Wants to run!

[BlackSTX]

I hear you on that. It seems once I get out of the stop and go traffic in town; even if I still don't get into a higher speed zone, the mileage starts to take off. Then when I get into the country a bit and can crank it up, the mileage keeps going up. It seems to keep going up even if I'm really giving it a beating too.

Around town, back and forth to work, which is only 3 miles one way, I average about 13.5 mpg. Give me a chance to get onto some roads with a couple fewer traffic lights and the mileage can jump 2 or 3 mpg easily. Then let me hit the country and in no time I'm up over 17 and continue creeping up. Even if I'm launching it from stops and cruising at 70, it continues to go up higher.
On that day I ran it over 100, my average mileage reading was almost 20 mpg; the highest I think it's ever read.

[Longshot270]

You should look into installing a vacuum guage like I did. About $15 and I can fine tune my highway driving to easily get over an extra mpg. Pretty soon I'm going to do some experiments with the converter lock points by comparing to the guage. But even without it I get about 13.8 city and ~20 highway mpg. I've been seeing 20 mpg on country roads I used to see 18. The best part was that there was no drilling besides the installation of the guage.

[martinoledad]

Ive actually noticed the same thing. When give it a little more gas then a normal person would then I get better gas mileage. I was wondering the other day and then read this tread and it got me even more curious. Does Bill set a speed limiter or is it stock or is it even so far up there no body will ever get there? I hope its the last one. I dont know a road that i can safely get my truck that high or with out getting busted by the cops.

[Longshot270]

Both Jack and I have noticed that slightly harder acceleration gets better mileage. He's got a 5.4L 4wd and I have the 4.6L 2wd so there is definitely a larger variety. I think it is because the engineers had torque in mind when they designed these trucks. Bill usually sets the speed limiter at 120, that is what mine is set at. Look around for a track and I'm sure you can find a way for them to give you access to use it. I've got one within 10 miles and a second within 50.

Oh BTW, I'm going to move this to the conversation area of the forum where other peope may see it and add their input.

[Jackpine]

I don't know that Bill mucks with the speed limiter unless you ask him to. He didn't with my tunes, but it was an easy change using the "Custom Options" menu.

Then, after setting my speed limiter to 110, I set my speed alert at 85, so I don't get a ticket! Does this make sense or what?

I certainly don't want to cruise in the "ticket me" range and, I don't want to push the tire limits, (even though they are rated for 114). But, if I have to go fast for some reason, I most emphatically don't want the truck's brain to shut me down.

These trucks certainly don't need to be "babied", but they don't need to be "beat all to hell" either. I think either approach can be bad for their long term health.

- Jack

[matt7.350]

I had an 05 F150 STX 4.6 I only had an exhuast on it and i still noticed the same thing about it. In Ga on 75 S you can open it up a little due to the Speed limit being higher and I always got great numbers going to and from Atlanta

[BlackSTX]

Jack, you are so right; abuse will definitely reduce the life of your vehicle.

I used to harass a couple friends who beat the daylights out of their cars. One had gone through several engines, transmissions, and even the rear end all the while I still had all the original components in my Buick, which I regularly ran pretty hard. Sure, My Buick wouldn't get up to speed as quickly as his Chevy, but it could run at speed with it all day long.

As my dad had pointed out, there's a difference between running them hard, and abuse. When I refer to beating my truck, I just run it harder than usual. Out of all the vehicles I had, I only broke parts in one vehicle -- and AMC; which should explain why it broke.