Just drove 1500 miles since Wednesday last week.

Gladstone MI to Franklin WI (Milwaukee) - Thanksgiving Thursday
Franklin WI to Chicago IL (Des Plaines) - meet with friends Friday
Des Plaines IL to Green Bay WI - overnight by Lambeau Field for sports bars Friday to Saturday
Green Bay WI to Gladstone MI - overnight at home Saturday night
Gladstone MI to Grayling MI - overnight at other home Sunday night
Grayling MI to Detroit MI - Monday (concert, Genesis!!!)
Detroit MI to Grayling MI - Tuesday
Grayling MI to Gladstone MI - Wednesday (back to work)

My '18 SR5P is running stock tire size (Grabber AT2 P rated not the Load range E that some people kill mpg with), Bilstein 6112s up front et at 1 & 3, nearly stock height and I run a pedal commander 99% of the time at #3 (not race 3) base 3. I do not have excess weight beyond travel gear and about 60 pounds of tools / air compressor.

I averaged 17.4 mpg for the trip (calculated). Computer said 16.9 mpg. I did reset the dash readout on the way back for about 100 miles and saw 20.0 at 67 mph...can you guess what my average speed was for most of the trip?

I've driven millions of miles and can attest to the "speed kills" mpg, especially with the T4R. Had 4 oil changes since July 1 this year (my wife and I make the most of our weekends!).

I don't think this platform (T4R) we're talking about and love will yield better mpg. Maybe 1-2 mpg with careful driving and luck. Huge impacts of headwind, slight grades or worse, driving over 70 mph.

My whole point of this post is to encourage you to enjoy your 4Runner! I've enjoyed them for 21 years, gen3, gen4 V8, and now gen5.

Filling up the gas tank is just part of the game.

Cheers

I guess I got a unicorn. Just finished a 1250 mile road trip. Truck was filled with gear, about 350lbs.
From Reno, NV, to the Southern Sierras, to the Central Coast, up into Big Sur, back to Reno via I5.
Includes about 30 miles total of 4L hill climbing.
Filled up 4 times with regular Costco gas:
23.0mpg
22.3
21.5
21.1

Well done! A bit more impressive with your mild mods. Either way, totally possible, my last 5 fill ups were 21.1, 21.3, 20.6, 23.1, 23.0.

Do you drive at or near the speed limit on highway? Do you use cruise control or very careful throttle control? Pay attention to traffic and stops to reduce unnecessary braking and re-acceleration?

Or just drive chill and hope for the best haha?

It’s just math @

People can justify it anyway they wish, but body on frame anything to rack up miles is throwing money away.

I have 3 personal vehicles and a full tilt do what I want all expenses paid tundra for work. I can tell you exactly what they all cost per mile and what a company rig is worth having in a year.

It’s all apples to apples. It’s called cents per mile. Even the government doesn’t care when you do taxes on what you drive regarding expensing mileage as it’s also a fixed amount per mile.

There’s also a lack of discussing what depreciation actually costs. You have to add that to the per mile cost also.

Personally, I don’t care. I’m the guy that shows up and buys stuff for cash when the new wears off and it’s “wore out”.

Gas and tires is only part of the savings. Avoiding the depreciation in value of a high dollar vehicle is the real savings.

Look at the book values yourselves and tell me “a commuter isn’t worth it”. Same rig, only change is the mileage. Example is a 17’ off road premium. Couple grand a year in fuel, and almost 10k worth of depreciation.

I guess the real question here is what is considered a lot of money? That almost $20k would have made about $7k in some nice vanguard funds this year. Maybe more.









Last one is just for fun. Never thought I’d see $65k 4Runners and JLU’s, but here we are…….. it’s a pro, but still….. gotta love that 84 month financing.

Experience has taught me using the appropriate tool for the job yields better results. Trying to improve mpgs on 4x4 is a losing battle.

@Romeo1
I agree a daily driver getting good MPG is a great option for some. Lots of opinions on the subject.

Heck recently we had 5 cars between us, my wife and I, but 2 were purely fun cars (Chevelle and Model-A Ford), and the 5th car was the wife's prior daily we were going to keep but sold to my wife's brother (for a song, you're welcome brother-in-law...). A cherry condition Chevy Trailblazer replaced by her Highlander.

So again, whatever makes sense to a particular person, go for it.
I still have the Model-A, sold the Chevelle and the Trailblazer, so we're down to 3 cars. Now I'm itching bigtime for a Baja-Bug or Fox-Body Mustang 5.0... Ha! Never ends does it?

Also, not speaking of your situation Romeo1, if someone truly can't stomach the MPG of a 4runner and it's their sole vehicle, they should look at something like an AWD wagon, a Rav-4, Subaru Crosstrek- something along those lines. My buddy at work replaced his lifted 4 door jeep with a crosstrek and loves it, amazing MPG (33 mixed mpg) and capable AWD.

Ok, back to the subject of improving the MPG of the 4runner- I'll reiterate- lay off the gas pedal in the city, keep tires inflated, and keep the highway speeds down a bit.
But really on these vehicles what's that going to save you, 1-2 mpg in a stock 4runner?
To me a more important benefit- savings on brakes/ tires/ and wear and tear. Plus, lower blood pressure and hopefully fewer feelings of road rage with 'easy' driving.

One more point. In my situation, I want to take the 4runner past 200,000 miles, so I'm happy to daily drive it. The "Tin-Can" the kids call it compared to the wife's Highlander. She rags on me because her car is more refined and has all the bells and whistles.

OK I'm rambling, thanks for the spirited discussion!

Just one more thought - I've wanted to do this forever. But I probably never will. If you wanted to maximize mpg on the highway - height adjustable suspension would be ideal. I've already done the rear GX460 air suspension setup, so we know that works and it's a bolt in setup for rear air springs but you'll need to work on the height adjustment system. There are some aftermarket options or custom setup could be done. Front has never worked for me. The issue is that no one would make me a air bag for a 2.5" diameter shock and I didn't want to give up my bigger body shocks. But my use has changed and maybe I'd be okay with it now going down in size to an OEM TRD Pro fox setup. Then you'd need to identify the correct spring length and combine with a bag-over setup. That would give you adjustable height air suspension front and rear. My ideal setup would be to run the front with the bags totally deflated for highway driving. So I'd design it to be 1" below stock height with the airbag riding on its internal bump stops. So you could have a nice low highway cruising height for max mpg and then you'd be able to adjust the front up to maybe 5" above that, so 4" lift height, for the trails. Or anything in between.

I'm guessing you'd be into the setup around $2500 for the air springs, compressor, ECU, sensors, and balance of system (hoses, fittings etc). I'd also want as a must-have adjustable rear shocks because it's tricky to match a shock with the air spring rates without trial and error. Best part of this setup is that you'd have the best of all worlds as far as ride height, steering and alignment being proper at street height, and the ease of being able to go way up on its tippy toes for short sections of a trail where you need the absolute max clearance.

Downside is that air suspension is prone to leaks and failures. So you'd need to consider that for how remote you're going and what parts you need to bypass any component and still be able to drive the vehicle. When I had the GX air springs in the rear I carried a spare coil spring and had the ability to manually inflate each air spring separately, so if one popped I could swap in the coil. Never needed to. Only time I popped one was in the garage working on suspension. I'm still not entirely sure what I punctured it with, but something I was doing popped it.

If you think you'll never get a payback on a commuter car - I can pretty much guarantee you'd never even get a sniff of breaking even on air suspension to pick up maybe 1mpg at best on the highway! haha. Just thought it was a fun idea for discussion mostly.

That's great! I get about 1.5 mpg better on summer gas. Here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, winter gas has additives that don't help.

You sold the Chevelle??????? But….. but why??? I’ll bet that was a solid payday though.

I get it. Everything has it’s season. Old school Muscle cars are kinda starting to get played out now. Everyone is getting into 80’s rides and pickups now.

Hopefully you don’t miss that chevelle…. I still hate myself for not buying a 440 73’ challenger back in 1998….. I should have done it….. man I should have done it.

I don’t know about the 5.0 though….. the 80’s were awesome, but I can’t on that one…..but the heart wants what the heart wants right?

Same here. I think usually we’re already on Winter gas by Thanksgiving but I guess not this year.
The same drive last year with one less stop was:
21.7
19.8
19.0

It's not just the 'winter gas' in winter which negatively effects MPG. Cold temps mean higher viscosity oils, imparting more driveline drag. Cold air is denser, which means more aerodynamic drag. The engine runs richer (burns more gas), until it reaches operating temp. Then can continue to burn more gas, to maintain operating temperature. More-so if it's really cold.

Then there's the tires which lose approx. 1 PSI, for every 10° F drop in ambient temp. Airing them back up helps, but the casing is still stiffer in cold temps, which means more rolling resistance.

Anyway, just a few factors which effect MPG.

Drive under 2000 RPM and keep your speed 65M/H or low , you can get easily 22miles per gallon or more , i am running KO2 E rated stock tires and always get better millage by this speed .
many highways allow you to go 70MPH or so , its up to you , this is my experiences with 4runner , and specially with these days higher price of Gas , i keep it this way .

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