How to increase MPG?

[DamascusKnifemaker]

ORIGINAL: Cereal Killer Take into consideration your speedometer, and therefore your odometer are readling low because of the oversized tires. So you're actually getting better mpg than you think. Taking my round trip mileage of 280 miles and dividing it by the 21 gals of gas the 01 Ram used the best I can be getting is 13.3mpg. I plan on going back to a stock size tire or maybe 285s. I spent some time on the Tire Rack looking at tires and I could only find 4 tires in the 275/70R17 size.

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[VWandDodge]

ORIGINAL: DamascusKnifemaker

I'm thrilled that you know my driving needs better than I because your brother lived in Lovelock. My return to work starts at 0230 hrs. If it has snowed the plows normally don't even start removing anything until 0600 hrs or the 6" mark is hit. On the 140 mile drive I go through 5 seperate summits all involve climbing from about 3000 ft to over 6000 ft. On more thenone occasion I have hit portions of unplowed road that the snow is over 12".It was snowing so hard I had to turn off the headlights and drive by the parking lights.

A good portion of my travel happens on NV Hwy 375 also known as the ET Highway. The entire highway is OPEN RANGE. You ever seen what happens when a volkswagenor any other small car hits a 1500lb cow at 70 mph? The Ram would be a total loss in a cow collision but I have a better chance of walking awaythen I would in a small vehicle.It is not uncommon for horses, elk, deer and antelope to be out and about also. In July my company truck was struck by an antelope to the tune of 1200 dollars for repairs. My wife hit a mule deer in Sept with her GMC truck to the tune 4500 dollars. During the night hours I do not like to drive our passanger vehicles. We also have huge jack rabbits out here and at 70mph the plastic bumper covers, air dams and spoilers on most samller vehicles shatter when the rabbits head collides with the car. I personally have spent over 2600 dollars repairing my BMW 325CiC due to rabbit strikes.It gets 28 mpg on the higway but the repair bills for animal strikes negate gas savings.

I'll stick with the Ram.

HankL,

Thanks for pointing out the link. I will print it and add it to my other reading material (Car Craft) next to the "Throne". I spent several hours browsing the site after I posted and found lots of good info.

Oh well. I offered a suggestion and it went right over your head.

[aspencop129]

Wow, that's a fire! Sorry about the old rig, but the new one is really nice!

The first thing that will help will be to get a smaller tire. The least aggressive tread that will handle the weather is what to look for, or maybe a summer set, and a winter set. But those big and fat tires aren't helping you at all.

I too, have an Off-Road model. I notice that the mileage really suffers when you get to 75 mph and above......not that I ever drive over the speed limit mind you...... I'm not sure if your rural highway commute allows for those types of speeds, but that has been my experience. Also, try it with the O/D off if part of the drive is at slower varying speeds. If the O/D is hunting back and forth, it doesn't help MPG.

A better air filter set up, free flowing exhaust (including cat. converter), and full synthetic fluids in the engine, diffs, and tranny will help some too.

You are not far off the 15 MPG mark, and should be able to get there without major expense.

[DamascusKnifemaker]

ORIGINAL: VWandDodge


Oh well. I offered a suggestion and it went right over your head.

I understood your suggestion perfectly. It was the tone of your reply that needs some polishing.

ORIGINAL: VWandDodge
Oh come on. My oldest brother used to live out in Lovelock. You do NOT need a 4x4 as a daily driver.

Note the "emphasis" on NOT.I took this asyou calling me out on this and frankly unless you are here and familiar with what I need how would you know what I should use as my D/D? I started a thread about gaining morempg with my Ram not on what your brothers experiances in Nevada were.

If I misunderstood you then I apologize for sounding terse.

[ICEMAN_CH]

ORIGINAL: DamascusKnifemaker

Taking my round trip mileage of 280 miles and dividing it by the 21 gals of gas the 01 Ram used the best I can be getting is 13.3mpg. I plan on going back to a stock size tire or maybe a 285s. I spent some time on the Tire Rack looking at tires and I could only find 4 tires in the 275/70R70 size.

I would suggest 285's they don't make a huge differnce from stock and they still look good.

[Ramafication]

yea im using 285's on my ext cab and they seem really good i travelled 400kms on a tank of gas with a 5.2 automatic ,thats kilometers now not miles but still roughly the same.

[Works4Ford]

Well the tires that are on the truck now have roughly a 6% greater circumference than the original size, and also, the larger rotating diameter will be more parasitic loss from the drivetrain decreasing mileage. I'm in the same predicament and need a change for the better in the gas mileage department.

[05DodgeRamHemi]

WOW, nice pick up buddy! Thing looks cleeean and very proportional, I like it brother. Now for saving gas with these rams, I've come up with the BEST technique. It goes something like this...


Don't start your truck! HAHAHAH! Sorry, could't help myself. These trucks suck on gas, just try not hit it a lot and coast whenever you can! Good looking truck buddy, glad to see you found something even better looking than your other one, like the marune.

[mooseariss]

So, I use to make a somewhat similar Drive, except my drive was through thr crappy terrain of Los Angeles to Edwards Air Force Base. I don;t think it's 300 miles, but it sure feels like it when I have to drive it.

Here is my suggestion (take it or leave it) for you, since I did this with my 2000 1500.

1. Change your plugs and wires to a hotter plug and bigger spark. I know it sounds wierd, but I bought some 10.4mm wires fron Taylor and Bosch Platinum plugs from Summit and I was amazed the diffrence in the gas consumption.
2. Exhaust seems to be a major issue with these trucks, swap out the old exhaust manifolds for headers, no need to go nutz on the brand. I actually bought some off E-bay which were Stainless Steel, and I haven't been happier. They hum so nicely under the hood. Also, if you can afford it, swap out the exhaust. I know a lot of guys who do dual exhaust, I personally don;t care for it. I went out and bought a muffler from a company out here in California called Spin Tech. This is the site http://www.spintechmufflers.com/spin...ntechindex.asp. I had a Flowmaster till it got too damn hot and blew a hole in it. These guys guaruntee not only the construction, but the material (thats what the sales guy told me on the phone). So I redid the exhaust system in my truck, had a shop install the muffler, and bend me new pipes. She purrs real nice[sm=badbadbad.gif]!

3. Take them cats out! I know that in Nevada as well as California, it;s state mandated to have Cat's on your truck. Well. If you build up a nice Rep with the muffler guy, they can help you with a nice bolt up set up where you can remove the cats and replace them with straight pipes. Of course for this to work you have to get o2 sensor dummys. They trick the CPU to thinking that your cats are working perfectly.

I know all this stuff seems like a lot of money, but after I did all this stuff, honestly.... I think I'm getting about 15-19 mpg. Again, it just depends on how I wanna drive. When some punk in his Rice Rocket POS pulls up, I just have to smoke my tires and show that lil boy whos king! Then the mileage obviously goes way down. I have done a few other things like Cold Air intake from Airaid, but thats about it. I haven't played around with the engine (yet). But it hums well, hope you like my advice.

[Sixtysixdeuce]

There is only one way to get good fuel economy and a vehicle that is fun to drive:

MOTORCYCLE!

A ZX-10R or GSX-R100 will outrun any production car and get 35+ MPG.

Personally, I like the Triumph speed triple. A bit slower, but much sexier.