LOL, I like it, I go the other way though. I do some tricks to lower my cost per gallon so I grin at my receipt when it says I paid $2.80/Gal. All while laughing at the guy next to me knowing I have less then $1500 in a truck worth $5000 when he's got maybe $50,000 in his worth $30,000 and is paying $3.80/Gal plus $150/mo insurance.

Even funnier when the other guy is my brother with his powerstroke knowing he just put $4800 in it just to fix his injectors.

Edit, hope he doesn't read that, he's a member.

 

Well, i guess you could always push it?

 

You'll really just have to take my word for it, that I got a screaming deal. My dad's best friend owns the dealership where I got the car and he's pulled strings for all of my parent's vehicles to be much cheaper than they should be, as well as mine. You are correct though, that in the end I won't have anything to show for any of the money paid towards it.

I really don't want to argue about this, kinda taking over the thread with it, and I apologize to the OP.

 

Get a Ranger with a manual trans, you won't regret it. Your choice of engine (I don't recommend the 2.9 V6 if earlier than 89) because they will all save you money and they're so fun to drive. Compared to your full-size, the Ranger will feel like a Yamaha Rhino.

I had a 91 SuperCab longbed 4.0 V6, 5 speed, 2wd that I picked up for $940... that truck was my only ride til I got my F-150, and even then the money it saved me in gas probably equaled the cost of what I bought the truck for, so when I sold it for less than I paid I didn't regret it. Well I did but not for money reasons... I just miss having that little 5 speed truck... she'd get up and GO.

The only thing that truck didn't do well with was going off-road. I'm sure if I put some weight in the bed it would have improved it some.

 

There are lots of decent little trucks and cars out there that can be purchased for less than $1500 for getting back and forth to school and run around town, I would not look for something I had to make payments on, but something that I could purchase outright and put liability insurance on and drive till the wheels fall off. Then the money saved could be used to work on the truck, or even find a better truck.

As far as what you are seen in driving, no price can overcome that ego, the only thing that will overcome ego is common sense and that only comes with age.

LOL

 

Seriously, deriving self worth based on what vehicle you drive is a whole other topic entirely. I prefer to save money when possible and let others worry about looking cool.

If you really like your truck do you want to rack up all those miles and wear it out quicker? Even if you break even in the end, use up a soul-less econobox instead and make your truck last longer.

 

That's exactly what I thought when I first read this thread.

 

That's essentially what I've been doing for years. If you ask me how much I paid for gas yesterday, I couldn't tell you. I know I put 17.5 gallons in the truck, but that's as much as I choose to worry about it on a daily basis. I always hear people at work complaining that gas jumped up 20¢ and they wish they would have filled up before it went up.

I had a friend help me work on my mountaineer a few weeks ago and we needed the engine up to temp for diagnostic reasons, so I left it running while we picked up his laundry. He said "Aren't you worried about wasting gas?". I just told him "Gas is cheap, it's everything else that is so expensive."

If driving your truck is a priority, be prepared to pay for it. If other things are your priority, then the cost to drive the truck becomes an inconvenience. Now that I'm done rambling

If you want better mileage, I would look at stepping down tire size, regearing, and swapping the transmission. If you are looking at a 351, it may be worth doing a MAF conversion and a 6 litre tune-up. 15 is achievable, but not in the city.

 

Mostly the same for me. I daily drove my lifted 1988 F-350 with a carbureted 460 all of last year averaging about 9.5 MPG. Accumulated 10,000 miles last year. Just filled it up when it needed it then hit the throttle and smiled at the sweet noise. Other than the current engine rebuild going on with it, I'd be driving it daily this year except I'll be driving about 30k miles this year with commuting to college and I wouldn't want to put that wear and tear on my pride and joy.

 

I know I'm kind of hijacking this thread, but I think I'm defending the OP so......

I don't see anything here about any ego attached to driving his truck. Both the truck itself and yes the image of driving it can be very practical things.

What's it worth to always be behind the wheel of a safer more capable vehicle then any econobox. It can't really be measured the advantages of things like sitting higher so you see traffic ahead, having a big steal body around you, having better tires and 4wd for bad weather, not having to take an extra trip to get the truck before using it for work, having something you can sleep in if you have to, etc etc. Who knows how much the little things like that pile up. Me personally, some might think I'm crazy for dailying my CCLB diesel 4wd on 37s. But I know that no matter what happens I'm much more likely to come out ok with my truck then in anything else and for me the math works.

As for image, image matters it's why we buy nice clothes, comb our hair, etc. This holds true for what you drive also. If driving something in particular helps land a job, land a good woman, meet good friends, avoid a ticket etc. Then it's not ego, it's in fact very practical.

I don't want to start an argument with you, but I do want to dispel this myth that larger tires are bad for mileage, it's not that simple.

Large diameter tires are generally good, and large diameter wheels are always good. Large width tires are bad and large ***** are bad. It's been shown again and again that larger diameter wheels and larger diameter tires lower rolling resistance. What hurts rolling resistance is that they are often wider, often knobbier, and often at lower pressure. But given the same tire type and pressure a 37x12.5R20 will have lower rolling resistance then a 37x12.5R15 which will have lower rolling resistance then a 31x12.5R15.

The second part of this is diameters effect on gear ratio. This also tends to give the advantage to larger diameter tires, in particular in our trucks. Our trucks our often horribly under geared for todays highway speeds. To a point lowering highway cruise RPMS is always going to increase mileage. The OP for example is likely spinning around 2700RPM at 65MPH with his 33" tires. Taking his tire down to 31 takes him to 2900RPM, this will only hurt mileage given all other factors are the same. If anything he'd be better off with a larger tire, I don't know the particulars of what he has now but I'd tend to think a 35x12.5R20 all terrain would suit him well.

 

or get the best of all worlds. buy a motorcycle, get 50ish mpgs (depending on size) look cool, be able to go fast, and save enough money in gas and insurance that you can still drive your truck whenever you want, or on a crappy day, also, think your truck sounds sweet? well get a bike with loud pipes and it will be better, dads got a kawasaki vulcan 900 that is so loud even with a helmet after so long your ears will hurt like he**

 

Your arguments for larger tires are sooo way off it is not even funny. While I do agree that a larger diameter tire reduces engine RPM. The increase in rotating mass far offsets and gain in engine operating RPM. It takes more power to turn the heavier tire and wheel combination. Why do you think hybrids and high MPG econoboxes use suck small tires skinny tires? Less rotating mass equals better fuel economy. Just because you reduce engine RPM does not always equate to increased economy. Given equal tires size going to a lower numerical gear will yield an increase in economy. Generally with bigger tires you need to go to a higher number numerical gear to keep the engine at an optimal RPM for a given speed/load.

Matt

 

Awe the exuberance of youth, it is always refreshing to watch the same mistakes I made in my younger years being repeated. I will say, the worst injuries I ever suffered in an accident was while I was driving one of my former trucks, more mass equal more inertia when you hit, I almost didn't make it through that one.

 

Yet another very common myth that needs to be dispelled. The additional weight of the tire is miniscule in comparison to the weight of the vehicle and you can't move one without moving the other. Secondly once the tire is up to speed the weight takes no more effort to maintain. This myth is the effect of the feeling of less power both acceleration and braking often felt with larger tires. But this is the effect of ratios from a larger diameter and greater drag often found in big wide knobby mud tires NOT the weight. Just as a larger tire in effect gives taller gear ratios and often less acceleration it also puts more stress on the brakes like getting a longer lever on a wrench. There are only two downsides to the weight of larger tires. The weight demands more of shocks and they can be harder to balance.

Hydrids and econoboxes run small tires for many reasons, easier in the rest of the drive train, light, easier to package, most of all CHEAP, etc. This however is not an argument against my point. However if you look at experimental and mileage competition vehicles you will find pizza cutter wheels and tires, large diameter, low profile, thin.

This is true, but so does less mass anywhere on the vehicle. Yes it is true that just like unsprung mass rotating mass is more important but not nearly as important as people often attribute to it. Just going by the interco site for comparison the difference between a 33 and 35 inch tire is 8lbs, times 4 is 32lbs. I bet you can find much more then 32lbs in random junk in a vast majority of our trucks. Even if you consider rotating mass twice as important as it's going twice as fast, not true but for arguments sake. I bet you can find much better places to drop 64lbs. A lighter girlfriend for example, lol.

This is of course true, but we are talking 87-97 Ford trucks and I've never heard anyone complain that a Ford truck of this generation was too high geared with stock size tires. Ford often put way too low of gears in these trucks. Nor is it an argument against my point.

This of course is 6 of one or half a dozen of the other and all relative to the application. None of which is an argument against my point.

 

You know in all my years I have not yet heard any brag about the increase in mileage they have experienced from running bigger tires. Rotating mass does in fact play a larger role in fuel economy then you realize or may want to believe. If a larger tire was better car manufactures would be putting skinny 20" tires on their econboxes, but sadly the truth is that increased mass of a larger tire takes more power to turn. Any perceived increase in fuel economy from running a larger tire is probably due to he inaccuracy of the speedometer after the installation of the larger tires.

If you are so sure a larger heavier vehicle is safer you need to view the NHTSA video on you tube where they did an offset frontal collision test between a 60's era Impala and a 2005 or so Impala. The newer lighter smaller impala was the more survivable of the two.

matt