Abysmal Gas Mileage

J

jnance50

New member
Now, I don't expect a Prius by any means ... but my T4R has always, and continues to get, awful gas mileage.

A little about the rig:
2012 Trail
~1200 miles
265 General Grabber AT2 LT(E-Load Rating)
Yakima Mega Warrior rack

On all highway driving, I've never seen over 16.5 Average - and I even make a conscious effort to keep the green Eco light lit up all the time.

When I first got the truck (sans tires and rack) it still never got 16.5 average, but I told myself it was because the engine wasn't broken in yet. And now, with the tires and rack - I tell myself those are the problem (wind resistance and rolling weight) - but I'm still not sure...

Thoughts?
 
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I did some careful measurements last month (winter gas)
Mine gets 16+ around town and barely over 19 on the interstate (loaded)
V8, synthetic motor oil, stock tire size, 2WD

I remember in the old days getting over 20 on the long trips / interstate
 
I am only getting about 17.5 mpg in a 2011 SR5. Its about what I expect. It may have something to do with the cold weather and winter fuel mixtures. I was getting about 21 or 22 in the warm summer months. Sounds like your truck is very new, I would be interested to see what your MPG's are in the summer when they change over to the summer mixtures. FYI, my driving is mostly city, however, I do not notice any huge change when I do drive on the highway (maybe .5 mpg more).
 
Took off my Rola cargo basket, went back up to 20.5 70% highway driving, with the Rola on I was at 19. Have not driven it during summer months to see what I get when it's warm.
 
I really do not understand the ECO light. It seems to make no sense when it lights up. Anyway I noticed that pressing the trip meter button switches over to a better way to monitor your mileage, because it gives you a meter that measure output versus gas pedal. Been driving with this on for two days so far and have managed to go from 16 to 19 by keeping the gas meter at less than half.

Did notice with the slight incline going home it is around 16 where on the way to work it is 19+ downhill.
 
How many miles are your normal trips?
What is your normal cruising speed?
Do you let the car warm up before driving?
What is the temperature like?
Do you look ahead and let the vehicle roll to stops or are you on the gas right up to the light/stop sign?

All of those factors play a huge role in your gas mileage. If you take only short trips, the vehicle never gets a chance to warm up, thus it is running rich for all of your driving. If you drive 80mph everywhere, instead of 65mph, you have 51% more aero drag than driving 65mph. If you let the car warm up before driving, you are using gas to warm the vehicle instead of just driving the car and helping it warm up quicker. Cold temps mean that it takes longer to warm up to where the A/F ratio normalizes. Staying on the gas up to a light or stop sign means you are wasting energy through braking instead of getting off the throttle and letting the vehicle lose momentum to where you are stopping.
 
I also drive with that meter on the dash. I feel it does keep me more aware of my driving habits. And going along with what Ant-ny said, I'm also seeing a drop in mileage in the colder winter months. I was getting around 16.5-17 MPG in the summer and come the winter, ive dropped to about 15.5
 
I've never known whether to buy into the 'winter blend' theory or not. But my truck has had an obvious drop in mpg this winter.

My driving style has not changed, the 4R lives in a heated garage, I reset the mpg computer frequently, yada yada, and yet I've lost 2 mpg city and 3 hwy.

Last summer I routinely got 18-19, and 22-23. I have a hard time believing my Blizzaks caused this.
 
I agree with Philsey- my driving habits have not changed one bit- but the mpgs have gone down by about 2 mpg both in city driving as well as high way driving. I used to get about 19.5 mpg driving around in the city and about 23 on high way int he summer and now it is down to 17.5/21 !
 
I have to add -OP- I never got that low a mileage on the truck even when it was in the break in phase- perhaps you need to get it checked out?
 
That yakima also comes into play. Since it doesn't go up to the windshield it creates a lot of drag, as you can probably hear it whistle on the hwy. I compared mpg to the Gobi, and I got a whole 1 gallon better.
 
Thanks Guys!
Lots of response.

Also, I feel a little better knowing it's just not me getting these numbers and that it very well just may be the time of year.

And to answer the questions below which might give more insight:

My normal trips are <30 miles, and if I reset the average while making only these trips (mostly city) I average around 14mpg!?!

However, when I was seeing 16.5 was on two (fairly) long trips I recently took which were 300 miles each or so. I filled up the tank and reset the avg. just before getting on the highway, so that's the info I'm using to answer the following questions.

Quentin said:
How many miles are your normal trips?
300
What is your normal cruising speed?
~70-75mph
Do you let the car warm up before driving?
It was warm when I filled up and reset the average fuel gauge
What is the temperature like?
20-40 fahrenheit
Do you look ahead and let the vehicle roll to stops or are you on the gas right up to the light/stop sign?
No Stopping

All of those factors play a huge role in your gas mileage. If you take only short trips, the vehicle never gets a chance to warm up, thus it is running rich for all of your driving. If you drive 80mph everywhere, instead of 65mph, you have 51% more aero drag than driving 65mph. If you let the car warm up before driving, you are using gas to warm the vehicle instead of just driving the car and helping it warm up quicker. Cold temps mean that it takes longer to warm up to where the A/F ratio normalizes. Staying on the gas up to a light or stop sign means you are wasting energy through braking instead of getting off the throttle and letting the vehicle lose momentum to where you are stopping.
Click to expand...
 
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Yeah, I just cited the Eco light because that seems to go off at the top of the meter (about half way down on the throttle). I actually keep an eye on that meter as well as the eco light - but - my average driving finds me only one or two "notches" below the blinking area where the eco light goes off. Anything below that throttle wise and I have school buses passing me.

JayBe said:
I also drive with that meter on the dash. I feel it does keep me more aware of my driving habits. And going along with what Ant-ny said, I'm also seeing a drop in mileage in the colder winter months. I was getting around 16.5-17 MPG in the summer and come the winter, ive dropped to about 15.5
Click to expand...
 
Yeah the Yakima makes a ton of noise - a Gobi is definitely in my future. Does it really make that much difference in wind noise / fuel mileage? Also, where are you guys picking those up? I checked Gobi's site but it looks pretty old (despite the new products on it) and doesn't mention pricing/ordering anywhere I saw.

adio3x said:
That yakima also comes into play. Since it doesn't go up to the windshield it creates a lot of drag, as you can probably hear it whistle on the hwy. I compared mpg to the Gobi, and I got a whole 1 gallon better.
Click to expand...
 
jnance50 said:
Yeah, I just cited the Eco light because that seems to go off at the top of the meter (about half way down on the throttle). I actually keep an eye on that meter as well as the eco light - but - my average driving finds me only one or two "notches" below the blinking area where the eco light goes off. Anything below that throttle wise and I have school buses passing me.
Click to expand...

Yea the drive meter and Eco light are really useless when starting from a stop. I only use while cruising. I've tried to use it from a stop and you can run faster
 
jnance50 said:
Now, A little about the rig:
2012 Trail
~1200 miles
265 General Grabber AT2 LT(E-Load Rating)
Yakima Mega Warrior rack

On all highway driving, I've never seen over 16.5 Average - and I even make a conscious effort to keep the green Eco light lit up all the time.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...


I think that winter gas eats up at least 2 mpg then E tires another 1 mpg and probably Yakima rack another one. Then I noticed that most efficient speed is in the range of 50-60 mph. So I think that if you drive 300 miles at 55 mph in the summer you should get something around 19-20 mpg, maybe more.

As a reference point I can say that in the winter on C-load Duratraks@36psi with some cargo I got around 19 mpg (90% highway 65-80 kph). Similar trip in the summer on stock tires at the speed limit showed up to 23 mpg.
 
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