Heavy Duty Titan On The Way! - Page 18

ptgarcia · 07-16-2008, 09:55 AM

You're right about that! Just slowing down and easing on the throttle I picked up nearly 100 miles to the tank. Fuel economy in these trucks are definitely affected by speed more than any other I've driven.

eightballsidepocket · 07-16-2008, 10:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ptgarcia

You're right about that! Just slowing down and easing on the throttle I picked up nearly 100 miles to the tank. Fuel economy in these trucks are definitely affected by speed more than any other I've driven.

Yep, same here. I've got the larger 36 gallon tank and my computer will tell me I can make about 600 miles on it, when I'm getting my best mileage. It's a great feeling.

I will tell yah, that when I pulled our trailer from San Jose, Ca. to the Grand Canyon back in April and then went South through Ariz. and then West to San Diego and North Back to San Jose, I got terrible mileage.

Why! I was hitting strong headwinds for 1,700 miles. Boy what a difference that made! I could barely get out of the 12 MPG range. The cost of fuel for the trip went way over my estimate, and it was that darned old unexpected headwinds hitting us while towing a TT with plenty of frontal air resistance.

Again, I was astonished that I gained nearly 1 MPG just installing a bed height hard Tonneau top on my long bed. It helped with unloaded and towing mileage.

People on the forums have been telling me that eliminating all the extra surface area inside an open bed with 5 surfaces for the wind to meet resistance could possibly be the reason for the better mileage.

Mythbusters tested mileage on P.U.'s with tailgates down and up and didn't find a difference, but totally covering the bed with a smooth flat top seems to do something different with the wind passing by.

I've heard from some folks that tried camper shells that this didn't enhance their mileage.......Again, a camper shell adds increased surface area while a tonneu eliminates surface area for the wind to pass by.

Maybe the wind doesn't swirl or creat some kind of vacuum and just passes over the truck better?