It can be done Josh, but certainly not by a guy like me. Check out the second link I posted above, 32.281 MPG on a 2,468 mile trip in an '11 F150.

 

Not saying it can't be done, but it can't be done by me! I'm happy I've broke 18 MPG!

 

I wasn't trolling anybody here and if you looked, you'd also see that it was in the past 30 minutes of driving, going between 55 to 65 mph from Orange County to Los Angeles Airport to pick up my friends. Trip 2 is from zero miles but shows low MPG because it idled at the dealership for 3 hours. That is why I used the average MPG.

On the way back, I got over 24 mpg. It was better than my 2012 though.

I know how to hypermile, I very rarely hit the brakes and I try to refrain from hard acceleration. There was no coasting whatsoever, it's not possible on a flat surface anyway.

There have been days I got 18 mpg because of the notorious Los Angeles traffic.

 

That MPG is believable sitting on cruise at 55-60MPH, but we all know that isn't reality. Hell, my truck will show high 20s if I cruise at 55... which is precisely never.

 

It would be fun to do a cruise 20-30 miles at 1,200 rpm and see what the mpg is. But do that during normal hours and you'll get run off the road. Do it at night and you'll probably be pulled over for being stoned.

 

^^^^^ what he said when my truck was stock and actually got good good mpg I'd try an push that # higher on the read out and doing so probably put my life in danger...drive the speed limit round here ya get run over

 

Of course, I practice proper lane etiquette and I stay the hell on the very right lane. Whenever I pass a car, I go right back to the right lane. Spending several years in Europe taught me that.

I think I get the best gas mileage at 50 mph though.. but I went 55 to 60. Up hill, I go 50, down hill, I go 75 to 80.

 

And, you are never on cruise - right? I find I can get better MPG out of most vehicles feeding it fuel manually rather than via cruise, and especially with boosted engines. The cruise is too aggressive and brings on way too much boost.

As for practicing proper lane etiquette and staying right (or left where I lived), I wish everyone here would be taught that. Makes driving much easier and smoother.

 

I agree. The one failing (well there are probably more than one, but I digress) with cruise control is its inability to anticipate.

For example, you're going down a relatively short decline of 1/4 mile or so. There are not any tight corners ahead, and then there's another relatively short incline. A driver will see that he'll pick up a few MPH on the downhill, but it will bleed off right away on the other side. No big deal, just ease into it, and take advantage of the minor boost on the way up other side.

OTOH, cruise control will close the throttle on the way down, and might even downshift one or two gears. And then, when you start up the other side, the cruise control will realize it too late, and aggressively add throttle trying to make up speed on the uphill.

Sure, cruise control works great on long, flat straight ways. It probably also does OK as long as the ups and downs are not too steep. Out here in CA, the ups and downs require a little more thought than cruise control can deal with for a while.

Perhaps, if future cruise controls include a GPS and topo information, they will get better. In the mean time, I will decide when and when not cruise control is appropriate.

 

Hand calculate your mileage after a few full tanks and get back to us once you do that. I bet it will be much closer to 18mpg.

 

Correct, I don't use the cruise control. Just a steady foot on the gas pedal. I tried it with CC and got around 21 or 22. Without CC, a decent 25 or so.

I think the CC also brakes if a car is in front of you.. adaptive cruise control is standard. Am I wrong? I haven't used the CC. It annoys the **** out of me when it accelerates going uphill and brakes going downhill. I wish I can set it up so that it can go 45 uphill and 75 downhill.

I have hand calculated. My range was 822 miles before filling up so that was over 24 mpg for the whole tank. All of my miles are highway, that helps. Others report being able to get decent mpg.

 

You're not using Trip 2 as a Lifetime Average?

 

No, it's not reliable anyway. The truck idled for three hours and had 7 miles when I bought it. Why do you want me to use that? Trip 2 shows 17.5 mpg after 900 miles though.. sounds about right, idling for 3 hours and about 90% highway driving.

I'm using Trip 1.. which was reset after a tankful of gas.

 

Didn't think cruise would make that much of a difference. Guess I need to start another series of tests.

 

Wow, I have hardly ever seen a story about 2.7 getting even 20mpg. I am dumbfounded that ford spent all the money on the engine and for what if the lower tech v8 gets better mpg. Talk about a fail.