Hi everyone,

I am new here. Been a long time ford truck lover and finally made my first purchase. A 2013 F250 6.2 V8. Although I'm in love with the truck. The MPG is killing me. Currently I get barely over 10 MPG city driving. However, the truck I believe has a 3 inch lift. Could be a level lift, but haven't gone down to look yet. It does have 35x12.5xr20 TOYO open country tires and I am sure that has something to do with it. But my question for everyone is with those details, would a different gear ratio help me in the MPG area? If so, which ratio? I have been leaning towards the 4.88. But I am beginning to think that would make it worse not better. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Honestly around town may not change much. There are lots of guys whom claim that their stock trucks with 4.30 gears get as good mileage as those with 3.73 gears. While I'm not able to confirm that claim, what I can deduce is that gearing really does not change efficiency when it comes to minor load differences. Gearing will alter the torque multiplication, but it cannot make up for a inefficient overall system. Gearing changes can bring back some parity to a "normal" sense of torque; it can compensate for tire radius. But what gearing cannot do is magically make a more efficient process when larger tires offer greater rolling resistance. Larger tires hit you in two areas:
- they make for more rolling resistance to overcome due to a larger footprint and sidewalls
- they have more mass to accelerate and decelerate; it takes more energy overcome their resistance to change of rotation

You want better MPG? get rid of the big tires.

 

10mpg is ballpark average for these trucks.

 

Thanks so much for the advice. I was thinking the same thing about getting rid of the tires. I would like to go back to OEM size. Does anyone know what size tires those would have been?

 

Check the sticker on the door, as it should give you numbers for tire sizing.

Griz

 

10-11 mpg city is normal for a heavy duty gas truck.

 

lets look at this..
a 7,000 plus pound truck..
the aerodynamics of a Brick
385 horsepower ( gas ) MUST feed them ponies .
4x4 makes things worse
over stock tires/wheels make things worse....

want to save fuel ... Drive slower..
2-3 years ago.. a 300 mile trip.. very south Carolina to upper North Carolina.. heavy but steady traffic..... I got 21 miles per gallon
that was empty. .. stock wheels and tires.... 3.73 gears... tail winds both ways.. 50-55 mph... both ways...
if you question this... SEARCH back when I reported this... oh,, my 2012 F 250.. had about 140,000 miles on it at the time.

in the late 1960's .. my 1965 Impala SS 409,,, 4 speed, 4.11 gears.. got 8 miles per gallon on the highway..
and it was 3,600 pounds...and half the size of these trucks.
around town was 5 on a good day. and no,, fuel was not cheap.. adjusting for inflation.. 2.50 per gallon

want gas mileage... get a mid size motorcycle.. 60 plus is average... unless you do 70..mph..
my 1.8L motorcycle gets 40 mpg.. unless I go over 80.. then 35..... I am in Texas.. where it 75 all day..

it still amazes me.. how good the gas mileage IS on a Tank with wheels... and NO .. I do not spending $ 70.00 for a tank of fuel
hold a 1 gallon container of gas.. then think about moving 7,000 pounds 10 Miles on it..
that is a lot of work.. for little..

 

About the best way to improve your mileage is to change your driving habits. You need to be eeeaaaasssyyy on that gas pedal. It's not a binary switch, either full on, or full off. Drive it like there's a raw egg on the gas pedal, and you don't want to crack it. Speed kills (your mileage). Let the transmission upshift as soon as it wants to. And put stock sized tires with a less aggressive tread on them. Get rid of that lift and go to stock height. You'll get much better mileage at 65 than you will at 75. This thing is a barn door going down the road sideways, and the wind resistance is cumulative to how fast you drive.

All these things will help your mileage. Driver habits are the hardest to change, the cheapest to do, and give you the biggest gain in mpg.

I'm hovering around 11 mpg right now. This is mostly short trip in town driving right now (winter), I have *tons* of idle time due to warming up the truck and defrosting the windshield each day (mine sits outside all the time), and I run around all winter with 1300 pounds of sandbags in the bed for ballast.

In the summer time, with no idle time, and no ballast in the bed, I'm averaging 13.5 in town. All this is "unloaded miles", not pulling or hauling anything.

 

.
some time ago.. was a paper Book...
something like ... old truck driver ways...

tricks from the 1950;s-60;s independent over the road truck drivers and HOW they got the best possible fuel mileage.. still works today.
its all about the driving style... and control of the controls...

cruise control is NOT your friend for fuel mileage..
proof.. when the truck approaches a UP hill.. cruise increases the pressure on the fuel petal.. that is BAD..
you need to have a plan.. use the last down hill to gain speed... or slowly increase speed on the level before the up hill
then slowly allow the truck to slow going up the hill and top at 5mph below posted speed...

yes I am old... yes I trucked in the late 1960''s.. so what..
when the fuel money came out of your pocket. .. you did what you could to save fuel... and money.
its Called Truck Driving.

 

If you decide to do any of this show some common sense and don't hold up a bunch of traffic behind you.

 

I do not see WHERE he is hogging the Left lane... he is driving like most Professional truck drivers....

I do pull over on the back roads... when possible.. to allow the rush people around.

if you are always in a RUSH... get up earlier... or get a motorcycle.. I ride so I know.
110 hp.. 700 pounds..... so its fairly FAST.. Passing is Easy. and fun.
my F 250.. 385hp.. 6,600 pounds.. not so much. with trailer... its 19,000 pounds. and NEVER fast.

 

B. S.

Go around.

We're talking IN TOWN driving. I don't know of a single town in the U.S. with surface street speed limits above 65 mph. Again, we're talking IN TOWN. On surface streets. Nothing was mentioned about driving on the highway, bypass loops or freeways.

I have no problem at all keeping up with in town traffic, while only using the top 1 inch of my gas pedal. If you're romping on it from stop light to stop light, that's your problem. Sounds like behavioral modification may be in order. Perhaps have a grown up ride along with you and taze the crap out of you every time you drive like an idiot. Or maybe your folks should just take your keys away for a month.

The OP was asking about how to increase mpg in his truck. Not how to be the first one off the line at every traffic light.

 

 

I didn't say you had to be fast or the first one out of the lane, I said use some common sense, do you have a problem with reading comprehension? I am sorry you snowflakes got offended by a simple suggestion, good luck making it in the real world.

 

The original thread is best gears NOT DRIVING HABITS so get back on track.

Denny