I was asked to keep and drive a friends truck while he is experiencing some medical issues.

Truck is completely stock with OEM tire size. Only a fiberglass cap has been added.

Over the past three months I've put about 3,000 miles on it, mostly city and two-lane back roads. The two-lane back-roads are typically ~55-60 MPH, I keep the highways and interstates to within 10 MPH of posted limits. I travel from the MS Gulf Coast to North Louisiana once a month.

I am averaging right at 16 MPG (hand figured) combined. The truck has good power off the line, but sucks when trying to accelerate from 50 MPH to pass another vehicle on the two-lane roads where passing lanes are short. Does this sound normal, the average MPG and passing ability?

At current prices, it costs me slightly less to drive my 4x2 2003 Dodge Ram 2500 CCLB (~20 MPG) over the same roads at the same speeds - and I can pull out and pass at will.

 

I have a 2007 extended cab 2wd and I see 17.5ish combined and mine sees some city and 2 lane back roads, as well. I used to see about 17 even, until I added a cat back exhaust system. 16 is around normal, for a completely stock truck. I don't have any issues passing, however. Mine will get it when I lay into the throttle, but some trucks are just different than others. If it hasn't had plugs changed, that can cause some lack of power - As well as coils, fuel filter, etc.

 

Appreciate the reply. This truck has done much more sitting than driving for the past two years at least.

It had the original tires on it until last December!

It just turned over 70k miles last month.

I have felt a "miss" a couple times when I floored it trying to pass. I'm sure everything under the hood is original.

 

My 2001 4 x 4 got around 17.5 MPG on the same county 2 lane roads... My 2002 4 x 4 is identical equipped with trans/ gear/ tires and it gets just over 16 ... maybe 16.5 MPG ........ new plugs / coils / 5W20 oil, etc.

 

Sounds familiar, I inherited my 2007 F150 a couple years ago with about 27k miles on it. Now it's approaching 52k and still has 3 of the original tires.

The truck is a 4x4 with 3.73 gears and typically gets 16-19 mpg depending on weather with very little city driving. Slow driving will kill MPG, more than most other vehicles.

One trend I'm noticing is that the MPG does improve a bit with regular driving, not just on the F150 but most cars.

Acceleration at 50 mph is not a strong point either, in fact it's quite disappointing given the engine specs. The engine seems to be running okay, it just seems like it's working against a heavy truck and an inefficient transmission. Strange, because at lower RPMs it has no problem rocketing up a 9% grade.

 

I owned an 04 ccsb 2wd for about 5wks and even with 3.73 rear end the truck felt slow. I figured it had to do with the electronic throttle body. I now have an 03 4wd with 3.55's and it feels like it has way more power than the 04 even though on paper it doesn't. The 03 truck has the cable actuated throttle though.