I just got back from my 4950 miles road trip to Pacific Northwest in 18 days with total of 16 fillups. Drove around trip between Calif coast up to Olympic Natl Park then back home using Idaho/Montana/Utah route. Stopped by five national parks on this route. Trying to avoid interstate driving as much as we could, 25% of this trip was on interstate, rest on either highway or backroads.

I got new Leer 180 topper prior to the trip, wondering if it would help or hurt the gas mileage. After talling the numbers on miles, gallons, hand calculated mpg, and odometer mpg (we call them lieometer) . It doesn't really impact the mileage using the topper. I drive conservately the entire trip, 70-75 on interstate, 60-65 on highways.

The numbers came down to 16.2 overall mpg hand calculated compared to 16.8 mpg on odometer. So it's only 0.6 mpg difference between both.
I must admit I was hoping to get slightly better numbers between 16.5-17.0 mpg hand calculated especially driving conservately the entire way. But that's ok because this F150 rocks as a travelling vehicle with spacious interior and comfortable ride especially with big windows all around, making the sightseeing quite easy. We were able to camp in our topper half of the time as it was just two of us.

 

Nice to hear the trip went well!
Interesting that the topper didn't help nor hurt. That's not what I would have guessed. You're also running 285 series tires....correct? That's decent mileage all things considered. With my setup I have not been able to crack into the 17s, although I have come close twice.

Nice report (tried to rep but im in lockdown)

 

I'm running stock size in LT275/65/18 with Michelin LTX AT2.

Last road trip was back in Dec to Montana, got 15.5 on average, but I was going on 75-78 mph average on I-25 up and down on the mountains. It's little better this time, not sure if topper is supposed to help out any but it adds weight to the bed.

 

dilas, Interesting comment liometer. I have owned my 06 about 10 days now. I filled the truck up and reset the trip meter to 0. Is this anyway to try to get mpgs or is it indeed a lieometer?


John

 

Ha... Yes, I reset the mpg every fillups on that trip. Lot of us call it lieometer as it's not quite accurate as the hand calculated. However, my finding that it's about 0.6 mpg off between both, it's not too bad. Some fillups showed 1 to 1.5 mpg difference for some reason. I guess nowdays, the mpg shown on odometer is getting better than it used to.
This term came up in old mpg threads where guys boast their higher mpg than it actually does. To answer your question about resetting mpg on odometer, yes there's way to reset by pressing the button below the odometer then press reset button when the mpg display comes up.

 

+1.
Odometers are not accurate. They provide readings close to actual but not actual.I always prefer calculating it myself, between filling tanks.

 

Thanks, MPG is an average not exact science. Different brands of gas with different mixtures can effect the average.

I pay with cash so it's up front payment. I have only put gas in it twice, first time filled up, second guess at $60.00 but it wasn't quite enough. Had to move on so I didn't go back in. It did check up near 12 mpgs with what I had, which was scary. My old 66 with 390 doesn't do that good.

I didn't get any booklets with the truck so setting things is a guess.



John

 

I would bet that the "liometer" is closer than you think. When you are hand calculating the fuel mileage you are assuming that you have filled the tank back to the same level at which you started. But since you cannot see inside the tank you do not know this for sure. Not filling to the same level will throw your calculations off.

 

I used to love making road trips like that. Haven't made one in a long time. Maybe it's time to plan another one.
I just made a run up to my daughter's house a few days ago. She's moving and I had to move some furniture to her new apartment. Half of the trip was with an empty truck and the second half of the trip was pulling a loaded 12', dual axle U-haul trailer up and down the hills of N. Georgia. Average for the trip was 14.6 mpg. Not good, but not bad considering the second half with the load which was pretty heavy.
I'm anxious to see what it will do with no load behind it.

 

This can be true, however every fillup I make, I make sure it's quite full that I can't pump anymore after second attempt on slower speed (halfway grip). So it's consistent that way, or it's close enough to be "full" tank.

 

Just did the drive from San Francisco to the Port Angeles, WA last week. Average MPG for me was between 15 and 16 MPG.

I have bigger tires at 305's on 20" wheels with 3.73 gears, no topper, super crew. But I also am not a patient driver and will and did get on it a bit to pass. Two cents passed...

 

I made a 1300 mile trek from San Jose to Las Vegas, Vegas to Los Angeles, and then back to San Jose earlier this year. There were 4 of us weighing a total of 600lbs, 200 of which is mine. LOL. The truck was moderately loaded with our luggage and crap without a cover in the back, but I loaded all of our stuff so it was flush to the top of the box in effort to mimic a cover.

Hand-calc'd mileage was 15.9 for mixed around town but mostly freeway driving and up to 18.5mpg on straight shot freeway, station to station. Overall hand-calc average for the entire trip was 17mpg. The A/C was on most of the time.

I also have a set of LTX AT2 tires and have them filled to the max 40psi. Truck is bone stock otherwise.

The only difference that I can see was I'm driving a bit slower... 65-70mph tops the whole way. I think anything above 60 starts drinking fuel.

4 of my fillups were at Shell; 2 were at the Costco in Vegas. In general, the truck seems to start easier and I seem to get better mpgs using Shell gas. Costco was significantly cheaper in Vegas so I couldn't pass it up as I normally do down here in SJ. I always use credit card to fuel up, and I always give it an extra shot of gas until the nozzle clicks the 2nd time.

 

Not bad.... 0.8 mpg better than my trip. I drive conservately most of the trip, also use air conditioning majority of time. Am still wondering if the topper do add weigh to the bed, affecting the gas mileage slightly. Thought it might actually help, but apparently doesn't.

 

0.8mpg doesn't sound like much, but it's about 4-5% improvement :-)

I have a BakFlip cover on my F350 long box. I haven't made a long roadtrip with it yet, but it appears to help about 0.4~0.5mpg better on the shorter freeway runs if it's not skewed by a regen.

Maybe there's something with the aerodynamics such that the short box doesn't benefit as much from a cover as does a long box...

If anything the cover helps conceal stuff in the back. I feel better now compared to leaving all my stuff exposed wide open

 

Very true about security of leaving stuffs out on the bed.

I was changing oil earlier today, saw that I had dirty air filter, dang, I should have checked it prior to the road trip. Probably is why my mileage was slightly lower than I anticipated. But anyway somehow I feel better after seeing the dirty air filter.