My dad was getting about 18 mpg but he travels 110 miles a day all highway. This past tankfull he only got 14.7 mpg. I have gotten 12.8 mpg the last time I filled up. I only have about 900 miles on my truck though so it is probably still breaking in. Dad has bout 1400 miles on his truck.

 

Oops . Forgot to mention we have twin 2005 F-150 super cab flareside FX4 package with the 5.4 triton and 3.73 limited slip rears.

 

ReForder- believe what you want but the message center computer and milaege useage calaculations almost right on! So this is no exageration!
Personnaly I think a lot of the bad mileage reports has a lot to do with driving habits in additon to the other things previously mentioned!!

 

The best I have gotten is 18 mpg. That was the first weekend I had the truck and had to drive to Baltimore. From then on, 14mpg is all I get. Doesn't matter if I run the pi** out of it or keep it below 2000 rpm's. Gotta love the consistency, though.

 

I agree...I can beat the hell out of my truck or treat it peacful, and it does not seem to make a difference. Highway, and city I get about 14 mpg. I have a pretty bad drive into work and home everyday too. I spend about an hour and 10 minutes to go 19 miles to give an idea of the traffic I sit in. I have taken my truck on some road trips, all highway, nothing really better.

Does anyone have any real experience that a Tonneau cover will improve gas mileage?

 

Mine helped a great deal. It's aluminum and it gives me anywhere from 1-2 mpg speed dependend. Faster it's better, but you use more gas faster... I tested it with the ScanGauge, as you can pop it off and make a run then make the same run with it on.
I also did a 'blind' study by making a 200+ mile trip I do all the time with it, without it. Got the worst mileage on the one trip without it, everthing else was the same. about 1.5 mpg on the 80% freeway loop.

If you beat the tar out of it, they use more gas. Period. Put a Vacuum gauce or a ScanGauge on it and you can see.
Maybe your driving it easy is not all that easy...
Chris

 

Thanks for the input Chris...I may have to lay out the cash to buy one. After the dual exhaust of course

 

i agree that the message center can't be argued with, but my XLT doesn't have one. And believe me, I know how to alter my driving style to suit my need (fun vs. conservation). The truck only has 3500 miles, so it's likely still breaking in a bit. And i also agree that tonneau covers help, with much less "drag" experienced on the highway.

But here's a question for you accuracy guys, if the gas gauge is accurate, then, in addition to some people not being able to fill up all the way, why does the gauge go down faster after a half tank, even more so below a 1/4? This has been the case with every Ford I've owned (88 GT, 87 LSC, 92 Explorer, 93 SHO, & 96 Explorer). This MUST influence mileage calcuations if you only use the gas gauge.

 

I'm don't understand the question here???
Nobody posted finding gas mileage using the gas gauge.

For that I would expect one of those silly posts that say, " I got twenty miles to a gallon, because I had half a tank, put in five gallons, drove 120 miles and now I still have a third of a tank..."
You hear nonsense like that all the time in the parts business, and in the gas station.

The way to check gas is to fill the tank, set the trip odometer (or write down the mileage) drive it at least half a tank down, then fill the same way and then divide the miles by the gallons.
If you use a computer, that helps, but you should always be 'doing the math' manually.
The gas gauge doesn't even come into the equation. You don't even need one if you have a trip odometer.
The gauges on these trucks are a little more accurate than say the gauges on every GM product I have ever owned, but not perfect, and subject to problems if you don't turn the key off when filling. A bad idea anyway.
Chris

 

You don't understand the question, Chris, because none was asked. Merely a comment or observation was made. The discussion of using gas used vs. mileage was discussed in another gas mileage post, i remember reading it. Just figured I'd throw my 2 cents in here, as few people want to admit that figuring out gas mileage in these things, without the info center, is a guestimation at best.

However, no matter what gas mileage I get, i'm not about to get rid of my truck for a hybrid, so all-in-all, it's a fairly moot point.

 

I get it, you were using both threads. Didn't make the connection.
The only way to figure out gas mileage is with Long division and hard figures. The information center just helps on partial trip mileage. Cool and all that, but nothing beats hard numbers.

A hybrid is an interesting thought, but that's about it. So many better ways to do it.
In the low 80's a research team came up with an electric car setup that had good performance, and was very practical. However it had no chance of hitting the market for two or three reasons. But I got to look it over, and if I ever wanted to beat the gas prices I would take a shot at it.

For anyone who wants to 'roll your own' electric car, and wants to actually drive it more than 10 miles from a power tap, try this;
They took a 60 horse electric motor, and the usual batteries in a small car. The usual setup for an 'around town' electric car. They then set up a tiny two wheel trailer with a two cylinder motor, gas tank and a 1200 watt generator. If you drove around town you could charge it up at home or work. If you wanted to go on the highway you hooked up the trailer and went. As you went down the freeway the little generator kept putting charge back into your batteries at about half a gallon an hour. When you stopped for lunch, etc. you left the generator running, filling the batteries. I got to ride in it from San Bernadino to Las Vegas. We stayed at the 55 speed limit with two stops, one in Barstow, the other at State Line. Both times we were stopped for 45 minutes. We made it into the convention center in Vegas with 20% charge left, and had used just under three gallons of gas for 220 miles. We were 'limping' a little as we brought it in though.
Still, it could have worked pretty well, but it did not meet any of the contemporary enviromental rules or the 'strictly' electric rules of the day. The team went on to other areas of research, but I really think they had something there. Oh well.
Chris

 

Just got my new Ford last Friday, been driving around town to show everyone. I got the XLT SuperCrew with the 4.6 not the 5.4. I have less than 1/4 tank of fuel, and only have about 230 miles for this tank and truck. I figured it’s because I’ve been doing a lot of around town driving. However, I wanted to post to this chat because I was curious what most people accelerate to, since I got the truck I haven't really floored it, I accelerate to a little over 2K rpm's every time I start. Could this be because the engine isn’t fully broken in? Any thoughts?