Things we use to help with mpg?

[aquitted]

These are additional ideas that we use:

Michelin wide based singles XDA Energy and Michelin XZA Steers
Synthetic oil
Start and stop like you have an egg between your foot and the throttle
Watch where we stop pick truck stops and rest areas at the top of the hill not the bottom
Look at your truck Do you have a bug shield? Do you have sun visor that blocks air?
Is there anything that can be removed from your truck that blocks air?
We trimmed our mud flaps down to the size of our wide based singles
Buy the flow through mud flaps
move the license plate if hanging down in the wind
Dont idle
Get pre pass and ez pass
use LDWS as an aid to keep the truck driving straight and not wobbling in a lane

Engineers at catipillar state that fuel mileage will be gained at speeds lower than 50 mph by decreasing rolling resistance. to increase fuel mileage above 50 mph you must decrease wind resistance. They also say synthetic oil in the engine does nothing to increase fuel mileage at any speed. But synthetic in the transmission and rearend (of the truck) will help fuel mileage at speeds 50 mph and lolwer. Got this off of the CAT website

 

[Rocketman]

Engineers at catipillar state that fuel mileage will be gained at speeds lower than 50 mph by decreasing rolling resistance. to increase fuel mileage above 50 mph you must decrease wind resistance. They also say synthetic oil in the engine does nothing to increase fuel mileage at any speed. But synthetic in the transmission and rearend (of the truck) will help fuel mileage at speeds 50 mph and lolwer. Got this off of the CAT website

In that case, CAT engineers don't know what their talking about. I've done a lot of the things spoke of in this thread myself and know that my truck gained fuel mileage. I took it from a 9mpg truck to 10.5+mpg. I drove 65mph fairly consistent.

 

[Turtle]

In that case, CAT engineers don't know what their talking about. I've done a lot of the things spoke of in this thread myself and know that my truck gained fuel mileage. I took it from a 9mpg truck to 10.5+mpg. I drove 65mph fairly consistent.

Yeah, I'd have to read that at the CAT website before I believed it, especially the part about synthetic engine oil not increasing fuel economy, since it's a well established and irrefutable fact that it does. And while wind resistance isn't a large factor below 55 MPH, it's still a factor. Rolling resistance is a factor at all speeds, but especially at those above 55 MPH.

 

[EasyDoesIt]

From reading the AirTab website my understanding is the air tabs are the same for sides and roof UNLESS it has a translucent roof. Then you need need air tabs with a different adhesive.

 

[mugurpe]

I just installed airtabs on my truck. my 12'6 clearance 26' truck took 25 tabs per side, but has a fiberglass roof and that would require different tabs which I didn't order because of the texture. I also used another 6 tabs on the truck elsewhere (back of cab below box, and on the under-bed box). I probably won't be able to report on mileage gains as we don't do the same routes often enough to develop good numbers.

I used the optilube fuel additives. you can get larger volumes and then make up your own bottles (I ordered the correct size bottles from ULINE for each tank on each truck so our drivers don't have to measure anything when they fill up, then we refill the bottles at the warehouse). It's definitely improved how our '02 3126 runs and starts, especially in the spring and fall (when it's cool, but not cool enough for the block heater). That truck was terrible on starting when I got it in 08, and has steadily improved since then.

 

[Turtle]

You should see a noticeable increase in fuel economy in the winter with Air Tabs, though. Fuel economy necessarily drops in the winter because of the colder air. Cold air is more dense, hence increased drag and wind resistance. Air Tabs appreciably decrease the drag, which is more pronounced in the winter.