i want to get 35MPG out of my pick up truck

[GasSavers_ccrider]

i meant that i would have to multiply my mileage by 1.019

[shatto]

How To Get 35 MPG Out Of Your Truck



Remove Bike.

[bowtieguy]

as in remove bike, and ride it instead!

[chesspirate]

has nobody mentioned the idea of lowering the truck yet?

Look at the picture posted earlier of the 35+mpg toyota truck and you'll see some other aero mods.

Have you thought about or looked into any exhaust modifications?

Does anyone make underdrive pulleys for your vehicle?

Do you have a spare tire and jack that can be removed? Anything else that can be ditched?

Have you tried any fuel additives?

[GasSavers_ccrider]

lowering the truck seems costly. any idea on the gains i might see in the mpg's?

i did some searches on this website and could not find any info on a 35mpg Toyota truck. do you have any links to the truck?

when it is time for a new exhaust i will get a performance one.

what is a underdrive pulley?

i do have a spare tire mounted under the truck bed. i could take it off.

i have tried acetone. if it made any difference at all it was not measurable. other than acetone i have not tried any additives. which ones would you recommend and are they cost effective?

i don't think that 35 mpg is that far off for my truck because i am getting just above 30 mpg now but i think 40 mpg might be optimistic. i found a guy on ecomodder.com that is getting +3 mpg's out of an aero cap on a Nissan pick up. so if i do that i should be just under the 35 mpg.

[theholycow]

Those are some good thoughts, and it's a great idea to remember to try additional strategies. In my observation, exhaust and minor weight loss won't make a difference.

Weight: That truck weighs at least 3200 pounds. At most, the spare and jack could weigh 80 pounds (and I doubt it's that much). With a few exceptions for specific models, I've observed that nobody has reported a credible FE change from adding or removing less than 10% of weight, and trucks usually seem to require even more. Also, it sounds like the OP is doing highway driving; for highway driving, weight has almost zero effect, which is why some very heavy cars have very good highway FE. If you get it for free, I doubt it will hurt anything, at least.

Exhaust: People trying to save fuel tend not to use even a small portion of a stock exhaust's flow capacity. That's doubly true for highway driving. There are some decent arguments to the contrary in the exhaust link in my sig, though. Either way, it's almost assured that an aftermarket exhaust will never pay for itself.

The additional aero mods are definitely a good idea. Some people have success with underdrive pulleys and fuel additives but I'm not sure if they could ever pay for themselves.

[GasSavers_ccrider]

on the weight issue. when i first got my scan gauge i had to go for work and pick up 2500 lbs of cement block. i have a small 5x8 enclosed trailer that weighs 700 lbs that i used to pick up the block. it was a 30 mile trip with no real elevation changes pretty much just down the coast and back. on the way to get the block my scan gauge averaged 24 mpg and on the way back with 2500 lbs of block it was averaging 21 mpg. so i could say i lost .833 mpg per 1000 lbs on highway driving

[theholycow]

One trip isn't enough data, but even so that's quite interesting. Consider that, towing a trailer, you get additional aerodynamic drag and rolling resistance. Most people experience significant FE loss towing an enclosed trailer.

What 750 pound enclosed trailer is capable of hauling a 2500 pound load? Does the same manufacturer make a 1500 pound flatbed that's good for 5000 pounds? I'd love to get my hands on something like that...not like I could afford it.

[GasSavers_ccrider]

i have an all aluminum v nose trailer. i think the name is Thule. but the trailer grosses at 2200 lbs. i had about 1500 lbs in the trailer and 1000 lbs in the bed of the pick up. the pick up tow max is 3500 lbs and the bed of the truck max is about 1200 lbs. yea i pretty much had the truck maxed out. but you cant kill a Toyota truck.

i had a small travel trailer that weighed 3300 lbs that i drove to San Diego (over the rockies) and to key west FLA 2 times. my truck has over 200,000 on the odometer with the stock clutch and i get around 80,000 miles out of the front brakes brakes and the rears are the originals and are still good.

and oh yea its a 4 cylinder

[shatto]

The newer the vehicle, the more difficult modifying engine performance will be because the computer adjusts to keep the engine running within design parameters. Toyota is very good at this.
Basically, the engine will run at the optimum air/fuel ratio under all running conditions and unless you are able to program the computer, you are going to find that things like 'improving breathing' to be noticable only insofar as achieving maximum RPM faster.