First big road trip, AWESOME MPG!

imprttuner88

imprttuner88

New member
Wife, kids and I went on the T4r's first road trip. Put 1400 miles on it. Had 1K when we left! We left NC and visited family in the mountains of PA. The entire trip she averaged out to 24.5mpg. Lets just say I was quite impressed. With the amount of luggage (we were packed full!) and the car full I was telling myself to be happy with around 22mpg. Truck did amazing and I got some new goodies for the truck while I was up there. Got uhaul to install a hitch on it and got the local dealership (aubry alexander toyota) to order me some of the custom all weather floor mats for it. Worked great.

side note, the aux input for my ipod made the trip work very nice. as well as the power converter, lets just say with a 2y/o and 4y/o I got one of those dual screen portable dvd players, one could watch one movie on the system and I brought along my PS2 so the other could play games or watch another movie!

John
 
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Gas Mileage

Do you have the V-6 or V-8? 2WD or 4WD? And did you stick to the speed limit or did you drive with traffic flow (speed)? Sounds like you had a great trip.

My experience has been most vehicles improve their gas mileage around 4k-5k miles once the engine and drive train is really broken in. Who knows, it may do even better on the next trip.
 
it is the v6 2wd sr5. at the beach in NC I didn't need 4wd on the wife's vehicle. on the highways the most I would go would be 5 over. Stuck to that religiously. Now in a year or so when it is time for my toyo truck 4wd is a must, driving on the beach, towing, camping with the boys, etc. So when that time comes, 4dr tacoma new or used 4dr tundra!
 
imprttuner88 said:
The entire trip she averaged out to 24.5mpg. Lets just say I was quite impressed.
Click to expand...

That is very impressive MPG given your load and route.

The 24.5 mpg is the figure you calculated by hand as opposed to the on-board display, right?
 
we traveled from wilmington, NC (beach) to clearfield, PA. Then on to Selinsgrove, PA. Went through WVA and maryland on hwy 17, 522, then I-70 then went accross pa mostly on 322 and 522. Then took 11/15 to 15 to 17 to I-95 to I-40 back home. good mix of highway and interstate.

John
 
Wow, that's incredible mpg. I'm about to tackle the San Francisco to L.A. trip soon but I know my 2002 4wd won't get that kind of mpg for the 380 mile stretch.
 
Same Topic

Based on all your guy's experience.....would the identical runner in a "4x4" version expect this 24.5 mpg, assumming he drove same speeds, same highways, everything identical.....? Let's assume he drove in RWD only.

I'm just curious what that bit of extra weight would do from transfer case, etc. w/r to MPG.
 
Like John asked, is that hand calc'ed or what was displayed on the computer? I find that our 4Runner is exactly 2 mpg off from the computer (actual is 2 mpg lower).

Our V8 4x4 get's into the mid 18's on long road trips so I would say around 21-22 seems reasonable for a 2wd V6.

Karl
 
He said he hand calculated it and I think it is totally doable. I'd guesstimate that a 4WD V6 in 2WD mode could probably do 21-22mpg with the same type of driving.
 
Re: Same Topic

Mavericks said:
Based on all your guy's experience.....would the identical runner in a "4x4" version expect this 24.5 mpg, assumming he drove same speeds, same highways, everything identical.....? Let's assume he drove in RWD only.

I'm just curious what that bit of extra weight would do from transfer case, etc. w/r to MPG.
Click to expand...

Some vehicles - for whatever reason - sometimes report exceptional mileage. For comparison purposes between models, the EPA estimates can't be beat.

4x2 V6 18/22
4x4 V6 17/21
4x2 V8 17/20
4x4 V8 16/19
 

That is excellent, sir! 24+ mpg in a 4Runner, even a 2wd model, is nothing short of impressive. The fact that this was calculated mileage based upon fill-ups and odometer readings is even more stunning. The trip computer tends to be rather optimistic -- often displaying 19 mpg when I get 17.5, etc., etc.

I took my 4Runner on two long trips last year, and will be taking it to Florida and back sometime in June. Going to upstate NY and then to Ohio & Michigan, my mostly-highway driving barely broke 20 miles per gallon (actual). Of course, I was doing much more than 5 mph over the limit.
:D

I had the A/C on the whole time, plus my luggage and one passenger (my son on one trip, girlfriend on the other) with me. It is rather difficult to keep the 4Runner at "only" 60 or 65 mph because it feels so smooth at speeds much higher than that.
:bash:

Anyway, there will be five of us in the car when we go to FL.....but four of us are old enough to drive. That will be nice for breaking up the trip just a bit!

Good luck with your 4Runner! How about a pic or two?

 
I routinely get between 21 and 22 mpg in my 05 4runner 4X4 V6 without AC turned on. My driving is mostly highway and my city driving is on roads with 40-45mph speed limit. I usually fill up with 425 miles on my tank with the gas light just coming on. Computer will show 30-40 miles left on tank. Best mileage has been 22.9 and worst at 19 mpg. Last time I filled up, miles remaining until empty displayed on computer showed 472. I have 21k miles and fill up using 85 octane at the same Conoco station.
 
V6 can get really great gas mileage... Over the winter, my V6 in 4WD all the time, averaged about 19+ (about 60% highway, 40% city)... Now back in 2WD, over 2 tanks, average is over 21 MPG (hand calc'd - never trust the computer)... I chalk that up to the extra resistance of driving the 4 wheels and the winter gas mix (probably some lost to warming up the car too)

Best I got last year was 24.5 MPG with 3 people and a pinball machine in the back.. Worst I got last year was 12 MPG towing 4200lbs of boat (and trailer) with 2 adults and 3 kids. The V6 has a sweet spot for gas mileage (40-45mph) is the best gas mileage with 62-68mph being the second best.

And yes, as someone else mentioned, some vehicles in the same production year can be "freaks"... Nissan Maximas were notorious for this... Some could eek out that 0-60 time faster than the next one in the production line.
 
That's excellent mileage! I've been consistently impressed with the mileage of my 4Runner since I've gotten it. I'm sure the new 5-speed helps out mileage a bit.
 
830 mile road trip from Eastern NC to Southern MI. Just over 8k miles on the Odometer at the time. 2 adults, 2 kids, 1 - 4 pound Chihuahua and enough luggage and stuff for a week away from home. 75-85 MPH all day long, Factory tires 32 psi, Premium gas, 2004 V-6 2x4 4Speed auto, first oil change to Mobil 1.

Hand Calculated:

22.0 from NC - MI.
22.5 From MI - NC. The improvement must have been the downhill run. North to South.:D

The trip meter said something like 23.8 or 9.

I believe the 2x4 V-6 is very capable of 24MPG given the right driver and route.

Drive through Nebraska on Kansas, Flat, at no more than 5 over the limit. I bet you could see 25+.
 
awesome mileage yourself! I have been routinely impressed by the mileage, her previous vehicle was a car and got 24mpg on the highway, so we are very happy with it!
 
just got back from my first long trip with the new Toyo tires on


90+ mph for most of it (Vegas to LA) with 16.4 MPG. The tires make a world of difference. While the 'runner was a good highway machine before, its down right wicked right now with the more performance/highway oriented tires.
 
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