Newbie MPG experience on the open road. Stock 2001 4wd psd. - Diesel Forum

mucor · 03-27-2005, 04:46 PM

Brought my 2001 4wd PSD home yesterday and drove over 300 miles. Totally stock.
Mostly flat roads, no traffic. Tested MPG for various crusing speeds.

Filled up at Flying J and Pilot.

Speedometer reads about 2 mph high compared to my GPS. Below are GPS speed and milage figures.

Here are my numbers.

75-80 MPH (110 mile stretch) driving "normally" not on cruise
15.8 MPG by hand 15.9 on computer

60-65 MPH (108 mile sretch) driving like a grandma, feathering the gas
19.5 MPG by hand 19.6 on computer

63 MPH on Cruise (shows 65 MPH on speedo) 70 mile stretch.
18.3 MPG by hand 18.3 on computer

CHPMustang · 03-27-2005, 08:09 PM

Those numbers sound pretty realistic,you'll get better MPG's as long as you stay under 2,000 RPM's [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Bill

JOE_M · 03-28-2005, 12:44 AM

I like those numbers,but "I can't drive 55".At 40 mph you will realy see some impressive numbers.

pabrannan · 03-28-2005, 01:27 PM

At 55mph I can get up to 24mpg on flats....

Paul B

CHPMustang · 03-28-2005, 01:40 PM

There's no way we could go 55 slow as the truckers will mow us down on I-10 going across New Mexico & Arizona but seeing 24 mpg sure would be sweet [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

We'll probably cruise at 65 MPH on our annual trip to the west coast and back in May to see if we can beat the 21-22 MPG this time around [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

Bill

Bruce1954 · 03-28-2005, 04:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
At 55mph I can get up to 24mpg on flats....

Paul B

[/ QUOTE ]

To bad I must be related to Sammy Hagar also, Did Get 21 one time My daughter thought I had gone Mad! since I was driving under the limit.

We ended up driving about 1825 miles this past weekend on about 111 gallons so that comes out to about 16.5 I think that is a good average considering we had 6 to 8 adults riding 6 for the most part + another 750#s or more of "Stuff"
With winter fuel and trying to do 9.5MPH over all the time in real world hills and traffic. I don't think I would expect much more without changing/addin to the gearing.

Bruce

outplayn · 04-02-2005, 09:05 PM

OK....this may sound a bit weird...but I did the Sonnax™ valve/Tricumulator™ springs mod to me 01 EX and I have picked up some mileage and I am very happy with the shifting of the EX now...doesnt seem like it is searching for a gear anymore.

Just my 2 cents

CHPMustang · 04-02-2005, 11:20 PM

[ QUOTE ]
OK....this may sound a bit weird...but I did the Sonnax™ valve/Tricumulator™ springs mod to me 01 EX and I have picked up some mileage and I am very happy with the shifting of the EX now...doesnt seem like it is searching for a gear anymore.

Just my 2 cents

[/ QUOTE ]
Spends less time in between two gears and it also helps keep tranny temps down alot.

CaliEx · 04-04-2005, 01:46 AM

It would be sweet if someone could come up with an overdrive ratio in the transmission that would get you to about 85 mph @ 2000 rpm... then you could see some mileage at highway speeds that would make an economy car proud!

Wishfull thinking I suppose... but it would be nice!

outplayn · 04-04-2005, 09:39 AM

I would think that changing over from the 3.73 gears down to a 3.55 would help a bunch. I would think someone has try'd it....If not...I am thinking of tryn it!

ANYONE? [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

DieselFan · 04-04-2005, 10:44 AM

[ QUOTE ]
It would be sweet if someone could come up with an overdrive ratio in the transmission that would get you to about 85 mph @ 2000 rpm... then you could see some mileage at highway speeds that would make an economy car proud!

Wishfull thinking I suppose... but it would be nice!

[/ QUOTE ]

It sounds good, but in reality, it won't work. The problem is that drag is our enemy as speed increases. And there's a ton of studies that have been done by the trucking industry that we can borrow from here.

To sum it up, drag is increased exponentially with speed, meaning that if you are traveling at 65 mph, your drag is 40 percent greater than if you were going 55 mph, even though you are going only 18 percent faster. Studies have shown that traveling at 65 mph rather than 55 mph only added 5 to 8 mph onto the average speed but consumed 18 percent more fuel. So the higher the speed, the harder the engine has to work to overcome the drag coefficient. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

A1980GMC · 04-04-2005, 10:10 PM

Ok this post has me feelin a little blue. I am only getting around 13mph. I have a 02 X with 90k miles. Most of my driving (70-75%)is in town. I do have a heavy size 15 foot, but I am not a drag racer I don;t take off with a heavy pedal.

Are there any maintenance issues I should look at?

Thanks, Ryan

CHPMustang · 04-04-2005, 10:32 PM

Hi Ryan,you haven't listed any modifications such as intake/exhaust in your signiature but them two alone can make a world of a difference for performance and MPG numbers.

I shot you a PM with some other info [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Bill

A1980GMC · 04-04-2005, 10:43 PM

Thanks Bill. I have no mods as of now. I am still gathering info as to what I want to do.

CHPMustang · 04-04-2005, 10:48 PM

In the meantime if you wanted to get a looksee of all that has been done to our 2002 we can hook up one of these weekends to get you steered in the right direction without overkill $$$ and power wise [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Bill