Please use this forum for everything you want to know or share about MPG

This is a forum we just added because of the high cost of fuel over the last year. Everyone has been wanting to know various tricks to help improve their fuel economy. Please share whatever things you have tried whether they did or didn't work. Try to back up your findings with some solid evidence so that people don't get into arguments, plus it will benefit everyone much sooner. :)

Hope you like this forum, we'll try to come up with similar ideas down the road.

Larry, I'm not sure what you're shooting for here, since this topic has been beaten to death in so many other threads. But hey, anything that can help us save some $$ at the gas pump, I'm all for. The info below was posted on another thread, and it's ideas I got from forum members and some browsing through fuel-saving websites. Here goes......

1. Keep the revs at 2500 or below...in ANY gear.

2. Use the cruise control whenever possible.

3. If you're going to cruise at 45 mph, speed up to 48 or so, and let the tranny shift into a higher gear. You'll see the tach drop. Then you can slow down to 42 or so without the tranny shifting down again.

4. Install a bed cover. Should save you about 1 mpg on the highway.

5. Ethanol reduces your mpg by about 15-20%.

6. Drink Jack Daniel's. It helps you forget about gas mileage.

7. I've noticed that the A/C compressor seems to run even when it's cold out. I push the button to turn it off when I don't need it. I can't say for sure, but I’ve got to believe this saves gas. (Bruce)

8. Be careful with the Cruise control... if the terrain you're driving is hilly and transcends quite a bit, I find it most fuel efficient to tickle the throttle and work through the hills yourself, rather than letting the cruise control down shift and waste gas every time it kicks down a gear to move up the hills (at least the long stretches of hill on the highways). (Stackedape)

9. Don't allow your truck to idle for extended periods of time.
Watching the display on my Scangauge during idling, the Ridgeline evidently burns enough gas to decrease mpg by .1mpg [point one mpg] for every ten seconds of idle time.
This loss adds up with extended warm-up periods during cold weather, extended cabin-cooling with AC blasting during hot weather, while parked and waiting for passengers, drive-thru's, loading of the bed at store loading zones, and also sitting and enjoying your sound system. (Pug)

10. Try to "keep it light". Unload all the stuff you don't need to have in your truck. There's no need to have that 150lb box full of tools in your truck if you're not going to be using them on a daily basis, and for your wallet's sake, keep your bed, trunk, and rear cabin clear of unnecessary items. The weight adds-up quickly.

Being that my daily commute to and from work is only 12 miles, I've often wondered if keeping my gas tank over 3/4 full is such a good idea. Maybe if it was kept "leaner" at less than 1/2, the lighter load would contribute to more miles per gallon. There's a station between home and work where I could gas-up if need be. Alot of time is spent concentrating on methods for more substantial gains (over 1-2mpg), so these little "nit-picky" ones often will be overlooked. (Pug)

11. I lost some weight to help with gas mileage. Every 500 lbs of added weight is a loss of one mpg. (xridgelinex)

12. Don't let your RL warm up for several minutes, especially unoccupied, that's just an invitation. Just get in and go! The RL heats up pretty fast. I can't believe how many cars I see, even when the temp is about 30 degrees, that are sitting there warming up.

If the drive thru has more than two cars, I go in. No sense idling there either. (wrenrj1)

13. Put your seat belt on, THEN start your engine. Amazing how many people do this in reverse order, wasting gas with the truck idling while they put their seat belt on.

14. You can increase gas mileage up to 10% just by changing your air filter, according to the EPA's FuelEconomy.com site. Change your auto's air filter at least every six months.

15. Inflate your tires properly. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates one-in-four cars and one-in-three light trucks and SUVs has one or more tires under-inflated by 8 pounds per square inch (psi) or more. The EPA estimates that for every 1 psi of under-inflation, fuel economy drops by 0.4%. That's not much, but if the tires are under-inflated by 8 pounds, that's a 3.2% drop in fuel economy. About 1.2 billion gallons of fuel are wasted annually due to under-inflated tires, the NHTSA estimated in 2005.

16. Don't start and stop engine needlessly. Idling your engine for one minute consumes the gas amount equivalent to when you start the engine.

17. Buy gasoline during coolest time of day - early morning or late evening is best. During these times gasoline is densest. Keep in mind - gas pumps measure volumes of gasoline, not densities of fuel concentration. You are charged according to "volume of measurement".

18. Avoid filling gas tank to top. Overfilling results in sloshing over and out of tank. Never fill gas tank past the first "click" of fuel nozzle, if nozzle is automatic.

19. Keep windows closed when traveling at highway speeds. Open windows cause air drag, reducing your mileage by 10%.

20. Think ahead when approaching hills. If you accelerate, do it before you reach the hill, not while you're on it.

21. As a rule of thumb, you can assume that each 5 mph you drive over 60 mph is like paying an additional $0.20 per gallon for gas.

Tcape, it was asked to be created so we created it. Could you start a new thread with your advice so that people would see it? This first post might not get read as often as one dedicated to what you wrote.

Thanks.

I would like to remove the tailgate on a 2009 RL and replace with a net to improve gas mileage.
Are there any tailgate removal instructions available?
If so where are the located?
I tried various search commands but no luck.

I would like to remove the tailgate on a 2009 RL and replace with a net to improve gas mileage.
Are there any tailgate removal instructions available?
If so where are the located?
I tried various search commands but no luck.

You probably need to post this in one of the many mpg threads to get a response, this thread has virtually no traffic. Seems like I remember seeing a post where someone left their tailgate down and it did not improve the mpg.
Follow what Tcape posted here and you will get the best mpg possible. Myself, I have seen anywhere from 14 to 24. Short trips and a heavy foot will suck a lot of fuel!! BTW, see this is post number 2 for you, welcome to the ROC!!:)