Thank you, but being of limited means has meant I need to make every penny squeal before I let it go (less kind folks might say I'm cheap).
Best regards,
Russ

 

I'm starting to get a better feel for what MPG I should be getting. Avg now 12.4 with all city driving. The problem is I drive only 4 miles to and from work. The way to work take about 8 min. The way home is about 30 min. Lots of construction here causing miles of backup, and it hurts my avg. mpg. But if just driving around running errands and stuff with out the stop and barley go traffic, I will get about 12-12.5 mpg. I think that is good for a large V8 pushing a 8000 lbs brick wall.

 

I just filled up my fuel tank for the first time and hand calculated the average mpg so far. I drove 300 miles mix of highway and driving around town. The main roads here in town are 45 mph and side streets are 30 mph. Resetting the mileage gives me around 14.6 in town unless I get into the heart of town in light to light driving where it gets down to the 13's. On the highway it seems to be averaging in the low 14's running 65 to 70. Hand calculated I got 14.2 on my first fill up, 21.13 gallons and 300 miles. I am guessing about 40% town and 60% highway. I am impressed. I never thought it would do this well with 4.30's. I have been gentle on it though as it only has 313 miles so far. I did put my foot into twice before getting back home today and man with this thing get up and move. It seems like it can go from 0 to 75 mph faster than my 6.4 could. I love how the exhaust tone goes from mild to wild when you get on it.

 

Good deal, Super08. I took cattle to town Monday, got the check today so now I know the weight-- cattle plus steel 16ft trailer, about 6400 lbs. It was backroads and highway split evenly. The hand calculated result was 12.739 mpg. Befor I apply the correction factor I will measure the difference between the Michelin 275/70 AT's and the Michelin 275/65 M/s2's. From the Michelin page and the tire rack page the AT's are supposed to have deeper tread than the M/S2's. When the tires were changed at pickup my bought M/S2's
had much more apparent tread depth than the A/T's???. I will find out and mention this later. The truck is getting better mileage than I thought it would. I must admit most of my driving is in the 1000-1500 rpm range- hwy at 70 indicated runs 1700-1750 rpm. My 2000 V10 with the same rear end gears but different transmission ran 2050 rpm at 70.
So far the new transmission is working well and helping with the mileage. Thanks for reading my rambles.
Best Regards,
Russ

 

My wife and I measured the tires today. The Michelin A/T2's that came with the truck are supposed to have about 14.5/32 tread depth, we measured 14/32, probably Michelin is correct. The tires are supposed to be 33.2 in tires, the tires are not on the vehicle but are on the std rims, our measurement is 32 7/8 inches. The Michelin M/S2 tires are supposed to have less tread than the A/Ts and are supposed to be around 32.? inches about an inch smaller, we found these tires (on the truck) to be 33 1/8 inches tall. All measurements were done on the horizon. My smaller tires are apparently larger . This is going to effect my mileage, but which way?? I'm somewhat surprised by the measurements and would appreciate comments.
Thank you,
Russ
I remeasured the M/S2 tires vertically and got a measurement of 33 1/16 inches.

 

The easiest way is to go onto Tirerack and look up both tires and get the revolutions per mile for each. That way it accounts for the tire squat and you will have it as accurate as you are going to get. If they are larger you are getting a little better mileage than you thought.

 

As for me I burned up a bunch more gas today. The first tank was at 14.2 average and was a mix of stop and go in town with a bunch of engine shut down and restarts and some idling. If you take off the in town part as I reset the one trip as I headed out on the highway I got 14.8 with a bit of a tailwind. When I reached the turnaround point I never reset the one trip and it showed 14.5 for the complete round trip of 310 miles. The return trip was with a headwind and showed 14.1 mpg on the other trip meter. Hand calculated came out to 14. So far in three days I have accumulated 700 miles with an average of 14.1 miles per gallon. The last tank had quite a bit of semi traffic on the highway with full throttle passing. I love the sound of this engine when you put your foot into her. I had the cruise set at 110 kph / 68 mph. By the time I get home next Monday from picking up our fifth wheel in Leduc the truck will have about 1500 miles on it. Not bad for the first week.

If I took my time and slowed down to 60 I could probably get 15 pretty easy. That would defeat what I am doing right now though. I want to see the comparison between my 6.4 I just got rid of and this engine under the same speeds. So far driving around town I am only 1 mpg or less different than the diesel, they are very close. As for the highway the 6.4 would average right around 16.5~17. The 6.2 is running about 14.2~14.4 average on the highway with 4.30's. Works out to about 20% less. I can live with that. My V10 was running closer to 30% less with 4.10's when I had it and I had to drive slower to get that. The V10 however has much more grunt on the bottom end. Top end power when you punch it is very close between all three. It would make an interesting drag race to line up all three stock.

 

I see this thread has really taken of since my orginal post.My truck now has around 8500 miles on it,if I keep my foot out of it I now get 14-14.3 mpg highway 55-62 mph.I just got rid of the CRAPPY orginal equipment conti. tires & going to my ford dealer to the TSB tranny update for shifting problems.Maybe between the 2 upgrades I will see more MPG,S.coobie

 

I had my lowest in town mileage going before I hit the road today. It was showing 13 even. I reset the meter and after 160 miles of driving on the highway at 65 with a bit of a tailwind I was showing 15.2 mpg when I pulled into the gas station. When combined with what I had drove in town it averaged out to 14 when I filled up. Tomorrow I find out how it does towing a fifth wheel that is a little over 11K.

 

So far with about 450 miles on the truck the average on the dash is saying 12.3. This is on a supercab short box 4x4 with 4:30 rear end.

 

You guys are getting great mileage out of your new trucks.

I got 3700 miles and I am averaging 10.9 since I picked up the truck. Not a lot of towing either only about 250 miles. I do drive a lot of stop and go traffic with it, I only live 4 miles from work. I get around 12-13 on my way to work with no traffic, but on the way home it drops like a lead balloon with all the stop and go. Now there has been construction all the way home which is wrapping up, so maybe it will improve a little in the future.

I use a app on my iPhone called Gas Cubby. It tracks all the gas, service, and price for each vehicle you have and breaks it all down. It gives you a running MPG, cost per mile, # of miles per dollar. Reminds you of service needed, how much you spend on service, which gas station you use the most, and the avg. cost of gas you put in. I think there is one for the Android too.

 

The following may not be for everyone but it may help some.
Drive slowly when first starting out- I keep the speed below 30 for the first 2 miles to warm up the engine and tranny. With the new truck and guages I see the trans temp doesn't warm up for about 4 miles.
Keep the windows rolled up when going over 35-45 mph. This allows better aero and better mileage. Whether this offsets the use of air conditioner or not I don't know- I suspect not but during the summer I like to be cooler than the 90-100+ outside temps.
Drive as straight a line as possible, on 2 or more lane hwys one lane will offer better mileage- look at the fuel economy gauge to see which is better.
Drive with a light foot- you have a large vehicle if folks want to get by let them pass you. Let the transmission shift at as low a rpm as possible. My truck shifts at between 1200-1450 rpms, this is better for economy. At an indicated 70 mph the rpms are at 1750, much better than the V10- at 2050. This gives me better mileage- which is good for the wallet.
I use the cruise as often as possible, I can no longer beat the cruise for fuel mileage. I accelerate down hills and lose speed going up hill. I use the excellent mirrors( compared to the 2000) to anticipate traffic conditions to determine whether to speed up now to avoid being boxed in.
I have a history of using synthetic oils and transmission fluids to help with less friction and better mileage.
The air conditioner will suck 3-12 mpg from your wallet. I set the temp in the mid 70's with a higher fan speed to avoid the giant sucking sound caused by the change leaving my hands.
Towns are a killer for my mileage, I appear to only get mid 13's in town. So I stay away as much as I can. For me I can come close to town mileage taking cattle to market ( within 2mpg).
Everyone is not going to be helped by these tips. Try those that you can to see if they will help you.
Best regards,
Russ

 

When I filled up this morning I had my lowest yet, a 13.8. I drive very easy when accelerating to conserve fuel and keep the A/C off unless needed. Which up here isn't that often.
We pulled our new fifth wheel home today. The first leg was battling thunderstorms and stiff winds, got a 7.5 mpg. The second leg the winds were lighter but still coming at us at at a 45 from the right most of the way. Hit a high of 8.2 and after driving across town once we got here and parking it was showing 8 even. I will check in the morning when I fill up, but so far it is always within 0.1 mpg. I stopped at the scale and the combined weight was 19,385 lb. I was very concerned before we got it how it was going to pull and mow all my concerns have been put to rest. Even with the winds we cruised home at 65 with no problems.

 

Nice combo, Super08.
On my previous post, I left out tire air pressure. The tires I have on are rated to carry the highest weight at 80 lbs. pressure. So far I am keeping them at 70 pounds until we get back from Texas next month. The firmer tires have over the years given better gas mileage.
Regards,
Russ

 

Just filled up after a 235 miles trip with the trailer. 17100 gross weight, fully loaded for 4 days of camping with 5 people and dog. The whole trip was 9.4 MPG, hand calculated. The truck showed 9.2, not the norm the truck shows lower the actual. I am running 80 psi in the rear and 70 psi in the front. But other then that I am happy with what I got and expect a little better with all highway driving to.