Best approach to better mileage

Knowklew · December 2, 2012

Take your foot off the gas.

Keep highway speeds around 60-62mph

No hard take-offs.

Run good gas

Empty out your bed

Empty out all the junk from your backseat

Don't install a steel bumper

Don't install bigger tires/wheels

These are by far the cheapest options to improve your mileage.

Z71-K9 · December 5, 2012

Why do I get 12mpg? Of the 8 above, I have not complied with any of them.

TooTall1 · January 8, 2013

I'm surprised nobody mentioned seeking out and using ethanol free gas. It's a proven fact that ethanol is approximately 25% less efficient than gasoline. Use ethanol free gas and you'll get better mileage.

Knowklew · January 11, 2013

I'm surprised nobody mentioned seeking out and using ethanol free gas. It's a proven fact that ethanol is approximately 25% less efficient than gasoline. Use ethanol free gas and you'll get better mileage.

This is true, at least the general idea is. I don't know about the real world percentages.

I live near Chicago, which means all the gas has at least 10% ethanol added. I have a summer cottage in the northern part of wisconsin, where they have ethanol free gas. My drive up to wisconsin I get around 15-16 mpg on the highway going 75+. On the way home with ethanol free gas I get 18-18.5 mpg driving the same speeds. This has been very consistent over all the trips I make up north.

AzDragonLord · January 11, 2013

I have a completely stock 1500 Sierra with a 5.3L, and I average 18.5 MPG...and that's with a lot of mountain driving. I do drive conservatively, so that helps a lot.

Babyhauler · January 19, 2013

Buy a Scan Guage and use the efficiency monitoring that it has. I do not have one, but that helps more than anything to increase mileage. I have read many post from drivers who claim this.

Go to ecomodders.com to research many common and many extreme ways to increase mpg's. I changed my 02 2wd from 3.73 to 3.23 and increased my hiway mileage, but in town probably went down. It did perform better in town with the higher gear, a 3.42 would have probably been the best compromise. Your 4 x 4 could use a bigger # gear. It would not pay for itself, but it would drive better. Ecomodders has many post with documented mileage changes concerning non ethanol gas. My increase did not pay for the cost differences. I am not sure how long a tune would take to pay for itself. There again, performance or cost per mile. Your truck is newer, so some things may have time to pay for themselves.

My 05 1500 2wd, 5.3, 3.23 Crew Cab w/ 204,012 miles has averaged 15.474 mpg since July in the 10,000 miles that I have owned it. This is with a fuel mileage app I use on all fill-ups. I am first leaving stoplights, run 10 over on most streets in town, do some drifting if it has been raining, and spend time in school traffic at least once a day. I also draft anything when I can, big trucks are best, coast to stops if I am not blocking anyone else, time traffic lights, rarely sit in a drive thru, and turn it off if I am not on the road or driving. No idleing. So I give up some mileage and get some back in my driving habits, but I never block the road. I recently indicated on the DIC 24 mpg at he end of a 100 mile trip. Real is usually 1 mpg less. That was on 65 mostly and 55 mph roads. I was happy with 23 mpg in a 200,000 mile truck with A/T tires on it.

Research all you can, document all you do and let us know the differences.

Good luck

Babyhauler