LOL Firstly, this is funny. I had acccidentially posted this in the neon forum, they must of thought I was so weird. I kept getting all of these responses from neon ppl, and I was like ook??? Anyways, here is the original post, thanks yall!

I knew going into trading my 35mpg neon for this dodge ram that there was going to be a drastic mpg change, and it was something I was willing to take because I just liked the truck so much. But it seems like my Ram is doing worse than I thought it would. When I first bought the truck, my overhead computer rated me at 12-12.5mpg for this first two months I owned it. To me, that seemed reasonable considering it was a 360 and that it had 35" tires, so I accepted it. Now my overhead rates me at 9.5-10mpg, and its accurate. I don't know what happened. Did it get accustomed to my driving styles? I couldn't imagine it'd change an entire 2mpg from the last guy who owned it to me? Today I filled up my entire tank and it says I'm only going to get 220 miles till empty. It's somewhat annoying. You guys think a tune up could fix this? I haven't gotten a tune-up since I've owned the truck so maybe that's it? I mean I guess I am happy I'm getting more than my brother lol, he gets 7mpg on his 460 and he runs relatively small tires (265's)...that thing is a true pig lmao. Anyway, your help would be admired, I'd like to bring it up a bit more, even to 11mpg.

 

You'll probably get a little bit better mileage when you put the street tires on it.Also quit making exhaust and race videos. Eveytime you hammer down the peddle to go flying past the camera you destroy your mileage. I'm not sure if a gear swap would help you enough to be worth the cost of doing it. You could take your whole A/C system out , and lose your spare tire and the mounts for it and lose a couple hundred pounds, which would defintly help. Change your oil, and use syntheic (Amsoil is great stuff). What kind of air filter are you runnng? Maybe try something different in that department...

There's someplace to start

 

LOL well firstly, I can't promise I won't race, it's just in my blood! But I know it has a lot to do with it, I'm sure the guy who owned it before me was more into offroading than I am and never really pushed the truck hard on the street like I do. I think you made a good point about the tires as well. I think when I get the all terrains, it will take away some of the friction going on with the big clump mud tire treads. For the gearing, I dont think Ill mess with it. It has 4.10 and the truck has no issues moving around, so as u said, its probably one of those things that isnt worth it because of the cost. I really do got to keep the foot off the pedal though. Its so hard not to though. I love hearing this puppy roar, its like my fricken passion haha. But yeah I got to stop, period...any other suggesstion ppl?

 

a cut from the 'driver behavior' part of the FAQ:
====

In the Cummins White Paper they cite a study where there was a 30% variation
in MPG between professional drivers in the exact same truck over the same
route.

This is similar to GM research, such as this from from page A3 of The
Wall St Journal on 11-21-2005:
"Roger Clark, GM's senior manager of energy and drive quality in North
America, said the current test does a good job measuring average mileage but
the problem is the variation in how people drive. He cited a GM Study of 209
people driving the same midsize SUV. The fuel economy varied from about 13
miles per gallon to 23 miles per gallon, depending on the driver."

Ford did a test of different drivers in the same vehicles and found an even
greater MPG difference of 38% between the best and worst driver habits and
conditions like low pressure tires, max AC, cargo on roof racks, etc:

Oak Ridge National Laboratory found similar results:
"The problem is that mileage varies so much from one driver to another and one
place to another that the government ratings are a poor predictor of what any
individual driver is likely to get with his or her vehicle," said Bo
Saulsbury, a researcher at Oak Ridge. "If the EPA rates a car at 20 m.p.g.,
the real-world data show that you might do as well as 30 m.p.g. or as poorly
as 10 m.p.g."

There are 'experts' at driving to get the best MPG. You can read about
John and Helen Taylor, a husband & wife couple who are sponsored by
Shell and have won many contests at this link:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0601/S00020.htm

Note the list of good driving techniques for better MPG near the end of the
article about the Taylors.

At the 'extreme' end of driver behavior are the 'Hypermilers'
such as Wayne Gerdes:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feat...permilers.html

In April of 2007 UPS announced that they had programmed their computers
to map out delivery van travel to use as many right turns as possible.
This simple switch in the routes driven reportedly saved UPS
about 5% of the fuel they previously consumed before the switch.

 

I've been messing around with my MPG to see what the best style of driving is. The first week I drove like an old man left od on all of the time and drove 20 miles to work each day. Traffic usually moves pretty smoothly but there are lights. I got 12.9 MPG the first week. The second week I drove like a bat out of hell with the od off. I got 10.5 MPG. I don't have any real mods yet and it is a long bed. I think yours is a short bed but I can't tell. So your maybe a little low but with the mods and the lift you might be right on.

 

COLDER WEATHER , GAS (WINTER BLEND) caps off !!! , drive like a normal person and see what happens , its a hell of a concept..lol

 

I can't believe how much that concept blowes peoples minds...

It really does make a big differece. I've got as good as 16 mpg on my truck driving like a normal person. Now offroading in 4-low *** day I've got as bad as 7. Lots more variables with the driver than the vehicle.

On another note you might wanna check and make sure your plenum gasket isn't blown, but you've been around here long enough, I'm sure you've looked at it before.

 

I feel like even when I am taking it slow, this truck still is just sucking fuel. The truck seems to prefer it when I hid the gas a bit to get it going so it can plane out. When I try to take it slow, it takes forever to get up to speed, so I'm just sitting there holding the gas forever to watch it crawl up to like 45mph. I watch the overhead and as I'm holding the gas around 1800 rpms, the truck is average like 5-7mpg just while casually moving. Then once I get to plane out, it averages about 10-18mpg. It sucks, I only really do city driving, so it's all stopping and going, and it takes a tole on the truck. I think with the tune up, complete tranny sevice, and the new all terrain tires, and slower all around driving can assist in getting the numbers at least back up into the 11's. I can't promise I won't race, because like I said, it's just in me, but I'm going to try and bag the unecessary accelerating and passes!

 

Well you're gonna get bad gas mileage if you're trying to accelerate in overdrive.

The trick to good gas mileage is maintaining speed. Get up to speed, don't baby it but don't hammer it down either. Then maintain that speed. Accelleration consumes fuel.

 

When you say accellerate in overdrive, I guess I'm a little confused. Am I supposed to take it out of O/D when I'm accelerating? I just assumed leave O/D alone unless your towing something heavy or what not. And yes, you are right, accelleration is a bitch on these trucks. I hate doing it, I always debate what I should when the truck is stopped. I'm like, "Should I give it a kick in the butt to get it up speed and then left off? OR should I slowly accellerate up to speed?" It's tough, but I think moderate acceleration is just right to get up to speed first and then letting it plane and consist that speed is the best option.