Woo Hoo 19.7 MPG! (1 Viewer)

[gotmud]

Didn't think it was possible, but my GPS and gas receipt don't lie! Had to drive to Marana, AZ from Mesa, AZ today. Checked my odometer's reading and compared it to my GPS reading. Odo is off by about 8%. (285's on 17's vs 275 on 16's is my guess).

The whole trip was about 224 miles (GPS miles, not odo).

AC running on the trip down, off on the way back.
Kept my speed between 70-75mph - drafting when I could
No cats
91 Octane gas
11.37 gallons to top off

The purpose of this test was just to show myself how much these things suck the gas when you drive around town. My daily round-trip commute is 67 miles. Most is freeway, but nearly 25% is surface streets. My average MPG during the week is around 15 at best.

 

[Pogue]

great, now I have to finish tuning mine up to see if can even come close to that
congrats!!!

 

[KingBeeIII]

That's awesome mileage. Did you go down there for the Wings of Freedom Tour?

 

[Alex Kogan]

Measurements like that are highly unreliable. Depending on given condition, pump cut off valve sensitivity, vehicle load you can easily be of by 1 or 2 or even more gallons at fill up. I've experienced that particularly while towing trailer (with some other vehicle I have), pumps would cut off after putting 18 gallons in 24 gal tank while I know for sure I'm bone dry and even the gauge gauge shows 3/4 fill. Yet pup refuses to put in any more I less I point my truck downhill.

I would say any measurements taken with less then 2 or more full tanks are worthless unless you use some other container to assure of exact volume of gas. Like a jerry can or something.

It's really a wishful thinking that you can get 20 mpg on 5000lb brick shaped truck unless you run diesel.

 

[reffug]

I gave up on doing gas mileage calculations.

Don't want to end up on anti-depressive's....................

 

[FJBen]

I gave up on doing gas mileage calculations.

Don't want to end up on anti-depressive's....................

lol x2....best we got on my wifes on a trip to Texass was 17.4 and then 16.8

I was impressed. I don't even want to know what I did over the weekend towing our popup in mine

 

[Boone]

When you tow your trailer do you use your 80 or a diesel pickup? I'm asking because when filling up with diesel it foams a LOT and if you dont let the bubbles die down and then keep filling you will never ever get your tank full.

 

[Red Beard]

No cats

Do you still have your 02 sensors hooked up? If so, how? I gutted my cats but left my 02's out of the picture and wonder if someone still kept them in.

 

[JohnnyC]

drafting will get you alot back in mpg if you were doing it for awhile

an older car i had would get 23 mpg...then when drafting it would goto 33mpg...truckers dont like when you do it

 

[jditom]

I use to always average in the 17's when I had 33 inch Revo's on the highway. Now with 33 inch mud tires I am lucky to get 15.

AT's are the way to go if this is your daily driver/ dirt road rig.

 

[gotmud]

Measurements like that are highly unreliable. Depending on given condition, pump cut off valve sensitivity, vehicle load you can easily be of by 1 or 2 or even more gallons at fill up. I've experienced that particularly while towing trailer (with some other vehicle I have), pumps would cut off after putting 18 gallons in 24 gal tank while I know for sure I'm bone dry and even the gauge gauge shows 3/4 fill. Yet pup refuses to put in any more I less I point my truck downhill.

I would say any measurements taken with less then 2 or more full tanks are worthless unless you use some other container to assure of exact volume of gas. Like a jerry can or something.

It's really a wishful thinking that you can get 20 mpg on 5000lb brick shaped truck unless you run diesel.

I've run into that same problem before. Since I knew I would be running this test, I made sure the gas was all the way up to the restrictor door in the fuel neck on both fill-ups.

Was this scientific? No, of course not. But it did give me an idea of how much gas I burn driving around town vs. constant freeway speeds. It also gave me a good baseline for my theory of 87 octane vs. 91 octane and if there is any MPG advantage.

Do you still have your 02 sensors hooked up? If so, how? I gutted my cats but left my 02's out of the picture and wonder if someone still kept them in.

O2 sensors are still in, they are up stream from the cats in the down pipes, so removing the cats doesn't affect them.

 

[Grolar]

Just to chime in. I recently got 16.2 MPG on a 1,500+ mi trip and 18+ on some stretches with a loaded rig and lots of altitude changes, so 20 MPG doesn't seem completely out of reach.
Don't know if anybody has ever been trying to sip as few as possible by sticking to 55 for a long time using the Cruise control in a stock, bare bones rig? CDan hinted in a previous thread that it was the most efficient speed as far as fuel consumption is concerned.

 

[CreeperSleeper]

Congrats! I also stopped checking... ih8math.

 

[Firedog]

Just to chime in. I recently got 16.2 MPG on a 1,500+ mi trip and 18+ on some stretches with a loaded rig and lots of altitude changes, so 20 MPG doesn't seem completely out of reach.
Don't know if anybody has ever been trying to sip as few as possible by sticking to 55 for a long time using the Cruise control in a stock, bare bones rig? CDan hinted in a previous thread that it was the most efficient speed as far as fuel consumption is concerned.

Using the Cruise control will usually give you worse mileage than just driving it yourself. If you use the cruise then it tries to keep a constant speed (downhill and up). If you control the speed, you can accelerate down hills and allow for a longer coast time up the next hill.

 

[sseaman]

i found in my wife 4runner if i keep it at 2500 rpms instead of a certain speed, i can get alot better mpgs. i havent found the magic rpm yet in my 80, but i dont drive enough either

 

[Grolar]

Using the Cruise control will usually give you worse mileage than just driving it yourself. If you use the cruise then it tries to keep a constant speed (downhill and up). If you control the speed, you can accelerate down hills and allow for a longer coast time up the next hill.

"Down hills", you mean, the place where the Highway Patrolman is waiting, right?

But agree - I should have mentioned "on flat roads". I usually rely heavily on the CC because I don't like to hammer the right pedal myself and there's usually a lag between the moment when you realize you're loosing momentum on a hill and the kickdown of the A/T. But on flats, keeping a constant speed should mean better MPG, no?

Footnote for the PRKians: I noticed that the US 101 between Camarillo and Woodland Hills, as well as the I-10 between Palm Springs and Chiriaco Summit are places where you can easily lose 20 MPH in seconds if you don't pay attention. And then the guy with the Cayenne behind you goes nuts. For that, I wish I had a manual trans.

 

[Firedog]

"Down hills", you mean, the place where the Highway Patrolman is waiting, right?

But agree - I should have mentioned "on flat roads". I usually rely heavily on the CC because I don't like to hammer the right pedal myself and there's usually a lag between the moment when you realize you're loosing momentum on a hill and the kickdown of the A/T. But on flats, keeping a constant speed should mean better MPG, no?

.

True, I forget that some people live in places where there is flat ground (not so lucky around here)

 

[Atoyot1031]

Using the Cruise control will usually give you worse mileage than just driving it yourself. If you use the cruise then it tries to keep a constant speed (downhill and up). If you control the speed, you can accelerate down hills and allow for a longer coast time up the next hill.

Not so on cruise control. Here's an edmund's article that covers it:

We Test the Tips

I've also seen these "test results" in similar myth articles at Yahoo & CBS (home of the exploding gas tank).

 

[Firedog]

Not so on cruise control. Here's an edmund's article that covers it:

We Test the Tips

I've also seen these "test results" in similar myth articles at Yahoo & CBS (home of the exploding gas tank).

Hmmm... Just read the Edmonds article.... kind of interesting "Test Method"...

"Method: We did this test twice with four different cars each time driving the 55-mile loop. The first time we set cruise control to 70 mph. The second time, with the cruise control off, we varied our speed between 65 mph and 75 mph. We tried to mimic the driving style of a person who is in moderate freeway traffic.

One thing that's important to note: if you are in a mountainous area you should turn off cruise. It will try to keep you up to the speed you've set and will use a lot of extra gas downshifting to lower gears to accomplish this. "

They tried to "mimic the driving style of a person who is in moderate freeway traffic"? I would think that they would try to save fuel while maintaining (at least) a set speed.

The second note " if you are in a mountainous area you should turn off cruise" is what i was speaking of.

 

[Thermodyn]

Best I've ever done was in the wife's LX, doing 55-60mph = 18.6mpg.