Hello Folks,

New to this forum. I recently upgraded from an F150 Powerboost Hybrid to a 2022 F20 6.2L Lariat. Both are great trucks but after hauling a 40' 8,600lb camper from El Paso to Florida I determined a larger truck was in order. The F150 had no problems towing the trailer but definitely required a lot more effort, and since my wife and others plan on driving determined the larger truck to be a safer alternative

The Power Boost Hybrid was excellent vehicle and in town and hwy mileage was between 22mpg and 24mpg. Towing I got around 9.5 on the highway. That was with after market wheels and wider tires too. Enter the F-250 Beast and the highway mileage drops significantly. Everything is stock and the best I have been able to achieve is about 20mpg doing 50mph. Towing economy is close, with F250 being little less and was expected. I drive very conservatively, focus on just going rather than going fast.

So, my question to everyone, what have you done that works to improve fuel economy? Do cold air intakes, exhaust mods, electronic programmers work?

Thanks in advance for any useful tips!

GK

 

1) no jackrabbit starts
2) no long idling
3) Let the truck shift around 1700 rpm
4) eco mode
5) no lane changing
6) keep your speed to 55 mph on trips to work.

 

If you are getting 20mpg at 50mph with that truck you are doing great, I have a '22 xlt 7.3 with 4.30 rear and best I've been able to get with cruise set at 50 on flat level ground with no wind is 16.5-17 mpg. Also a very conservative driver.

But to answer your question intakes and exhaust generally can improve your mileage but the difference is minuscule. The fuel savings would take a long time to pay for the cost of the upgrades.

 

What is your towing MPG with the F-250? Even if your total cost of ownership is higher with the F-250 it is a better (and safer) tool for the towing.

 

Nope. Ford engineers have squeezed every drop of economy out of these trucks to beat GM and Dodge in the fleet market. They are as tuned for MPG as they are going to get. Some say a tonneau *may* help, but they do keep your stuff dry and out of sight. Almost all mods people do to their trucks are counter productive when it comes to fuel economy, however other advantages may (or may not) be realized.

Your economics are largely based on human factors. You have to drive like my parents. I see lot of GM and Dodge products go blowing my me all the time, especially pulling away at traffic lights. But you can bet they pay for that ego rush at the pump. I get my ego stroked knowing my truck is prettier than theirs and I paid less for it.

 

One counter productive change people make is going to larger and more aggressive tread pattern tires. Tires can make a significant difference and a on the road tire tread will give the best fuel economy. It's easier to screw up fuel mileage performance than improve it.

OP,
Making 20 mpg is interesting even though your driving 50mph. Are you going by calculated mpg or the trucks computer?

 

Amen. Tall skinny tires do better the fat wide ones.

 

If Shane is getting 16.5-17 at 50 mph, I'm getting 16.2-16.5 at 55 mph, that should give you some good information. That is the 7.3 tho.... If you are running 4.30's that should be close to what you should expect, with 3.73's you should get a bit better, .5-.8 mpg better.

 

Start using the manual button, you see a hill coming switch to 9th, you start up the hill switch to 8th, then 7 if you feel any slowing down and if it is a big hill do that sooner than later and go to 6th. It works for me, but I can also see the throttle and load parameters on my truck with my ScanGauge and switch when the throttle reaches 35% and load goes to 90%... If I do not do that the shift points on my 10 speed are NOT doing that and I end up loosing too much speed (40% throttle and 95% load) is what the trans seems to regard as to when it shifts for it's parameter settings, then the truck needs to make up the speed it lost and shifts 2 gears at a time down to 6th using way more gas than if it would have kept the speed, and ending up in 6th anyways. IMO In my experience anyways...

 

Who can stand to drive 50 mph on the highway???
That would drive me nuts.
It's also very dangerous to be driving so much slower than the traffic around you.
Is this a 4WD or 2WD?
No money spent on mods to get better mileage will ever pay for themselves in fuel savings.

 

No on the intake. With two different gas rigs that I bought used that had “Cold Air Intake” installed when I bought them, drove them for a while, did not care for the noise so converted back to stock. I got bettrer mileage with the stock intake. Not by much, maybe 1/2 mile per gallon, but still better.


And when pulling, I always got better mileage by driving with a constant throttle rather than trying to maintain constand speed. I.E., ler it roll and build speed and momentum when going down hills and let your speed drop when going up hills……doesn’t really work if driving all flatlands; but works great in rolling hills.

If you are getting up to 20 MPG with a 6.2 you are doing pretty damn good IMHO.

 

I would be very happy getting 20 mpg... What do u get combined highway and city driving?

 

About 20 years ago I met a guy through work who was physicist before a career change. He once told a group of us at a business dinner about a college project he did with other undergrads in the 70's during the gas crisis.

It was a pretty intense experiment about driver habits and gas mileage. They had commissioned a nearby oval road course for local racing for their tests. He told us all about it for probably an hour. I've forgotten most of it, but a few things stuck. Most notably that in their controlled testing, they found that it was most efficient to accelerate a car to a given speed at full throttle. He gave a lengthy reason why that was the case that was very convincing. I'll admit, I still accelerate gently when attempting to use less fuel. However, given the explanation he gave, the data, instruments and that their study was supposedly duplicated by others and eventually published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, I've always wondered...

 

Aside from driving habits which id imagine you have perfected already seeing 20mpg out of a SuperDuty 6.2L, ill suggest a few modifications.

Run Michelin LTX MS2 tires. They have been proven the best tire for MPG. Lower your truck for less drag. Lastly start removing parts to drop weight. Turn that Lariat into an XL 2wd

 

this, this right here is the key.

Maintaining constant speed on anything other than flat ground is deceptively fuel demanding. short of going full bore hyper miling and start monitoring engine load to do “drive with loadl, a constant throttle is a good rule of thumb to conserve fuel. Provided of course, you don’t go too fast downhill to get a ticket or going too slow uphill as to be impeding traffic.