Last summer I thought I was going to break 14 on my lifetime mileage but then the winter blend fuel came out. I dropped down to 13.2 at one time now it's slowing going back up. The life time mpgs just changed to 13.4 today.

 

Hello all, I am new to the site and to having a truck and a Ford. I love this site. I wish I found it before my purchase, but I am happy with my purchase so far. I bought a 2016 F250 4X4 Crew Cab Lariat with the standard gears. I knew the MPG was not going to be good when I bought it. I bought my truck to pull a travel trailer. I was told to buy the bigger truck so if I upgrade to a fifth wheel, I don't have to buy a new truck. I have found a lot of things that change my MPG. First thing was the truck had the hub locked when I bought it. Like I said I am new to trucks. I put in a regular K&N air filter. Those two things helped. I bought a cover for the bed. I like the cover, but it reduced my MPG by .5 miles per gallon. I have played with the rear tire pressure and finding it also reduced .5 miles to the gallon. With no cover, tires aired to suggested levels, K&N air filter and the hubs in auto, I get about 14 MPG on an average (combination highway and city). Of course, keeping off the gas at lights helps. I am older and in a big truck now. No hurry to go anywhere fast.

 

Here's an interesting video on a wind tunnel test.

 

Awesome video. It is cool to see the air in motion. I have a cheap soft cover on mine. I have it as tight as I can, but you still see the cover rippling when driving down the road. I can't help but think that is causing drag. I am sure a hard cover would be better.

 

As soon as my new truck comes in (about 10 days from now, YEA!!!), I am going to put a Roll-n-Lock sliding bed cover on it.
I have had them on previous trucks and can tell you it made a 1-1.5 mpg difference in my mileage.

 

Just made my first road trip since right after I bought the truck. It has 3700 miles on it now. I averaged 17 mpg on the computer. Would have been around 18, but did a bunch of idling going into/out of a ballgame. Interested in checking against pencil and paper, but really computer has always been within .2. This trip is definitely better than my first, could not average 13 then, guess the motor is broke in + summer blend. It was @ a 200 miles trip.

Oh yeah, ccsb 4x4 3:73 245/70/r17

 

What speed did you usually travel? Thx

 

About 40 miles at 55, @ 150 at 65-70, and about 10 miles in town.

 

That's great info. I have been testing myself and following everyone's mpg posts throughout the forum. It is becoming evident that the stock small tire do better than the large 34.2" stock tire trucks with 3.73. I run 33" tires and maybe with summer fuel can get 14 on a hwy tank. I am seeing that the 6.2 seems to do best on average with the stock 31.5" tires if equipped with the 3.73. If one is to run the largest 34.2" tires on the 20" wheels and opt for the 4.30 gears, the net rpms will be only 100 more. That is where I will be when my new truck gets here.

If you ever change out your tires to the larger size, I would be real interested in what you see in mpg decline.

I get almost 1mpg better locking out 6th on my truck when running on the hwy replicating my new truck with 4.30's(55mph). When I drive the same hwy in 6th I get worse mpgs(60mph). This is the best way I can compare my same truck as if it had the 4.30 gears.

 

My dads regular cab with 4.30 gears and 245/70/r17 tires is already averaging 12.5 around town. It has less than 1k on the odometer and I still can't get that around town. I'm kicking myself in the butt so hard for not ordering a truck with 4.30's, mainly because I plan on going to 35's or 37's in the future. 6th gear will be useless with 3.73's hauling anything more than a load of balloons.

 

Exactly. That is how it works with gas full size trucks. I get 10 if I try in town, period.
The large notion of the 4.30 gears netting worse mpg's is simply not happening. With small tires and 70mph+ interstate driving may be the only scenario where the 4.30 does get worse.

 

For some reason my mpg went up when I started doing 70. Thinking it was a fluke. I had a pontoon boat tried going 60 and truck read 7.5 for an hour. Tried 70 got 8.5 for the remain 1.5 hours to the lake. 3.73 gears

 

What size tires? Thanks

 

33x12.5x18

 

You get better mpgs running at 1780 rpms than you do at 1527 at least while towing. I have similar results it that my truck gets better mpgs when I make my commute locking out 6th gear and cruising around 1750 rpms than I do when I do the same run in 6th at 1500 rpms. I also have 33" tires and 3.73 gears.