What are your tricks???
 

Ok, what are some of your tricks to increase mileage? Driving style or other.

One of mine is increase my speed gently before going uphill, and then gently slow down while ascending.

What DO YOU do?

First thing I did was put my 327 cid, 4bb, 4200 lb car in the garage. Although gas was $.89 a gallon for Reg. in Jersey at the time, it was still a killer on MPG if she wasn't on the highway and grinning at 70+. Then, after I got my Bronco, I did all of the general tune-up stuff. When she spit them back in my face, I gave her a new engine...new O2, new TPS, IAC...you name the letters, I changed them. Then, after driving 20,000 miles in 5 months, I decided that The Beast was in cahoots with the gas stations to rid me of my bank account. (Don't worry, I still have and love her). Now, I have a....ahem....*cough* 1999 Nissan Altima *cough* and the mileage is much better. I change the oil every 2500 miles on all of my cars, if not much less, and the air filters never get past 7500.

I turn the A/C off during uphills/heavy acceleration.

Liquified Aerodynamic Enhancer/Friction Reducer (wax).

Good tire pressure.

Cool, calm and collected driving. No need to get nuts with hard acceleration, speeding, etc. And since I'm almost always on the highway, a little bit o' "drafting". I'm sure it's not a big difference, and too close is dangerous, but whatever, it makes me feel better.

I've also started paying car insurance on my own policy with full coverage. This does wonders for someone with a lead foot. 3 more mph's slower and I'd have Grandma Ester blowing my doors off in a Buick Century.

Living in the tail of the Rockies terrain is by far one of the biggest ways for me to improve MPG…using the hills in my favor.
Patience …by far the most difficult thing for me…easy on the throttle.
Drive way out in front of the vehicle. By doing this as soon as you see a red light jump of the loud pedal quick, try not to come to a stop and keep the weight moving even 5mph is huge.
By doing this in my 86 BII I can go from 17.1 in town to 19.6 not bad for just paying attention…

i do that with redlights too... especially in the f250. Most folks in town get all nuts that I'm doing 25 with a redlight 200yards ahead. I just love it when they speed up, pass me and stop at the light. I figure it takes a good bit to get the 5k lb truck and all the tools rolling.

i do that too, ecpecailly if the red light is on a upgrade, just idle along in 1st and before i would have to stop the light is green again. i keep the tires fully inflated and try not to carry anything i dont need, although in the winter i carry about 200 pds for ballast. i try to keep in the highest gear possible without lugging the motor and use cruise whenever possible. my 4.0 4x4 with 3.73s in a ranger chassis gets me 17 back and forth to work, much better than the 13 i was getting with my 3/4 chevy 2wd with a 350.

and also the best way to save fuel in the ranger is to drive the wife's taurus instead. :)

Thats one of my tricks too.... (only its a 63 Mini)

under drive pulleys
k+n
tonnoe cover
diablo predator
electric fan
revos stock size
18.5+ on highway 5.4 4x4 scab 01

I tried that one too, but she wants to drive the Ranger....I find that not going over 60 mph helps.

check your fluids! and not just the levels either, I pulled the plug on my highboys np435 to check it, it was full so i didn't bother w/ it. a couple of month's later i did it again but was paying closer attention, what came out was about three time thicker than 90 weight and had a slight hint of mettalic in it. i only had a quart of 90w(had more, but just filled my leaky rearend and transfer case) so i drained a quart and dumped the good stuff in, I got about 1-1.5 mpg boost. just think about how long that oil might have been in your old truck, not just the engine needs attention!

on the same truck i have a leaky tire (im slowly getting it all fixed :-X19 ) it looks the same untill its almost all the way to single digit pressures at around 15-20 psi it will get 8mpg, at 45-50, it hovers around 12 (topped 13 once after the tranny fluid stunt though)

i also do the whole stoplight and hill thing

shifting my ranger at 2500 instead of 3000 and accelerating slowly can make it jump from 21 to 23. im not sure how much fixing the cam timing has helped though.

also spend alot of time tuning if you have a carb, just because it runs good doesn't mean that its at an optimum tune.

Mileage? That's easy! Get a motorbike.

Seriously:
Inflate tires to 35psi (or more if recommended by vehicle manufacturer)
Advance timing to just before it pings
Fix any problems w/ engine and electronics if equipped
Run synthetic transmission fluid, differential fluid, and wheel bearing grease
Drive slower

The easiest and cheapest way to gain mileage is to install a vacuum gauge where you can keep an eye on it while you drive.

This is very interesting, Here's some things that will gain most vehicles up to 2 mpg. Keep the slide areas on your disc brake system clean and smooth. Lube the slide pins with vasilene instead of the recomended grease. Repack front wheel bearing with one of the lighter friction reducing type greases. If the vehicle doesn't roll easy when you push it your fuel mileage will suffer.

Pat

i gain about 2-3 mpg when i put the tailgate down dont think this one has been mentioned yet although i have been stoped for it b4

hmm 80 f100 300 inline witth a direct drive 3sp 2;73 gears and a set of 235/60 15 all symthetic oils gettin 28mpg spend alot of time checkin psi in tires and every oilchange i also run a timing light on it also have the vacum gauge this thing has about 60k on it since rebuild and mom drives it every whare if ya got a desiel get a turbo3000 i gaind 1.2 mpg on my freightliner