14mpg is killing me...what can i put in this truck to improve the fuel mileage?

 

The biggest improvement for mileage add on is a block under the go pedal. Your right foot will net you the best fuel mileage.

 

Try a set of lighter shoes. When I take my work boots off and wear my tennis shoes, I get 3 more miles per gallon. Seriously, I quit matting mine around everywhere and it made a HUGE difference. Someone on here once put it best: "Fuel mileage is directly proportional to the position of ones foot on the accelerator." Even if you spend $500.00 or more on a box, pipe, etc. that do help somewhat, you'll be light footin' it as you test the part WANTING better mileage... and you will get it. But what really made the most difference was taking it easy on it.

 

thanks guys, but trust me, i am very light on the pedal to the right. i don't act like i'm in a drag race at every stop light i don't speed when driving the highway i keep the rpm's at 1800 or less. i drive this thing like my grandmother would drive it just to conserve fuel. what can i do to improve the fuel mileage? some of my thoughts are, change out the 3:73 gears to 4:10 gears. change out the torque converter or even swap the auto trany to a manual. none of these changes will be cheap so i'm hoping someone on this forum could give me some ideas.
thanks again.

 

the 04.5 up is harder than the earler ones to get good mileage, change the cam to a pdr it will cost $1,500, get a smarty jr with 04.5 up software cost $500 , cfm+ , and grid heater delete $400 fbd 5"turbo back with donaldson m090535 muffler $400 after this the other items take to long to pay back but some like the dynatrac free spin hubs only gained 0.5mpg for $2,200 the two wheel drive low reverse was worth it . the combo of lund roll up tonneau cover, 1500 series tail gate spoiler and air tabs for $600 will take 4 or 5 years to pay back but like the features of each

 

I've looked into a few alternatives, and concluded that it really doesn't pay to invest heavily in add-ons to increase fuel economy, unless you plan on keeping your truck a very long time.
I'll break it down the way i figured it.
Assuming diesel costs $4.25/gallon
Lets say you spend $1000 on stuff and go from 14 to 18 mpg, a 30% improvement (that'd be amazing imporvement IMO).
With 26 gallons in a tank, you used to go 364 miles a tank, and now go 468 (364 + 30%).
That's 104 miles farther. At 18mpg, those 104 miles saves you $24.55 (104/18 x 4.25)
At $1000 initial costs, it takes a 40.7 tanks of fuel (1000/$24.55) to recoup that $1000. Thats 19063 miles (40.7 x 468) you have to drive to break even.
Now, that $1000, i think was a basic cost. I'm sure the cost of putting a higher ratio rear end would be more, as would something like a gear splitter.
My figuring also assumes you save 30% economy ALL the time, which would be nowhere near true, maybe half the time you see those savings, so add 50% to the mileage, now we're up to ~27000 miles to break even. Depending on how much you drive, it could take you a few years to actually see any savings, and you'd probably have to keep close tabs on it to notice them.

 

see sig. Opti lube added 1 mpg, as did Rokktech. Spoiler a little less.

22-23 mpg, driving like you do, some coasting. always use block heater on short trips. No a/c up hills.

 

a home made cold air intake took me from 16 to 19+ mpg in my 92 auto 4x2.

 

like Vic said it will take a lot of miles to pay off any MPG mods that you want to make to the truck unless you drive 25K a year it may not be worth the money just for MPG i want an afe stage 2 or icebox, high flow muffler or 5 inch exhaust, cfm, and either a smarty Jr or SR all of which i assumed to get me from an average of 17 to 21 the cost to ROI was not good for me i drive less than 1 K a month so we are talking years and many miles for the initial costs to be recouped. and a hub conversion is great too, maybe 2 mpgs, but at 2K in cost it would take a long time to get your return

 

i was going through Cummins site and i found this great article on ideas on saving fuel. you all may have read it, but it's new too me. hope it gives you all some info also http://www.everytime.cummins.com/***...whitepaper.pdf
i printed out the whole 37 pages

 

that's weird i typed in three capitol letters and it substituded three astericks
will try this. http://www.everytime.cummins.com/***...whitepaper.pdf

 

ok one more time after typing in everytime.cummins.com type in /assets/pdf/MPG_secrets_whitepaper.pdf

 

holy smokes that was weird i have the correct address up on the web i can't figure out why it kept changing the web address

 

4:10s will make it worse. Smarty JR is great for mileage, and some good power also. Intake/exhaust are fun and will also help net some mileage. I would expect that you should be able to get around 18 or so combined, maybe 21 or so freeway. Be careful not to lug it everywhere as that can be bad for mileage. Each truck usually has a sweet spot in the RPM band where it is most efficient and delivers the best mileage. It may not necessarily be the lowest possible RPM.