Fuel mileage vs load in the bed experiment

[hsvhobbit]

Last weekend I got the chance to see how my '03 Tundra V8 would do with a little load in the bed. After a busy day hauling, mixing and pouring bags of Quikcrete I found myself with 9 bags left over from my job. I'd gotten a very good price on them and didn't want to take them back, particularly since I was going to need them THIS weekend. Being the lazy sort, I didn't really want to unload them and then a week later, load them back again, so I decided to just leave them in the bed (covered up by my Retrax) and see how the mileage compared.

To shorten an already too long post. Unloaded mileage, between 20 and 20.5 MPG highway miles. Loaded with 720lbs of concrete in the bed: 18.9 MPG. Note that the loaded miles included some extra stop and go that might have caused a slight degradation. So, my conclusion is that the extra weight hurt some, but not the huge amount I'd have expected.

As an aside, during my concrete hauling episodes I was hauling around 1300 lbs of the stuff each trip (3 trips) and could only notice a very minor deterioration in normal acceleration and stopping response from this great truck. These Tundra's are work-horses!

[ricqik]

Originally Posted by hsvhobbit

Unloaded mileage, between 20 and 20.5 MPG highway miles. Loaded with 720lbs of concrete in the bed: 18.9 MPG.

You're kidding right? I can only manage 16.4 once, and only once, and that was all hwy. My average city is 13's.

[RockyMtnRay]

Originally Posted by ricqik

You're kidding right? I can only manage 16.4 once, and only once, and that was all hwy. My average city is 13's.

20 to 20.5 mpg seems perfectly normal to me for all highway driving. I always get at least 20 mpg on road trips and recently had 20.85 mpg on a 270 mile trip. This is very smooth driving right at the speed limit (75 on the interstate, 65 on the 2-lane highways). My only frustration is I just can't quite get above 21 mpg.

There are a few of us (admittedly not very many) who routinely get much better than EPA mileage on the road. In city (actually mostly suburban), I get at least the EPA rated 14, sometimes almost 16.

Heck, I even average 13 to 14 something towing a 4000 lb travel trailer across high mountains. I would expect to also get something in the 18 to 19 range with the load that hsvhobbit was carrying.

I consider my Tundra to be much more of a gas-sipper than a gas-hog.

[hsvhobbit]

Actually 20mpg or so is quite the norm for my Tundra on the highway. On 2 notable exceptions I spiked to 24 but despite everything I've tried before and since, it's held pretty solid at 20. NOW, city's a different matter entirely, mileage plunges down to around 18 or even 17 at times . I had a spell when the highway mileage dropped to around 18 or so...even a new set of plugs/air filter didn't make a difference...I took it in and had all the fluids changed and the fuel filter replaced and wheee back up to 20...The mech told me the filter was so clogged that he could barely blow through it (after only 65K miles)...So now my intent is to replace the fuel filter when I do the timing belt at 90K just for preventative maint.

Anyway, as an update, this weekend I got the bed unloaded and I'm back up to 20.5 MPG...

I've contemplated putting on a set of JBA headers in hopes of upping the mileage but I've seen nothing to suggest that they'd have any help in that dept. I drive around 30K per year so with todays gas prices, even a couple of MPG's would pay off pretty quick.