If one took something with not great mileage figures, say a 4x2 Ranger and stripped the bed, most of the interior and used lightweight seats, what kind of increases in MPG can one expect?
I know acceleration and handling generally improve with weight loss but what of MPG?
In reply to ebonyandivory :
It depends on the driving patterns. On long highway drives at relatively steady speeds aero will make a far bigger difference than weight. However in stop & go driving that would be reversed.
In my three very different cars the highway fuel economy is inversely related to weight, in town and on the highway. Not that that means anything, but maybe says that weight means less than other factors. Focus on aero and rolling resistance.
In reply to Pete Gossett :
What kind of aero would you apply to a small pickup? I’m looking to compromise as little as possible and have an efficient vehicle I can use as a truck sometimes but way low budget
In reply to buzzboy :
Light wheels and rubber with maximum safe air pressure? (as far as lowering rolling resistance)
If it's a street car use a hard compound tire in a narrow size that's the correct height but narrower. For aero look into making the airflow over the car smoother, especially the front end. You can add a small airdam, block a bit of the radiator grill and maybe put deflectors over any things sticking into airflow under the truck.
airdam
grill block
belly pan or lower it to the ground
seal the engine bay/wheelwells/duct radiator airflow out the top or bottom
remove the antenna
max tire pressure
learn to hypermile
etc.
The back of the truck is hard to deal with, because the ideal teardrop shape kind of limits what truck things you can do with it.
Learning to hypermile is by far the biggest improvement you'll make. But you need to be a very very patient person and also drive where there is little traffic.
In reply to ProDarwin :
Yeah, patience and low traffic isn’t happening I’m afraid but I completely understand your points.
Other things you may find people doing on ecomodder is minimizing engine accessories to free up belt-drive losses.
Kill-switches are a big thing as well to allow for coasting and start/stop @ lights.
I'm sure nobody would buy it, but I really wish one of the small trucks was made with a 4cyl hybrid drivetrain.
You can spend a couple thousand dollars and end up saving 2 or 3 mpg.
Trucks aren’t built for fuel economy (until recently).
Dont forget gearing. Trucks are built for torque, and hauling. Even the small ones.
What are the goals? Would a couple of mpg make you happy? Or are you trying to double the fuel economy?
In reply to SVreX :
The former: a few mpg over stock is what I’d be interested in.
In reply to ebonyandivory :
For a few mpgs, I’d do some basic aero.
Close the front grill, belly pan, moon caps, get rid of the exterior mirrors, and get the air to flow off the back a little better.
If you keep it simple, you can keep it classy AND gain a few mpg.
What year ranger, what engine and trans. What rear end gear?
Lowered, big ole air dam, wheel well covers (yea, the ugly ones), toneau cover. If you're not hauling, you could probably experiment with restricting the airflow into the engine compartment.
In reply to dropstep :
I’m thinking 2.5, 5 speed manual and likely 3.73. Early 2000’s
Skinnier tires, lowering it some, air Dam, and a possible change to a 3.08 gear if your primary driving highway. I believe they have a few tunes available, along with a slightly better flowing intake and exhaust.
If you don't want to strip the bed (why get a truck otherwise), a tonneau cover would be beneficial, practical and readily available if you don't want to go crazy like the guy in the link.
I wonder if some non-truck tires might help. eg. Minivan tires are often car tires which have higher load capacity. They have tread patterns which are more conducive to fuel economy. eg. The '03 Caravan takes 215/70/15 tires vs. 225/70/15 for the ranger.
Some observations I made when I ran my stripped BMW 320is. In stock form I got an average of 30mpg. With the interior completely stripped of everything except the drivers seat, no front bumper and the rear bumper severely lightened and no muffler or resonator in the exhaust. I still got 30mpg. But it was a hell of a lot more fun to toss around some corners.
i get 22mpg with the biggest heaviest 91 ranger they made (4x4, 4.0 v6 extra cab) epa says itll do a lot less than that for combined mpg.
Ive loaded it down with stuff and added a lumber rack. Sometimes a big engine barely working hets better mileage than a small engine being pushed
In reply to ebonyandivory :
The one thing I found makes a steady reliable improvement in fuel mileage is to switch over to synthetic oils. Not just the engine but trans and especially differential. I may have carried too far when I repacked the wheel bearings with synthetic grease. But heck it was time to anyway.
With the differential you must be careful to use the positraction supplement if you have positraction. I don’t know about other limited slip type differentials.
That and keep tires inflated to the maximum. Which means check monthly at least!
One other thing, this will intuitively seem wrong but it’s true and well documented. Do not run with a tailgate down, no tailgate, or cover over the bed!!!!!
With a tailgate a rolling air bubble forms behind the cab which improves mileage. If you look at the new style pickups you’ll see that flat ducktail in the tailgate. That little detail improves fuel mileage almost 1/2 mpg at freeway speeds.
AnthonyGS said:ebonyandivory said:If one took something with not great mileage figures, say a 4x2 Ranger and stripped the bed, most of the interior and used lightweight seats, what kind of increases in MPG can one expect?
I know acceleration and handling generally improve with weight loss but what of MPG?
Negligible. At steady state mpg is dictated by drag which is dictated by drag coefficient and frontal area. Lowering, a good splitter, belly pan, aero discs on your wheels, fender covers, a bed cover and really low side skirts will help.
you want zero air going under that truck over axles etc. you want no air movement in the truck bed. Air gate nets are the worst; a raised tailgate is better, bed covered better still.
Reducing weight will help in town mileage a lot though especially if you drive like I do.
I realize you believe that a cover over a bed will improve fuel mileage but you would be wrong. Contrary to Intuitive feeling The TV program Mythbusters proved it, twice!
A pair of identical trucks with tailgate up and one with tailgate down ran identical course at the same time and then switched trucks. The one previously that had the tailgate down ran with it up and visa versa just to prove it wasn’t due to one particular truck getting better fuel mileage.
Then later because they got so much feedback on the story they did it with covers, tailgate off and the net style tailgate.
What happens with the tailgate up is a rolling air bubble forms behind the cab and that actually improves fuel mileage.
If you look on new trucks you’ll also see a flat ducktail in the tailgate. That’s worth almost 1/2 mpg.
ebonyandivory said:In reply to dropstep :
I’m thinking 2.5, 5 speed manual and likely 3.73. Early 2000’s
I just sold my daily Ranger, so I've got a little advice since it sounds like you don't have one yet.
First, the 2.5 is an iron block, SOHC engine from the Lima family. It was used from 98-mid 01. They're basically just a stroked version of the 2.3 Limas that Ford put it everything going back to the 80s. They're fine engines, but if fuel economy is the goal, I'd strongly suggest holding out for a late 01 and newer truck with the 2.3L Duratec engine. It's all aluminum, DOHC, and gives you more power and better fuel economy, in a lighter, cleaner package. Manual trucks got 3.73 rear gears and typically get around 30mpg. Auto equipped trucks get 4.10s and are usually capped around 25mpg. You definitely want a manual.
My duratec/5 spd truck got 30mpg in my 25 mile, mostly highway commute. Only mods were a soft bed cover and a K&N air intake. Aerodynamics and gearing are definitely the limitations for getting anything better. I think my truck was spinning around 2400rpms @ 60mph. And there's a bunch of wind resistance since the basic body was put into production in 93, long before trucks were designed in wind tunnels.
My recipe for budget conscious, fuel sipping Ranger would begin with an 04+ Duratec/ 5 spd truck with AC. Trucks with AC got an electric cooling fan as well as a mechanical cooling fan. I'd remove the mechanical fan to reduce parasitic drag, and rely on the Efan to keep things cool (with some caveats). I'd do a super cheap 2/2 drop (cost of cutoff wheels and 8 bolts + alignment after). I'd get a cheap bed cover on CL. Then I'd start with aero mods like grille blocks and a bellypan.
Theres a ton of other stuff that could be done to maximize fuel efficiency, but it stops making financial sense when you start spending hundreds of $ for relatively small gains.
With the big vs small engine thing, smaller engines will burn less gas on the highway up to a point. Eventually you've gone small enough that you've got it geared to rev to the moon at cruise and you're spending a lot of time in fuel enrichment, at which point it won't do any better than the somewhat bigger engine. In the city, the smaller engine almost always wins (less fuel consumption at idle is a big factor).
Aero is the key.
I had an old Ford extended van that I used to tow a trailer. When I needed to replace the tires I went with low profile tires, or at least low compared to what was on the vehicle. I went from 80 series to 75, both were 16 inch. The new tires were not rated for the same load but they were still OK for my use and the loads the van could haul. The "lowering of the van with the tires was about 1.5 inches. That together with a home made air dam, and the blocking off of some of the stock grill added about 1 mpg to my towing mileage. That might not seem like a lot but that's a 10% improvement while at the same time the tires lowered the final drive ratio resulting in the engine spinning a bit faster. Over all performance improved, the van was more stable as well.
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