or anyone else with a newer 5.9 with a 6" lift... have you guys been able to document how much mileage you lost after adding the lift yet? and what rearend gears you are running? if i remember, you both have the 3.73's...

 

thank god i thought you were gonna ask if you were really drunk who would it be...HAHAHA[:'(][][:'(][][:'(][][:'(]

ive always been told its more like 66/33 (F the 1 percent) tires/lift that cause the crap mpg. meaning if you lifted it and kept stockers on (ugh) you wouldnt see near the decrease in mpg as if you cut out the wells and put in 37"+ tires...

 

I don't do a good job at keeping track of mileage. But here is a good estimate. When I was bone stock I was getting 18 to 22 mpg depending on how I drove it. I put a 2" leveling kit and 35" x 12.5" tire on it and it dropped to an average of around 16-18mpg no matter how I drove it. I installed the 6" lift and a little wider tire 35" x 13.5" and it dropped to 13 to 15 mpg.
But thats with my driving style. I don't know what kind of mileage I would get it I babyed it all the way thru a tank of fuel. I am a little hard on it at least half the time and I like to see black smoke!!
But it seems to me that I have lost at least 4-5 mpg across the board going from stock to my current set-up and probably more than that on the Highway mileage.

Hope that helps and keep in mind, others may have better mileage results than me, lots of variables on this subject.
Oh and yes I am running 3:73 gears

 

nope that will be the drop in mpg that anyone would expect.
things to factor
anytime you raise a vehicle wind drag comes into play and will not cut through the air as well as something low to the ground. that will decrease the vehicles efficiency. Now this will be a small amount of loss. it would be less than .5 mpg if it could be measured.

the other thing is weight/size of the tires. this will cost you. if the truck has to work harder it will cost you mpg.
with tires I would expect 1-3 if you stay in the 35"-37" range anything higher and MPG is not a big deal for you apparently.

now I have no lift and have h2s and 33s. I had stock steelies and 265s before. my 33s and h2s weighed 2 pounds less than my stock set up. But I still lost .5 to 1 mpg. why? because of rolling resistance. I had 265 that were narrower than my 33s thus creating more resistance. I have 4.10 gears. gears will never help rolling resistance.
nowthere comes a point when rolling resistance stops going up. as you get wider the surface areaincrease thus the weight of the vehicle is spread out through more surface and putting less pressure towards the ground.
keep in mind tire pressure and such palys a roll (get it? roll. ha ha. anyway) in this as well

so anytime you lift and put larger tires on you can figure on 1-3 mpg loss on any vehicle. even more on some vehicles

 

Buzzy has the 3.73's and an automatic (I think), I have the 3.73's and the manual, some my final drive should be significantly less than his. Before the lift and tires I was getting 20-21 at first, and then as I stoped babying it as much it went to 18 or so (much more "in town driving"now also). After I put the lift and tires on I haven't even got through one tank yet so i don't really know, but preliminarily it looks like it didn't change much, I'm thinking only about 1 mpg or so. I expected much worse than this. Before the lift and tires I would say that I really didn't like to go much faster than 60mph cause the rpms were getting up there, but now I go 70 at the same rpm's easy. I think that may help me out a little on short bit of high way i drive everytime I get out and go somewhere.

Buzzy- I know this is a stupid question... but did you recalibrate your speedo/odo, or are you figuring the rolling distance difference by hand to get your current mpg?

I know there are alot of factors when trying to guess at this, but the fact is there there are just to many. I think the only way to truely know what your mileage drop will be, isto install the lift and tires (or whatever) and find out for yourself.

I should be filling up this week (maybe) so i should have mpg number pretty soon. I track all of my maintenance/service/fuel consumption in an excell spreadsheet that I made, so I have pretty good records leading up to now to compare to. I will let you know what I find out.

 

Yes Savage I have the Smarty and recalibrate every time I change something. If fact I am so **** about it being perfect, I drive at 50, 75 and 100 mph with 2 separate GPS units. I am within 2 tenths of a mph at 100mph. At 50mph it is off 1 tenth. Basicly it changed my gear ratio by about 9% from stock to 35" tires.
But one thing I am not **** about is keeping track of mileage. Those numbers above are only estamates based on the few times that I accually hand calculated my mileage. I have checked it twice with the current set-up and it came to 13.5 one time and 14.5 the next. But like I said, I drive fast. On average I run 80 - 90 on the freeway when traffic permits. And around town I leave a good puff of smoke anytime I see another Diesel, even CTD's.
And this may sound stupid but another reason I drive like that is to help put some kind of strain on the engine. I have nothing to pull at the moment and this thing needs to be worked a little. My lead foot is all the work it see's at the moment.

 

i know what my mileage is going to be when i do my 6"... its called a JOKE! but o well

 

thanks guys! keep me updated! i'm thinking about doing it before august, but there's still lots of other stuff to consider too...

 

I can tell ya, looking back on it now, I wish I would have just pieced my kit together. There are a few thing that I want to replace with "better" parts, and if I woulod have pieced it together I would of had what I wanted from the begining, instead of replacing parts that aren't broken. I'm no expert, but if you want my opinion on how I would piece it together shoot me a pm.

 

Oh crap,I couldn't help myself....

this is what I would buy if I did it again (cause now I got to buy all this crap anyway ):

4 Bilstein Shocks $288
http://store.topguncustomz.com/store...mp;i=212974896
Tuff Country Drop Track Bar Bracket $73.00
http://store.topguncustomz.com/store...amp;i=95217746
Tuff Country Drop Pitman Arm $70.00
http://store.topguncustomz.com/store...mp;i=170113876
Top Gun Customz 6" Coil Springs $229.95
http://store.topguncustomz.com/store...mp;i=231297751
Top Gun Customz Adjustable Control Arms (with spherical end links) $699.95
http://store.topguncustomz.com/store...mp;i=239439442
Skyjacker 4" lift Leaf Springs $613.00 (the leaf springs I think are high, and would prolly look for different ones)
http://store.topguncustomz.com/store...mp;i=182339506

For a total of $1973.90.

You could always lose the leaf springs, and instead use blocks and u-bolts for about $75, which would put you back down to something like $1450 or so.However, if I went with blocks I would use atleast a cheap ladder bar, like this one for $460.00
http://store.topguncustomz.com/store...mp;i=232782378

It seems like you should be able to find less expensive leaf springs, but so far I haven't had any luck [:@].

Hope this helps...