Gas Mileage

[getrdone52]

take your foot out of the floor. i know about 100 people that say, oh my fuel economy sucks on my 4 cylinder car. go for a test drive, they launch hard.

every truck wears different. your wind drag, tire pressure, regular maintenance, oil you use, dif fluid you use, amount of power you draw from the alternator, if you let it idle before driving, gear ratio, auto or manual, trans flushes, coolant flushes, new or old belts, plugs and wires.

theres so many factors, everybody will get different.

i get 360 miles to a tank average. sometimes 380, sometimes 340. thats with a 4.0 with 32's and 4.56 gears.

like i said, take your foot out of it and you'll be fine. acceleration is where you burn the most. dont speed, dont let it rev over 2000 rpm on a start, dont throttle up hills.

its easy, you just gotta do it. my truck is rated at 16 mpg city. i get 18-20. believe me, i know ive run 3957.33 litres of gas through my truck, i know how much was E85, and was pure fuel. thats about 57.35 tanks since i bought it. at 550 a tank, thats 31,544 kms. i got it with 38,456 and im right around 69,920 now. ive changed the oil 6 times, and im half way to my next. i run full synthetic. if you know your vehicle, you know when its got a fouled plug, a dirty air filter, or a sensor going bad before it does.

if you arent as anal as me, you get worse MPG

I don't have my foot in it very often. I shift at like 2 1/2 - 3 thousand rpms. Im about due for the first oil change I've had since I got my truck so Idk if it has a bad plug or anything.

Just in case somebody else posted it and I missed it, your truck does not have a low fuel light. The "check gage" light is the one that will come on if you run it low enough. They don't always come on at the same point either. When my truck was new , it came on at about 1/8 tank, now I have to run it almost below the E to get it to come on. Sort of a useless feature anyway.

I'm 100% sure mine has the little gas light. I know because I've seen it before and you can kinda see the outline of it if you look close enough. I actually like it so I can get the most accurate mpg

 

[06RangerXLT]

calculate mpg from the distance you drove, and the gas you used to refill it. never use your gas guage.

a gas guage cant calculate 19 gallons over a 1.5" spread acuratly enough to get a proper reading.

oh,

Welcome to the Ranger family, filled with bad MPG and S-10 Haters.

 

[getrdone52]

I drove 320 miles on 18 gallons of gas, which is like 18.6 mpg. That's the best its ever had. I usually get 240 miles on like 16 gallons which is 15 mpg.
Thanks! I've been here since March but I just don't have a very long drive to school so I've only put like 4000 miles on it

 

[joecool85]

calculate mpg from the distance you drove, and the gas you used to refill it. never use your gas guage.

a gas guage cant calculate 19 gallons over a 1.5" spread acuratly enough to get a proper reading.

Exactly. The gas gauge is a good way to get a rough estimate though. For instance, with a 20 gallon tank like I have, when the gauge is at half I should have about 170-220 miles. If I don't, then I know something is up. But actual gas mileage needs to be checked by how much you fill it up with. This means you need to have it topped off, then blank your trip. Drive through that tank of gas, fill up and divide the miles on your trip by the gallons you put it. Rinse, lather, repeat.

 

[YellowRanger95]

Just want to clear the air for the guys that didn't understand what I was trying to say... (I could be wrong though)
It's simple aerodynamics... a soft surface that is allowed to flex against wind resistance will absorb energy, transferring it to your truck and therefore increase drag rather than a hard surface that doesn't yield. Next, your AC doesn't only cycle in "defrost", it cycles the entire time it's being used, I'll go plug mine in and take a video to prove it to you if you're having trouble understanding that.
4x4's have extra weight/shit which some parts are always turning or engaged rather than a 2WD, that's what I meant about "linkage" (front axle, hubs, transfer case). From what I've seen, a 5spd should kill a automatic transmission in mpg, so getting a 4x4 with an auto transmission just sucks if you expect to get "better" mpg.
As for tires, mine are WEATHERED 31x10.5 all terrains (Not small tires) and like I said... weathered tires tend to have weak side walls witch makes them sag, creating a larger surface for you vehicle to push... push a 20lbs ball down the street along side a 20lbs bag of sand, see what I'm saying?

And I agree with what the Canadian said, it's all in your driving style, the little things you do for maintenance.

 

[Cleanster]

Just replaced the blown motor with one that has 60K and am getting 21mpg that's 4 better tha the old motor. I only have to burn 4900 gals and the motor pays for itself.WooHoo

 

[joecool85]

I know the A/C cycles when "in use." The point is, it only cycles when the fan is on. If you shut your fan off, the A/C pump won't run. Also, I think on feet only it doesn't run.

 

[Froggmann]

Feet and Vent only. Any other setting and the A/C compressor will cycle whether or not the heater fan is on.

 

[joecool85]

Feet and Vent only. Any other setting and the A/C compressor will cycle whether or not the heater fan is on.

The heater fan is ALWAYS on unless you set the selector (for the location, not the fan speed) to off.

 

[06RangerXLT]

Exactly. The gas gauge is a good way to get a rough estimate though. For instance, with a 20 gallon tank like I have, when the gauge is at half I should have about 170-220 miles. If I don't, then I know something is up. But actual gas mileage needs to be checked by how much you fill it up with. This means you need to have it topped off, then blank your trip. Drive through that tank of gas, fill up and divide the miles on your trip by the gallons you put it. Rinse, lather, repeat.

the gas gauge is worse then a 2 year old doing the math.

 

[joecool85]

the gas gauge is worse then a 2 year old doing the math.

That's probably true (I'll tell you in 2 years how true that is, my wife is due Nov 7), but since I only do the math in my head when it reaches half tank (roughly 10 gallons left and 10 used) it's easy to figure the math. If 200 miles, it's 20 mpg, if 190 it's 19mpg etc. I always check my real mpg when I fill up and it's normally within 1-2 mpg of what my estimate was "by the gauge". That said, every truck's gauge will read a little different and also most vehicles aren't so lucky to have a 20 gallon tank so that at half a tank it's 10 gallons used for such easy math.

 

[locovaca]

That's probably true (I'll tell you in 2 years how true that is, my wife is due Nov 7), but since I only do the math in my head when it reaches half tank (roughly 10 gallons left and 10 used) it's easy to figure the math. If 200 miles, it's 20 mpg, if 190 it's 19mpg etc. I always check my real mpg when I fill up and it's normally within 1-2 mpg of what my estimate was "by the gauge". That said, every truck's gauge will read a little different and also most vehicles aren't so lucky to have a 20 gallon tank so that at half a tank it's 10 gallons used for such easy math.

The issue with that method, even as an approximation, is that E on my truck is about 3 gallons remaining. The gauge also decreases non-linearly; it takes 200-250 miles to get to halfway but only about 100 to get below a quarter.

It's a dummy gauge, just like the tach, voltmeter, and temp gauge. It's useful as a general reference in relation to itself but not for anything else.

 

[joecool85]

It's useful as a general reference in relation to itself but not for anything else.

Exactly. And I've found that on MY TRUCK it works pretty well as a mpg approximation (half on the gauge is always the same amount and I've tested it with real mpg figures to make sure it's semi-accurate for this purpose and in my truck it is).

Now, I would never say "well, looks like I'm getting 20mpg" by that. But it does get me to think "maybe I should get my foot out of it so much" if it seems low. Then I check the mpg when I fill up.

 

[shane96ranger]

Some people don't like this, but I always unplug the A/C compressor in the winter. I've never had any adverse effects from doing so either. Turning that pig eats gas, and if it's not changing my climate, then I'd rather not be turning it.

I've done it on my Mustang, Explorer, Mountaineer, and Ranger. I have not done it on the Escape though. The F150 is getting it this year.

 

[joecool85]

Some people don't like this, but I always unplug the A/C compressor in the winter. I've never had any adverse effects from doing so either. Turning that pig eats gas, and if it's not changing my climate, then I'd rather not be turning it.

How much of a difference did it make in your mpg?