Looking to take th truck as basic as possible without loosing carpet, stereo and power windows.

Replace chrome bumper with a oem plastic or lighter weight than the chrome one
Remove the AC system since it doesn't work anyway and replace with a smaller belt
Replace fan with a electric setup
Aftermarket headers
I already have 1 cat deleted to a magnaflow exhaust thepat dumps before the rear axle
Remove rear seat setup
Add bed cover and take off tailgate for a mesh setup
Remove spare tire setup
Remove after market heavy duty chrom bumper for a flush fiberglass setup


Truck will be receiving a tune up and a compression check to make sure it's all good which I doubt it isn't it runs pretty damn good for 213k miles. Any input on what I can do to drop weight on the truck to free up MPGs... I'm not shooting for hybrid numbers but I do come from sports cars and bikes and I know weight reduction is the cheapest gains in power and fuel economy.

Here are my trucks...

 

No offence, but the only thing that might help is slow rolls of the line.
I own a couple. Let's just say I can make the civic and the mustang last a week on a tank...
Maybe 2-3 days if I'm lucky in the trucks doing the same trip.
Not really the kinda truck u want to start with if mpg is your looking at...

Nice looking trucks tho!

 

Removing weight to increase mileage in a 20+ year old full size gas truck with 210k+ miles is a complete waste. If fuel economy is a real issue, you need to look at a small commuter car.

 

What they said ^^ is true. First thing I thought when I saw the title of this thread was "why would you put a 4x4 on a diet!?" Not to mention it's a Supercab. Keep the truck a truck and buy a small car or bike (motorcycle) if you want to save gas. You'll be ahead time and money.

 

Well as you see the price of truck was 2300 I got it 2k which I made off of selling a 2 wheel drive 98 cherokee sport. The 4x4 doesn't work and I work in the back woods of the Florida panhandle so with the AC out and 4x4 inop it makes sense to just delete them with oem parts I can get at a junkyard or craigslist.


Coming from big v8 cars(Z06 and GT500s) to big turbo rice burners(subarus, supras) to liter bikes(zx6r, zx10R), but not taking away from the truck besides features that don't work or just fix but mainly dropping weight to gain MPGs. I know it doesn't help that it's a 5.8l lol.

But instead of selling the red truck for a beater I want to enjoy both when needed and due to my work I carry about 40 pounds of a crap down back roads filled with deer a bike is out that's why I traded in my 2012 ZX10R towards a center console fishing boat.

Just saying, no one awakes up and says "I think I want less MPG from my truck", just looking for input mainly on the light weight bumper idea. I weighed the chrome one and it was about 60 pounds. Was on carpet so not really accurate.

Thanks though.

 

It's going to take a significant amount of weight reduction to even make a 1 MPG gain IMHO. We had this same discussion several weeks ago where the OP was driving a crew cab 7.5L engine F350 and asking the same questions. It's just not going to be effective.

 

What is your plan to lose weight from the interior?....a lean vehicle needs a lean driver doesn't it?

Also, look up the Mythbusters tailgate up vs. tailgate down on YouTube...spoiler alert: those net tailgates hurt mpg, not help.

 

Well, do as you please but I think you'll just end up being disappointed and have nothing but a stripped down truck to show for it.

First of all a truck ain't a car or a bike. It's has the general shape of a brick, it sits up high, and rides on relatively wide tires. A car has none of those (except maybe wide tires) and a bike sure don't either.

If you get the aerodynamics right... lower it to the ground, put on a front air dam, side skirts, skinnier (and weaker) tires, aluminum wheels, all that stuff, then you no longer have a truck, you have the equivalent of a lowered Ranchero... a car-truck that ain't actually useful as a truck anyway. Nothing wrong with Rancheros, just that they ain't really useful as a truck. Kinda like owning a lowered Ranger. Zero utility.

True. But anyone that uses their truck as a truck (and it sounds like you use it as a hunting truck) just learns to live with it. That's why I said use the truck as it was meant to be, and buy something else to save gas when you don't need a truck, like if you're just running to the store for beer or whatever.

Just my $0.02. As for your fiberglass bumper... well I don't think it would help any but you could try. I actually use my bumper to push things around sometimes so fiberglass would never hold up. If that ain't what you do then it should be fine.

 

I hate to pile on but all you're going to accomplish with weight savings is compromise the trucks functionality and safety, the relatively small amount of weight you might be able to remove won't make any difference to fuel milage. I say fix the 4x4 and make sure the truck has appropriate gearing for those 33's, and then do a full exhaust system with headers and a 6Liter tunup.

 

If you don't mind a little more noise I'd pull the carpet and paint the floor with rhino liner or similar. Less weight and no moisture get's trapped under to rust the floorboard. As far as MPG just drive nice, speed limit is the limit not travel speed, roll around easy and cruise around 60mph maybe a bit higher because of your 33s and you'll get about as good as you can.

 

As far as the interior I'm at 185 pounds army infantry soldier... I'm pretty damn lean could loose about 8-10 pounds and I am working on it

The rear seat along with the metal platform would be removed in that department. I don't use the truck to hunt I use it as a beater to get my boat in and out of the saltwater so my f350 doesn't have to be eaten away from the saltwater. I have always loved this body style and want my go of trucks now that I have gotten the speed out of my system for a little while.

I don't push, crash, jump, use my vehicle as a construction tool or go mudding, a little fast on the back roads but I'm not going out of my way to do that unless I'm already back there for work. I doubt you can make this all metal truck any less safe by removing a chrome bumper, I doubt in a head on collision with a full size car or even a newer 1/2 ton truck I would be in any more grave danger within a fiberglass bumper light the ones standard on the Lightning or the newer vehicles with a crash beam rated for a 5 mph collision.

No said a stripped down truck. It's still going to have doors and interior pieces I'm just looking to replace all the unnecessary metal/plated pieces for fiber glass. Yes aero is not the trucks strong suit but you can't honestly believe by dropping hundreds of pounds of weight and freeing up the accessory drive system you won't free up 5-6 mpg by replacing them easily accessible/not expensive parts people have laying around or reproduction pieces.

And yes I know about the tail gate down but I said removing the tool box and adding a tonue cover and replacing the tail gate with a web setup. No air would be passing through or pushing down on the tailgate portion because the cover is there controlling the flow of air which has been proven to increase fuel economy. The tailgate and light weight rear fiber glass bumper would easily free up over 100 pounds not to mention the spare tire removal. You can't tell me that having an extra 200 pounds just sitting on the rear of the truck wouldn't save you 1-2 mpg?

Let's not forget I still have a f350 that is without saying more than capable of handling anything I need to move, drive through or crash into.

But I see where this thread is going and I thought there might of been at least 1 person who has attempted or thought about it. I will work on the project a little at a time with a budget of 1k bucks which is half of what I have in the truck as it sits which like I said was free due to me making a nice profit on a cherokee I sold. I appreciate the input, if anyone has the link to any lightweight replacement parts I would appreciate.

 

FYI tailgate weighs just under 70lbs, my 8" luverne bumper weighed 85lbs.
You can increase economy, but dropping weight isn't going to give miracle gains. Go to lt235/75r15 tires, do a tune up, change fuel filter, drive 65mph on the freeway and no faster. My truck would get 17mpg consistently with that setup (other details in signature). Small lift and 33x10.5r15 my highway mpg dropped to 15mpg at best (13.5mpg is more honest highway average) with less consistency than stock. Weight in the truck has little effect, more of an effect in town than highway but things like wind, speed, rate of acceleration make a much bigger difference.

This experiment is easy, try adding the amount of weight you think you can cut and try to measure a drop in mpg. It'll give you realistic expectations.

 

Here's some fibreglass ideas.
http://rockandrolloffroad.com/products.asp?cat=93&pg=2

 

From personal experience here, you won't see much in terms of fuel mileage gains with weight reduction but you'll feel the extra get up and go from the truck just by dropping a few hundred pounds especially if you have a crappy gear ratio and/or oversize tires.

 

Dropping 600+ pounds MIGHT yield a 1mph gain. I agree with the others.... good luck dropping that much weight without affecting safety or functionality.

With the typical engine / gear found in these trucks, 20 mpg is about the highest hwy # you can hope for, and that's RARE.

My '96 4.9 I6 5sp 4x4 Longbed reg. cab gets maybe 18 mpg unloaded if speeds are kept around 60mph.