Hi guys,

Its that time of year again when I load up the family and take them on a long road trip in the lovley Supercrew... anyway, with gas prices the way they are ($1.26+) I need some tips on how to get better gas mileage from my truck. I have a 2001 SuperCrew 4x4 Off Road with the 5.4 motor and 3.55 regualr axle, anyway..... Will I see that great of a difference if I leave the tailgate down for better airflow? Will I notice an increase/decrease if I use 89 or 93 octane gas? Any type of octane booster that yall reccomend that might help a little? The trip will be about 2000 miles or so, so I will be changing the oil before departure, any type of special oil I should use to help improve gas mileage? I do have a K&N air filter that I will be cleaning up and recharging and dropping in before the trip.

Anything I can do to ad a tenth here and a tenth there will help out a lot! I dont want to do any major mods that cost me a ton of money, but is there anything I can do that is inexpinsive to help a bit with gas mileage?

Thanks for any help,
Wesley
P.S. The trip will be from San Antonio, TX to Albuquerque, NM, and back (840 miles one way)

 

Let me see now, what have I found . . .

. . . don't really know about the tailgate, always had a cover
. . . I'd stay with the recommended octane unless you have a chip
. . . I would never use any kind of additives in my truck
. . . 5W20
. . . use the cruise control whenever you can
. . . keep it at a reasonable speed - 65 mph is better than 75 mph and 60 mph is much better
. . . wax the truck (real good), cuts through the air better

Bob

 

and just hope for a tailwind all the way. My 4.6l gets 14-15 in regular day-to-day driving; got 17 mpg on the road once on a long trip.

Forget any higher octane gas; engine won't be able to make use of it and it ain't gonna help. If your plugs are old (over 35,000 mi), it might help to change those first. Don't plan to change the plugs on the day before you leave, however, your bloody knuckles won't heal in time for the trip.

Select good tunes for the CD player.

To me, the best thing you can do is to thoroughly check out the vehicle to aviod problems on the trip. Check all the fluid levels, and all the belts. Also check the amount of surface left on front brakes (especially if you're going thru the mountains; marginal brakes will wear thru very quickly in the mountains). Also verify the emergency brake works and holds on a grade. Flush and refill the radiator if you haven't done it before. I guess a good place to start on this stuff is to flip thru the various maintenance checks in your owner's manual.

Leave the kids with grandpa and grandma?

Just my $.02.

 

Before I got my Retrax bed cover I did try the tailgate down tip. It does work and I got 17 MPG (~65 MPH with cruise control on) which is what I get with my Retrax closed.
In addition to all the stuff mentioned above, check you tire pressures.
Have a good trip!

 

I recently took a trip from San Antone to Phoenix and I started out using higher octane and it did nothing for me, in fact I thought it did somewhat worse. However, I must admit to having a led foot. It was a 900+ (closer to 1,000) mile trip one way. Basically, just like everyone else said, use the cruise control as much as possible, and stick with the 89 octane. I did horrible in some areas in West Texas because it was really windy.

 

I just returned from my first long-distance round trip to Glacier Nat'l Park from Portland. I had just installed my new Retrax and I can't believe what a difference it made!

I got almost 18 mpg on average throughout the whole trip (really around 17.7 or so), using 89 octane. The only mods I have are a K&N air filter and the Retrax (I've got the 5.4L on my 4x4 SCrew).

Surprised the heck out of me, as I had been getting only around 13 in town, and on a few occasions 15 to 16 on some shorter distance fly-fishing trips.

We'll see if those numbers last.....

 

Definitely with the tailgate down, I saw an increase from 16 mpg up to 18 down. Make sure your tire inflations are good, in fact running a little high on pressure will help your mileage. On this board, people are running anything from 32 pounds to 45 pounds.

I was running tailgate down on a trip... stopped for gas and food.... left without putting tailgate back down... knew as soon as I got on the entrance ramp to the highway something wasn't right, felt like I was pulling a parachute.... handles better with the tailgate down too....

 

Sounds great, thanks for the advice! Well definatley do it with the tail gate down!

thanks

any other tips for me?

P.S. THIS IS POST NUMBER 100 FOR ME!!!!!!!

 

Put a block of dry ice in the back seat and turn off your a/c

 

Dropping your tailgate down for better gas mileage is a myth.
check out this post :

https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...te+and+mileage

Also, be aware that driving with your tailgate down is against the law in many states. Has to do with someone who may rear-end your truck in a small car and get de-capitated by the lowered gate!

Also, don't use higher octane for better mileage. The increase in gas cost will be more than the very slight, if any, increase in mileage.

 

I have to agree with Superbru on the tailgate up/down thing. I recently drove from VA to FL and got 18 mpg using regular gas with the tailgate up. No mods on the truck except an MP3 player (A must for long trips). On the way back to VA drove with the tailgate down and bed extender out since we had more stuff, but got the same mpg.

 

Real data from two trucks. Both my 1999 Supercab 4x4 5.4L and my 2001 SuperCrew 4x4 5.4L showed significantly improved mileage with tailgate down. Results may vary....

I have experimented on same direction travel, same day, which doesn't guarantee wind speed accuracy.

So, I shouldn't be seeing the 6-7% increase with my hard tonneau cover either... hmmmmm....must be that extra weight from the tonneau making it go downhill better....

I wonder if the NASCAR Winston Cup teams know that increasing the angle and height of the rear spoiler won't increase aerodynamic drag..... How do they get that downforce?

 

well, even if it doesnt help, it for sure will NOT hurt anything.... so whats it gonna hurt if I have it down?

 

trips tolerable....let the kids stay up playing video games or on the computer....tell mama she needs to call her sister....hit the sack right after you load everything up....roll everyone out at 4 am and they,ll sleep till at least 10 am.... peace and quiet for 6 hours?...priceless

 

Easiest things you can do to make sure you are not wasting gas ...

1) Tire pressure. under inflated tires will decrease gas milage. The Expy we have was driven with the tire pressure at 28lbs for the first year. (dealer insisted on 28 lbs.) Mileage was 11.3 mpg. The last six months I increased the tire pressure to 33 lbs and the gas mileage has increase to 12.5 mpg. That is with three 800 mile trips the first year and none in the last six months. I would not know the MPG if the EB package did not tell me.

2) Alignment is important. Your gas mileage will decrease if you plow down the road.

3) Aerodynamics ... I just bought an infiniti G35. I looked underneath and there is molded plastic panels on the bottom from the front to the back. You cannot see anything but the plastic panels. That is how they reduced the drag and lift on the G35.

4) Oil --- just keep it changed in the regular intervals

5) Octane - only run regular unleaded ... unless you have a chip and then you have to run Premium. I would not bother doing a chip unless it was for performance only. The cost of Premium gas is going to cost more than the savings in miles per gallon.

I own two 5.4L Fords so gas mileage is not important. When I drove 55 miles one way to the office I had a Civic VX (1992) and achived 48 MPH. Funny thing ... When I sold the Civic less than two years later it had 98,000 miles and the original brake pads. For the past 3.5 years my office is in the basement so miles per gallon does not matter. I have no idea what the mileage of the S'crew is for the first year.