I have had a 3.0l 4x4, a 4.0l 4x4 and now a B2500. I have enjoyed all three trucks but have each time been disapointed with the mileage. The first truck was the 3.0l and I never got better than 17mpg, ever. The truck seemed to me to be geared wrong. At highway speeds the engine always ran above 2500rpm which would not be good for fuel economy, it also seemed underpowered.

Thinking the truck was underpowered and overtaching the engine the problem, I elected to go with the 4.0l on my next truck. No difference in mileage at all. It too seemed geared wrong, with the engine always taching high at highway speeds.

That brings us to the B2500. I bought the truck with 68k miles on it. (the first two trucks were bought new) Good looker and seemed well maintained. I bought the truck specifically for mileage. So I found a 4x2 with a 2.5l and a manual tranny. You can imagine my dismay when the first 2 or 3 tanks I got no better than 15mpg!

Off to my mechanic in search of mileage improvements.

I had the shocks and brakes changed, the tires balanced and rotated, timing belt changed. My mileage went up to 21mpg. Not great but looking up.

The next step was tie rod ends and an alignment. Mileage up to 25mpg. Now we are talking.

The final improvement in search of mileage was the addition of a hard tonneau cover. Small improvement to 27mpg.

My question to you all is, what else can be done in search of mileage?

Low rolling resistance tires? (I already run my tire pressures at the high end of the range)

A gear change? (The engine still tachs too high at highway speeds it seems to me.)

Being as the best improvements I saw were when I had front end work done, are there improvements that could be made there?

Hopefully there are folks out there that have had some luck and can share their experiences with us all.

I'm sad that the Ranger series is coming to an end, but ultimately I believe it's downfall was it's mileage or lack there of. I own a 7000# F250 with a 6.0l diesel and it gets better mileage than I ever got with my first two Rangers.

 

Run synthetic oils in you engine, tranny, and rear end, and put a performance air cleaner with an after cat exhaust. Install an electric fan, the best spark plugs that you can get, and change the oxygen sensor(s) for new ones. All this should put you well into the 30's, possibly right near 40.

 

If you do that and get between 30-40 mpg, let us know please.

 

Remember you are in a pickup with a four banger engine. And it needs to rev, don't be worried by it's higher RPMs on the highway.

Drive it like a grandmother, keep your speed low on the highway, use cruise control if you can, leave the A/C off and windows up, and finish up the mods bigdavesohc said, you might hit 32 or 33.

 

Frankly Im surprised at the mileage increase you got from just the front end work, I need to think about that.
You could get the highest rear end gears that will fit, and go up in rear tire size, but by the time your happy with the mileage, and low RPMs, you wont be happy with the lack of power.
My factory stock 2001, 3.0L, 5sp auto, SC, XLT, 2X4, with 35K miles gets 21 MPG in all around (city/highway) driving, and i'm not complaining.

 

Cutting way down to tall gears and huge tires will lower the mileage...more mass to spin, more lugging of the lug-hating four banger.

I get 18/21 with a 4.0L, can't complain...

EDIT: filled up tonight...specs in signature, I got 230.1 miles on 11.596 gallons, works out to 19.84 MPG, all city except two runs to a mall about 15 miles away.

Get a vacuum gauge, it helps a lot actually.

 

Mike,

21 MPG with a 3.0 is pretty good. What rear end gearing do you have?

CMOS

 

I think you have to ask at a certain point though, is it worth it? Each mod you make makes your pickup less useful (depending on what you want it for)?

Tall Gearing - you can make it better for gas mileage, but you won't be towing as much (4 cylinders also don't get into the power band until you're higher in the revs)
Tonneau cover - you can't carry anything in the bed that sticks above the rail
Tires - highway tires are good for mileage, but don't try going off road or in mud/snow with them

I understand the noble goal of reducing your gas consumption. However, it seems like you're ending up with a truck that can't tow, haul much in the bed, or go off road. So then the next logical question is why not buy a small car instead, at least you'd have a full backseat for 40 mpg. I'm not trying to be a jerk, I'd like my truck to be more fuel efficient as well. I'd just have to ask myself, why do I want this truck if fuel efficiency is my #1 goal?

-Jim

 

You start hitting a point of diminishing returns besides performance issues. If your at the stage where a $300 mod saves you 50 bucks/yr in gas, it'll take 6 years to pay for the mod, assuming the mod lasts that long.

 

Also, a very good point.

Some quick math (obviously affected by the cost of gasoline in your area and over time, I used my last price):
Assume you do 250 miles / week (25 miles to & from work, 5 days a week). At 25 mpg, this is obviously 10 gallons per week; at 26 mpg, it is 9.6 gallons/ week. .4 gallons/week * $2.15/gallon * 52 weeks/year = $44.72/year saved by a mod that bumps it from 25mpg to 26mpg. By similar math, if you bumped it to 30mpg, you'd save $186.33/year.

Just compare that to your cost for mods so that you know it is worth it.

-Jim

 

I forgot to mention, see if you can find an aftermarket high performance coil and slightly larger plug wires. More efficient spark requires less fuel and burns more efficiently. And you should probably replace your fuel injectors with new stock size injectors.

 

I don't know, Ive only had this truck for about 3 weeks, but my guess is its the standard for a 2001 3.0L SC 2X4 XLT with an automatic Tanny.
There are tags and stickers on the differential and rear axle, but I don't know how to read the code. And I haven't bothered to mark the drive shaft and jack up one wheel and have someone make one complete revolution. Maybe you can tell Me?
Mike.

 

Thanks for all the good replies.

I travel 30-40k miles/year on business and mileage is important to me.

The hard tonneau cover keeps all my gear dry and secure and frankly makes the truck look good

I just filled up my F250 SD 6.0l and this last tank I got somewhere between 18-19mpg (did the math in my head accuracy!).

I'm easy on the gas and brakes (I've gotten 65k on a set of pads).

I have friends with F150's with triton v8's that get close to 20mpg.

Something just doesn't make sense to me, and is the purpose of this post, that the truck I love to drive gets not much better mileage than one that is almost twice as heavy.

It should be capable of more, so it would seem to me.

I was hoping that someone out there had found out where the inefficiencies were and could report them to us all.

Maybe I'm just nuts.

Thanks for all the great replies just the same.

BTW I'm due for my 25k trany fluid change and I'm going to switch to synthetic in both the 5speed manual and the rear end. I'll report back the results.

Any suggestions for brand/weight for each?

Thanks again.

 

I'd kill for 21 mpg for my '06 Sport 3.0. I consistantly get 18 mpg with all city and rural driving. I'm just learning to live with 18 mpg i guess. I'm just still alittle shocked at the difference I get in the truck I traded in to get ('03 XLT 2.3 which got 27-29mpg regularly) to the 3.0 I got now.

 

mikehm,

I don't recall the thread that tells how to decode the rearn end tag. Someone posted it here a while back. Pretty good resource if I/we can evern find it again. Anyone?

tolvibman, I might take a stab at the mileage difference between the Triton and the 3.0 Vulcan. "Engine technology". Not quality, "technology". The 3.0 was designed in the ealry 80's (first production use was 82 IIRC). It's an old school push rod design which is great for 1) inexpensive manufacturing, and 2) long life. The Tritons (I've owned both the 4.6 and 5.4 3-V) are newer generation engines and thus have whole new set of engineering upgrades and advances. Rememebr the Ford 300ci I-6? Best damn engine that Ford ever made IMO. A real bear for torque and would last half a million miles. Crummy mileage. Go figure. Same reason, high quality but not what was considered a technologically advanced engine.

Hope this helps a bit.

CMOS