore a valid test of overall mileage. What I was originally trying to say was... we all remember the time we got ??.? mpg, but that does not answer the real question being asked by new members... which is "what's your realistic, average mileage".
I got 18.9 mpg, one time, from Barstow, Ca to Oklahoma City.... empty, going 80 mph. I brag about it often (to Ford & Duramax owners). But truth is, have never seen it again. Yr round, with new diesel fuel, I average 16.5 - 16.8. 2005 was 17.1 mpg.

SolarExpress

I have a log book full 20+ MPG proof. I traveled from Houston to Odessa on Monday. Arrived at 567 miles with a 1/4 tank and 180 DTE. Only averaged 19.7 mpg though (20.1 on the overhead). Once I got out of Houston it was 70+mph. Out in the middle of nowhere between 11:00pm and 2:00am I found myself running 75-78 mph. Judging by the oil dropplets underneath the truck, it doesnt like running 2300 to 2500 RPM for hours on end.

JyRO

OK, no problem. I'll add a few comments.

1) If I drove my truck for 1,000 miles average daily driving / work in my truck, I don't think I would quite make 20 mpg.

2) I started a thread about a 700 mile club. I put 700 miles on my truck with stock tank (35 gallons) and got 20.X mpg doing it. That actually was around town driving. However, I only did that because I was daily driving my truck temporarily when I had sold our 4Runner in order to procure an Odyssey, and the wife was driving the rice-a-roni in the meantime. So, I had gotten to 500 miles on this one particular tank, and was curious if I could make it to 600 miles. I drove very conservative and made it to 600 miles easy. Then I drove another hundred being very conservative again. So ... NO, this is not typical around town driving for me because for the last 200 miles (from my memory) I was driving like granny. But I'd say easily I could stay above 18 mpg around town, that includes a bit of fun too.

3) I personally feel like informing perspective owners what they may expect for maximum mpg is EXTREMELY beneficial to them. Because everybody's low is going to be different. Some (like me) drive very little "around town" driving so my low will not be all that low. Others, use their trucks as work trucks around town and keep the bed loaded and let it idle at jobsites, tow open trailers with equipment, etc. Their low mpg will be much lower than people like me. But generally most everybody's unloaded maximum fuel mileage should be a closer packed group of numbers. So, if I tell some guy that's looking at buying a 2nd gen that I can get 20 mpg empty on the interstate, he should consider the fact that he will probably not see any more than that -AND- that his "around town" mileage will automatically be lower than that. Very informative me thinks.

3) If I ever NEED to take my truck up to my parents, and I'm going without my little buddies (who can't drive 2 hours without peeing or puking ), I'll do this challenge anyway and come back and post the results in this thread if I can find it. This is 4/19/2007.

- JyRO

wcbcruzer

I've come to the point where I start basing my fuel economy on how I drive. I can probably squeeze a few more mpg's out of each tank but to do that it's torture.

qwest

Darn, can not claim the 1000 mile test

2 consecutive tanks of fuel:

474 miles 22.6 gals 524 miles 25.4 gals 998 miles/48 gals = 20.79166666

JyRO

Unpossible!

induchman

My best mileage for combination mountains and flats was when I was driving the 97 (in sig) 15 hours from Cody to Amarillo, averaging 65 mph, using 55 gal for 975 miles = 17.7 mpg. The return trip was just about the same, maybe an extra gallon or two.

If this had been a run on the flats of South Dakota, Nebraska or even Kansas I would have expected 18 at least.
But in my experience, higher speeds (above 65) gets me poorer mileage and lower sustained (55-60 mph) I can add 1 or 2 mpg.