Road Trip - Best Mileage

[juspifool]

I have the 87 Performance tune on a Gryphon for my '05 FX4 Supercrew and its great. I am looking to see what settings I can change to maximize my fuel economy on my upcoming road trip. I'll be traveling about 1400 miles both ways mostly on the highway.

[Longshot270]

The only setting you need to keep the mileage up is to watch your foot. I put a vacuum guage and I keep an eye on that while driving. It can get me 1 or 2 extra mpg just by changing the amount of pedal I use. I never realized how much pedal I used until I put that in.

[BlackSTX]

That's a good, inexpensive way to go.
I'm usually reminded how much pedal I use when I go for gas.

[eagle1highlander]

Have sae on my 2008. Have reached as high as 17.2 on long haul with cruise on.

[88Racing]

If you want to modify a custom tune that Bill wrote call PHP and talk to Bill.
JMHO

[60DRB]

Well the Gryphon has been installed for a month now. I just made a 600+ mile trip and was wondering why...

My hand calculations for mpg were 15.75 mpg. The Gryphon display for average mpg showed 20.6 mpg as I was rolling into the driveway. That seems to be a HUGE discrepency.

I have the 87 tow tune loaded, tire size and diff. ratio are correctly loaded. Why such a huge difference?

[hampsterzone]

I have wondered the same exact thing! I use to think I got great mileage going off my edge evolution until I did the miles to gallons ratio and found it to be off, much like you are seeing. Increase your mileage by using premium fuel and driving so your rpms are below 1,900. Limit idling also helps. Running fully synthetic oil, new fuel filter, and having your fuel injection system cleaned by a professional helps. If it is a good place they clean everything plus add cleaner to your fuel. I have done this and I am very pleased with the results. Costs more at first but in the end your truck runs better and you will see an improvement in mileage. Good luck!

[jmwilso2]

The most ive gotten with my 07 long box super cab 4x4 is 20.1 on a 1000 km long straight flat stretch in northern ontario. This road also has some serious hills before and after the flat stretch and the best way I've found to save fuel on them is to keep the cruise off and build up lots of speed going down and then bleed it off going up the next one, basically just plant your foot in one spot and let the speed do what it wants within reason. Obviously you dont want to be crawling up hills as this will defeat any gain in economy you might get, but gravity is free use all you can. 88Racing called this roller coastering in a reply to a post I had make a while back. I liked it and call it that all the time now.

I was also wondering how much pedal Longshot uses? I havent got the vac guage for mine yet and was thinking I might be able to use accelerator pedal position off the gryphon instead, the two should be directly proportional although not necessarily a linear change relative to one another. Or maybe just go by rpm outright while accelerating. Do you keep it under 1900 like Hampsterzone? I had been accelerating around 2000 but have started shooting for 2500 and I think I'm actually seeing an improvement. Its just an estimation of course, its way too hard to get an accurate fuel economy calc this time of year for me. But just going by what the instant economy is and for how long it stays that way for a low power acceleration vs a moderate power acceleration it looks like 2500 is working out better. I wish it would work best with the pedal to the floor, I'm kind of in love with the sound my new exhaust makes.

Good topic, Its always interesting to hear how many mpgs others are getting and what they are doing to get them.

Joe

[hampsterzone]

Catch 20/22! Accelerating decent up to speed is better for economy as long as it is not too much. I meant keep your upper speed in relationship to 1,900 rpms. I loved the rollercoaster analogy, makes since. Have you considered the other suggestions?

[jmwilso2]

I change the fuel filter every second oil change, but I still use good old dinosaur oil. Its actually a synthetic blend but, I cant justify the cost of full synthetic unless I can extend the time between oil changes, which I cannot do until I'm out of warrenty. I'd also probably want to change the filter every 5000km anyway and then just top up the bit that I lost doing that. I'll be getting the fuel system cleaned within the next 10000km as I'm almost due for a 100000 km maintenance.

Joe

[88Racing]

Routine general maintenance will also help the mpgs.....

Cleaning the TB...
Cleaning the MAF...
Changing the fuel fuel filter....
Performing these every 15k miles helps....

[60DRB]

My question has nothing to do with the vehicles MPG per se. My question has to do with the discrepency between the actual mileage and what the Edge/Gryphon display shows. The actual miles traveled for gallons consumed as calculated by hand/calculator (15.75) are significantly different from the tuner displayed numbers (20.6). It seems the tuner (mine anyway) has a serious calculating error... 15.75 and 20.6 are very far apart.

[Longshot270]

If you do a lot of gunning the throttle then rolling for long periods of time it will throw off the mpg calculation. 10 seconds of 5 mpg (during a hard acceleration) then 30 seconds of idling down the road at 40 mpg averages out to about 25 mpg. In reality you will get crummy mileage if you are constantly flooring it. Yeah these numbers are just arbitrary but I think that is about what I've seen. I think hills might also have the same effect as the heavy throttle followed by really light throttle.

Other problems would be if your tire size is too big in the programmer and it thinks you are travelling further per wheel rotation.

...That is about all I can come up with at the moment.

[60DRB]

I never "gun" the throttle. I don't leave the truck idling. I'm a "fuddy duddy" according to my family when driving. The tire size stock was 255-70/17 and the new tires are only one step larger at 265-70/17. All tire size, differential ratios, etc are set correctly. I just don't understand the large difference in mileage calculations. The mph is within 1-2 mph from the instrument panel and the Edge/Gryphon display. Performance (throttle response in all situations) is improved from stock. Actual mileage seems about the same as stock. It's just that the mpg reading on the Gryphon display is WAY off from reality. I think I'll just switch to one of the other displays so as not to be so annoyed at the unrealistic mpg claim/display.

[Jackpine]

I never "gun" the throttle. I don't leave the truck idling. I'm a "fuddy duddy" according to my family when driving. The tire size stock was 255-70/17 and the new tires are only one step larger at 265-70/17. All tire size, differential ratios, etc are set correctly. I just don't understand the large difference in mileage calculations. The mph is within 1-2 mph from the instrument panel and the Edge/Gryphon display. Performance (throttle response in all situations) is improved from stock. Actual mileage seems about the same as stock. It's just that the mpg reading on the Gryphon display is WAY off from reality. I think I'll just switch to one of the other displays so as not to be so annoyed at the unrealistic mpg claim/display.

I agree with that approach. I never found the Avg MPG values to be particularly accurate. But, my truck has a "message center" and it can show MPG too - again, the dashboard values tend to be higher than actual.

I've concluded there's a fault in the algorithm used for the calculation, or, a fault in the ability to sense the amount of fuel used vs distance driven.

I DO monitor Inst MPG though. If the number there is high, I know I'm getting good economy at that moment. At times, I've found by shifting out of OD (when towing) or locking the truck into 2nd gear actually improves my Inst MPG values.

- Jack