Best mods to increase MPG

[charlier180]

Slowing down is certainly one of the best ways to save fuel.

In a recent experiment I drove the minimum speed (45mph) on the interstate for several miles. It's just fast enough to shift into OD. I got close to 30mpg cruising along in the right lane.

Has anyone else tried this?

I also found that you can save fuel in general by keeping the RPM under 2000 on the 4x4 V8. Nor sure about V6.

I try to keep my speed in the 55-60mph range on the highway (right lane). Avoiding jack rabbit starts and sudden stops along with 40 psi in the tires seems to work for me.

IIRC, 55-60 mph in my 4Runner keeps the RPMs under 2K.

 

[RickyCRX]

WHY do you people buy gas-guzzling SUV's, then drive snails on the interstate trying to save those 1 or 2 miles per gallon????? I'm serious, it infuriates me when people can't just go the speed limit.... When you drive 55-60mph in the right lane, you may think you're doing the world a favor, but everybody who wants to do the 70mph speed limit has to move over into the left lane to pass you. This causes traffic bottlenecks that cause chain reactions for HOURS after you have gotten off the highway. Rush hour gets worse and worse later in the morning not because there are more cars (although this sometimes doesn't help, either), it's because somebody wanted to go 50-55mph and caused traffic to slow down behind them.... Traffic behind those that slowed down to 45-50 to not rear-end you are now slowed down to 40-45mph, the ones behind them are slowed down to 35-40mph and so on.... THINK about your actions and see if your 1 mpg you saved is really worth the extra 20 minutes you just caused 3,000 other motorists to sit in traffic for.

News flash: If you're THAT worried about gas mileage, you bought the WRONG VEHICLE....

[/rant]

Ricky

 

[charlier180]

News Flash... Some states like Pennsylvania have speed limits of 55 mph or on some limited access highways 65 mph. Must be nice to live in a state with higher speed limits. Don't know about Texas but in PA and other NE states the law is keep right except to pass.

If I have learned one thing in recent years there is simply no such thing as Fast Enough. There is always some A-Hole that wants to go 5-10 mph faster than someone else is traveling. Whether it is 60, 70 or 80 mph there is no such thing as fast enough.

 

[Light_Mania]

I won't argue your other points, RickyCRX, though I don't find them convincing.

But the difference between 55 mph and 70 mph in a T4R isn't a mere 1 mpg, its more like 3 mpg and perhaps 4 mpg.

 

[rook]

DRAFTING!!!:biggrin2: wind resistance increases with the square of the vehicle speed

What about the TORNADO??? Pep Boys is waiting for your order!

I think alot of the previously mentioned ideas are good. Tire pressure, tire width, driving habits, low viscosity synthetic oil, will collectively work to net a 1-3 mpg increase. Here is a thought, by tweaking the alignment, specifically the toe setting to neutral, you may eliminate a slight amount of "tire scrub" and reduce rolling resistance. This would come at a cost of vehicle handling and steering feel. Heck its no more risky than going 45mph down I-95 with a 50 ton logging truck up your a$$

 

[Northof49]

I won't argue your other points, RickyCRX, though I don't find them convincing.

But the difference between 55 mph and 70 mph in a T4R isn't a mere 1 mpg, its more like 3 mpg and perhaps 4 mpg.

Ya, but umm.....then you're going 55mph and not 70....

I still think some of you are on straight PCP going to lengths to eek a mpg or 2 out of a large V6/V8 body on frame 4x4 SUV. At then end of the day, it is what it is. It's like me posting on Corvette Forums "How to increase my towing capacity?"

 

[OUTRNNR]

Ya, but umm.....then you're going 55mph and not 70....

I still think some of you are on straight PCP going to lengths to eek a mpg or 2 out of a large V6/V8 body on frame 4x4 SUV. At then end of the day, it is what it is. It's like me posting on Corvette Forums "How to increase my towing capacity?"

LOL, True that. If you wanna keep your 2 mpgs by driving 55 make sure you keep it in the right lane out of my way and hope you don't get drilled by an unsuspecting half-drunk on his 15th hour truck driver...

Corvette Forum:
"Um, yeah, guys? I really like my new corvette, I just wish I could carry more cargo. This 200 lb trunk rating is low to begin with, but I'm only able to squeeze in like 170 lbs worth of stuff..."

Haha, great analogy...

:beer:

 

[RonMAIDEN]

Can I increase my horsepower in my Prius? It gets too good of MPGs.

 

[RickyCRX]

LOL, True that. If you wanna keep your 2 mpgs by driving 55 make sure you keep it in the right lane out of my way and hope you don't get drilled by an unsuspecting half-drunk on his 15th hour truck driver...

Corvette Forum:
"Um, yeah, guys? I really like my new corvette, I just wish I could carry more cargo. This 200 lb trunk rating is low to begin with, but I'm only able to squeeze in like 170 lbs worth of stuff..."

Haha, great analogy...

:beer:

Or more like, "If you want to go 55mph, get onto the feeder road next to the highway so you can sit through the stoplights at every intersection since you're obviously in no hurry to get to where you're going anyways."

I just don't understand it. When I get in a vehicle and start driving, I drive very deliberately because I have a place I'm going... a specific destination in mind, and I try to get there as efficiently as possible. That also means I'm not going to putter around at 50-55mph on a 70mph highway. If I have to go across town to a store 20 miles away, it will take me 24 minutes to get there at 50mph, but only 17 minutes to get there at 70mph... That's a 30% difference in time.... For what, a 11% savings in fuel economy?

Sorry, but my time is worth money, and at the rate of about $40/hr, those 7 minutes are worth about $4.66... Kinda makes the $0.30 you saved in gas by going 20mph slower not worth it any more, doesn't it?? The numbers just get so much bigger the longer distance you end up driving. On a 4-hour road trip, the fuel savings by doing 50mph instead of 70mph makes even less sense.

To sum it all up; JUST DRIVE your car, and drive at a safe speed. 50mph on a highway where traffic is going 70+mph does NOT equal safe. It is hazardous.

Ricky

 

[kimboy]

Synthetic oils may give you a slight advantage on your fuel economy, but the higher cost provides no negligible gain in the long run.

You can easily pump the $ difference from the use of regular oil for purchasing more gas.

I say try to keep your average mph as high as possible. This includes stopping and stand stills. If you keep the avearage variable speed up, that means your optiomizing your city/highway mileage.

 

[mtnracer]

45 on the interstate!? That's just dangerous and execessively slow. You could create speed differentials of up to 30 mph in that kind of situation, or the equivalent of driving 65 in one lane and someone flying by you going 95 in the next.

I wouldn't advise doing this in any situation, especially on the interstate unless you want to get run over by a big rig. 60-65 mph is slow enough to keep the mpg's satisfactory, anything above 70 mph starts to degrade fuel economy much worse.

Remember people, its an SUV, if you want good fuel economy go drive a Prius...

I didn't mean I drive 45 all the time. It was just a test to see what would happen to the mpg.

Normally I try to go 65-75. Most Florida Interstates have a 65mph speed limit and the turnpike is 70mph. At 75 you can go by most cops and not get a ticket.

I love my 4Runner and don't really mind the gas consumption. In fact, it will get even worse when I add the lift and 285's.

All I wanna do is squeeze out as many MPGs as possible.

 

[gizmopt2002]

People in Illinois do not know how to drive. Usually people in the right end up going faster. There are always people who go under the speed limit in BOTH lanes causing a traffic jam of a bunch of cars going 40 instead of the 55 posted limit. ARGH. Also on the expressways here it is indeed 55 MPH, but around here people normally go 70 - 80. My mom drives to work on 355 and does about 70 -75 and goes about 40 miles each way. I do agree with RickyCRX, anticipate whats ahead, in a long line of cars, usually I can see a couple cars ahead of me due to the height of the 4R and slow down so I don't have to slam on the brakes. Also what to you Revo people inflate you tires to?

 

[RickyCRX]

Even though I now drive in bumper-to-bumper stop-n-go traffic every day for over half of my 17 mile commute to work, I still manage to get almost 18mpg out of my V8 4Runner at this point. I tried something one day. I held back in traffic (which thoroughly pissed off the guy behind me) a little bit. I'd let the cars in front of me get as much as maybe an 1/8th of a mile ahead in certain areas where traffic flow would get up to 30-40mph on the highway. In areas where it was down to 5-15mph, I'd only leave about 6-10 carlengths. The highway I'm on is only two lanes, so if you can get next to an 18-wheeler that's doing the same thing, it prevents people from zooming around you and screwing up the experiment. At any rate, the section of highway that's jammed up is about 9 miles long and I ended up only needing to touch my brakes 2-3 times during that entire distance. I would watch people in front of me hitting their brakes every 5-10 seconds, and I barely even touched mine. This helps your mileage and increases brake pad life -- no wonder some people only get 30k miles out of a set of pads... if they drive like some of these people, it's completely understandable.

The bottom line is, any of the traffic immediately behind me had a much nicer and less stressful commute if they stopped and realized what I was doing. I was smoothing out the flow of traffic. Any time traffic would come to a dead stop in front of me, I was already coasting and slowing down without the use of brakes so that by the time we started reaching the cars up ahead, they would start rolling again. Most of the time I would time it to where I'd get within a normal 'rush hour following distance' right before they'd start out-accelerating me again. I'd then let them go on ahead and get that 500-1000 foot gap and just roll along. Next time they stopped, I'd be right there again, all the while my speed never varied all that much, really.

It was an interesting experiment, pissed off a few ignorant people, and I have actually adjusted my driving accordingly. This is pretty much the only way I drive in rush hour traffic. I was surprised that even in a vehicle with an automatic you can do a good job of engine braking and maintaining speeds appropriately. For somebody looking for something to do (other than talk on a cell phone) in rush hour, it's something that will make you focus on driving AND give you better economy. The real challenge is to do it without downshifting manually for engine braking. Keep it in overdrive the entire time.

Ricky

 

[charlier180]

It was an interesting experiment, pissed off a few ignorant people, and I have actually adjusted my driving accordingly. This is pretty much the only way I drive in rush hour traffic. I was surprised that even in a vehicle with an automatic you can do a good job of engine braking and maintaining speeds appropriately. For somebody looking for something to do (other than talk on a cell phone) in rush hour, it's something that will make you focus on driving AND give you better economy. The real challenge is to do it without downshifting manually for engine braking. Keep it in overdrive the entire time.

Ricky

The technique you are using has been used by many truck drivers for a long time. Basically the idea is to keep a certain amount of momentum by keeping rolling. I used this technique many times over the years when traveling back and forth to college. My route took me through a stretch of 14 Traffic Lights. My goal was to stop at as few lights as possible in that group. I got to the point where I could fairly consistently make it through 10 of the lights without having to stop. Every once in a while I got through all 14 lights but that was tough due to traffic.

Too bad more people do not Focus on their driving. Maybe there would be less traffic accidents and people would get much better fuel economy. (Especially those of use stuck in traffic due to accidents.)

 

[TheBlueWave]

I'm exited to see what happens when the weather warms up a bit. I am getting 18.4 mpg now in mixed driving (averaged over 6 fill-ups). When the temps were in the 40s consistently for a few weeks, I was getting 19 mpg. I hope to get 20 this summer! All I do to help my mileage is:
1. Run for only 30 sec. before driving. I warm up the truck by driving, not idleing.
2. Try not to go over 70 on freeways.
3. Drive like a normal person and not the leadfooted test drivers who rated the truck at 16 mpg in reviews.

 

[RickyCRX]

Yep, not sitting there letting it idle is an easy way to get better mileage. It's also better for the engine to just start driving right away (but drive gently, no high RPMs). My engine gets an 'idle warmup' for whatever amount of time it takes to back down my driveway and into the street.

Ricky

 

[DarksideSurf]

Driving 45 mph on the freeways around here, even for a few miles, will result in...

1. Someone's bumper up near your ass
2. Someone telling you you're #1 with his middle finger
3. A dirty look and/or a mouthful in any number of languages other than English
4. Random acts of violence. I kid you not.

 

[Uneek]

I agree with RickyCRX, driving habit is probably the best mod to increase mileage. We have a three lane per direction road with stop lights every other block at 35mph. Everyday I see people racing from stop light to stop light. Going between 30-35mph will get through everylight without using the brakes. I never go faster than 40 and if I see the light ahead, I back off the gas and coast up to the light just as it turns green while the guy next to me is frantically mashing the gas to zip by me and only to stop at the next light.

 

[RonMAIDEN]

What kind of MPGs increase would most of you realistically expect?
The best way to reduce gas consumtion is drive and accelerate slower.

I've seen test on the same vehicle but two different driving styles on a Dodge Magnum and the conservative driver got almost 6 more MPGs than the agressive driver.

 

[qballjr13]

The thing I am worried about is that I am averaging 14mpg (REAL calculations, not the stupid onboard computer) over two fill up. I have almost stopped using my remote starter, I drive as conservative as possible. I mostly drive city but over the weekend, on the highway, I used my cruise control set at 68. I am not sure what I am doing wrong, besides reading about everone getting 18mpg and making myself paranoid! I guess I need to check my air pressure and I should check my air filter too.