Miles per gallon lost

[Kent R]

MPG is always an issue with any vehicle. Have you thought about a new fuel tank like Long Range America has? One of our member reps Mike Lee just installed one in his 4runner. Contact him @Magic Mike with any questions you might have.

 

[Shokgoblr]

Me too. I started high near 30mpg off the lot, right now with a roof tent, 5 big tires, rear carrier and all my gear I am lucky to get 21.
Edit: Immediatly after posting, I started thinking, thats as much my fault, as its only a 2.0 4cyl and I have a serious lead foot issue.

 

[smritte]

Who did your motor? I’m at 326,000 and may be doing a new driveline as a PM in the next couple of years.

I did the build. What should have taken a month turned into 7. Most of the machine shops out here are gone. The one I normally use is now a one man show. Massive backlog. Someone had attempted to do the head on it before. I had to have the head milled to minimum and the same to the block deck. When I was done the compression bumped a bit over .5 extra (8.5 ish?). Fortunately it didn't move the cam enough to be a concern.

 

[Lou Skannon]

I get 7 mpg, 8 with tail wind. The new roof rack hasn’t helped. Getting lost on dead end logging tracks puts me in a very bad mood.

 

[oldmopars]

I drive a 3/4 ton Suburban (1990) and it got 11 MPG when I got it, with all my mods, all my gear etc, I get 11 MPG. However, I pulled out all the seats to the tune of about 300lbs and all my gear added back is probably less than 300lbs. So, no change and I can still haul my 30ft travel trailer.

 

[Rath]

I used to get 21 highway, 17 city in my ranger when it was stock.

Now, on the 35's and all the added weight, I get around 15 mpg no matter what.
With the trailer, 13-14 was my average.

 

[UltimaSanctus]

My 2004 Tahoe will average 14mpg. Not horrible for 4 speed hauling 6000lbs, roughly 500 of that is me and the mods and gear I carry daily. It's definitely factory geared for being a highway bruiser cause on a road trip averaging about 70mph I got a hair over 17mpg

 

[rgallant]

Another Discovery owner, fuel mileage on these is bad to start to 25 gallon tank and maybe 300-350 (12-13 MPG)miles to the tank, I have never got better than 12 even in stock config. With larger tires, RTT and loaded right up about 11 mpg, the same as empty actually. That is a mix of hiway, low speed off road hi range and low range.

 

[Billiebob]

Big rires hurt gas mileage more than anything. Going bigger 31s, 33s, 35..... I lost 2-3 mpg everytime. I never paid attention cuz I had the tires I wanted. Then my wheeling/overlanding changed and those wide tires limited where I could get so I went super skinny, from 6" flares to 2" flares and instantly got 5mpg better mileage. Where my range used to be 400kms, I now easily go more than 500kms on a tank.

Tires, rolling resistance, inertia are the killers for range. Look at those big boots with a critical eye and ask are they really helping me.

 

[rho]

So, here's a topic that is related to this... What is your off road fuel range or MPG.

We had a pretty big OB group in Death Valley this weekend and it was kind of interesting seeing differences we all had in our fuel range. I used the 3 extra gallons I bought in my JKU, and I averaged around 13 for the trip. one of our LC100's in the group got like 10mpg... My wifes truck ended up getting close to 16 for trip (HOW?!?!). Like seriously. We dumped 5gal into, but she still finished the trip with the gas gauge between 1/4 and 1/2. It was the first big off road trip with that truck so we didn't really know what to expect for range on it, but it did a lot better than expected.

4high and 4lo fuel range is also a big consideration and not just because of highway miles and overland/off road bits of gear that our trucks tend to grow over time.

 

[Boucher]

Funny everyone always said H2 was the worst on fuel seems it's very close to everyone with their upgrades ... before the roof rack and 37-inch tires I was getting 12.5-13.5 dependiing on the terrian since the rack and tires I get 11.5-12.5, The Fj40 V-8 got 10 -11 after I snorkled it I got 13

 

[WKCwith5]

My 2014 F150 with 5.0 gets about 15 with daily driving and about 10 mpg with a 3500 pound camp trailer. Only mods are 10 ply tires stock size. First post here. Lock forward to the formum.

 

[smritte]

Funny everyone always said H2 was the worst on fuel

I've had people say the same about my cruiser. I was getting 12-14 then. So were most of the vehicles in my class. I now run between 15-16. Off road.......not sure. I bring fuel that I hardly ever use. I do know, I ran about three days in Death Valley before going up into Nevada and topping off. I have a trip coming up, gonna have to look at it.

 

[Boostpowered]

The biggest fuel vampire I've had on our current rig as crazy as it may sound was removing the front bumper lower air dam, that was instantly noticeable. At around 7mpg it wasn't even that bad when my return line sprung a leak and I didn't know for a few days

Going 2 sizes up in tires barely did anything to mpg, 3" then a 4" lift and a snorkel did nothing, front center bumper and winch is barely noticeable at the pump. My truck is chipped so the shift pattern has been optimized, I have a diesel though and they love to be under load.

The epa fuel estimate for my truck is city 20mpg / highway 28mpg

I don't know about city but highway i get around 16 mpg I can make it a little over 350 miles on a 21gallon tank

 

[KonzaLander]

Long Range America tanks are hard to beat. I installed the 40 gallon replacement tank in my Land Cruiser and it is my favorite mod.

On a good day my Land Cruiser might get 14mpg on the highway, but 10mpg is average off-road. It wasn't good stock and it certainly did not improve with bigger tires and gear. Extra capacity was the only surefire way to extend range, without a bumper to hold Jerry cans the LRA tank was an easy choice.

 

[Alanymarce]

Our consumption is usually 15-16.7 L/100 Km on the highway or good unsurfaced road (so an average of 17.8 mi/gal or 14.8 mi/US gal). "Off road" we get around 20 L/100 Km, however have seen as high as 27L/100Km in some deep soft sand. Overall consumption in the Simpson was 135L for 610 Km in a 5 day crossing, so 22.1 L/100 Km (or 12.8 mi/gal or 10.7 mi/US gal).

 

[bamakojon]

My '98 Trooper has 31" tires on it and I usually average about 16 mpg. It's my daily driver, so I don't typically go around with a roofrack or anything like that, and I don't have a bull bar, so I have that going for me. A few weeks ago I broke 18 mpg for the first time, but that was with no cargo whatsoever, no roofrack, and I limited myself to 65 mph, max. To make sure that you're not losing out on whatever fuel economy you can get, I would make sure that everything is in tip-top shape. Clean your egr valve, run some seafoam in your gas and through the intake, etc... My egr valve was really badly gunked up and I cleaned it with a whole can of carb cleaner and it gave me back a solid 1-2 mpg. Not bad for a $2 can of carb cleaner and an hour...

 

[ThundahBeagle]

So in August I bought a stock 1 owner, 55k miles, clean car fax Toyota FJ Cruiser. Went all out spent a bunch of money on an overland build. New bumpers, winch, tent, roof rack, custom cabinets, dual battery, fridge, skid plates, custom cabinets etc. Truck is completely done. I killed myself in terms of gas mileage. I will be lucky to get 220 miles to tank.

How bad did your build set you back in MPG? I know that with what we are doing that isnt a priority, but I dont want to have to worry about my fuel constantly

Good Lord, that's some scary mileage if you are talking highway. I checked my v8 2014 GMC Sierra z71 Double Cab against the much smaller, by Chevy Colorado and found that my truck is rated slightly better fuel mileage -probably due to the Active Fuel Management/ cylinder deactivation that cuts it down to 4 cylinders at highway speeds, not under load.

On the highway I can get 450 to a 25 gallon tank fairly easily. 500 if I lightfoot it. I'm talking about me, the lady, my dog and all our luggage and gear in the back under the Leer cap. I've seen averages over a 25 mile stretch where I get 23 mpg if I'm gentle. Right now I have highway tires on it, though. If I switch to some mile AT's, I imagine I will lose anothe MPG?

Yes it's a large truck at 19 feet. Parking can be tricky in the city. I try to stay away from the city anyway. But aside from large tires and added weight, anything hanging on the outside of the vehicle is going to dock your fuel economy on the highway.

As a result, I opted for a Leer 180 truck bed cap. Nice and smooth on top, no need for a RTT. Everythin, and I mean everything is contained in the bed, under the cap. Sure its 150 to 180 pounds, but also provides a bit of aerodynamic savings, so it's a wash. The spare is under the bed of the truck, so no disruption to the backdraft as if it were hanging off the tailgate. Keep it as stock as possible outside, and you will save a lot on fuel economy.

Having said that, I did add Trac Rack truck Cap roof rack system (now owned by thule) on top of the Leer, but I really only use that when I want to bring my kayaks. When empty, the rack has virtually no effect on fuel economy or noise.

I did level out the front with Bilstein 5100 series shocks, and before that, I removed that chin strap of a front air dam from the bottom of the front bumper. That combination was probably what cost me the most, and that only clocks in at robbing me of maybe a whole mile per gallon.

I cant complain when I'm in a slightly raised, 19 foot truck with a bed cap and roof rack, and I still get as good or better fuel economy than a Toyota Tacoma, Jeep Wrangler, Jeep Grand Cherokee, or Chevy Colorado.

That 19 foot truck is damn comfy on the highway and pretty good on fire and service roads, too.

 

[ThundahBeagle]

After the cap and rack were added, but before the front level

 

[astroflashjones]

My Tacoma seems to get about the same gas mileage loaded or empty. The tires and the lift really dinged it though. Im averaging around 12-13mpg these days. I've driven it with a topper and RTT, empty bed, and Habitat and none of them seem to affect it one way or another.