*ACHIEVED YES!!* I am trying to get 23 mpg to no avail

@Half Assed , Thank you, but I already have another vehicle.
@LuvCRVs , tundra feels efficient to me for what she is. Rpm hovers right at 1500 when doing 55. It feels enough if I need to accelerate and not over the top, where it would feel like wasted power on cruise. (Tow package with 4.10 final drive, not sure if regular is much different).
Maybe you are right. I don't want this to turn into obsession. I am normal. 22 is enough. Thank you. I killed a squirrel today.

 

Remove the spare, don't fill all the way up, try not to stop, use the cruise in the highway when possible.

 

I would like to know what I can do to get even close to 20mpg. Want to elaborate on how you are getting nearly 23?

 

I am trying to get 14.1 mpg to no avail.........

 

@19TurdPro , decided to keep spare in case of emergency. No cruise control, since it's a work package. I do have power locks and windows though. I'm also not very fond of cruise control. Their PID algorithm causes a little 'hunting', so I doubt it'll be as efficient as pushing the pedal. Well, I feel it on my venza where cruise control tries to accelerate than let go, it's very subtle.

Windows closed, no ac, sometimes music. I look way ahead for red lights and let go gas in advance, so I end up coasting down to like 30 or less when I reach the light. Lower speed uphill, let go gas or gentle acceleration when you go over the hill. Nothing over 1,800 rpm. Dont go over 55(no more than 60 downhill). It's a lot of planning and concentration, but I don't mind; it's become second nature. Also watch for trucks on interstate if speed limit is higher, they might want to run you off the road sometimes.

Ps- it's a 4.6L, not 5.7, but it fits her well, tundra is a she.

 

I understand that novelty goal here. But your time should be valued as well. Driving slower to get more mpg is one thing, but shaving 10 minutes off a drive adds up too

 

Well, by golly, I just got 22.2 MPG ... driving at 60 MPH downhill with a tail wind from Albuquerque to Lubbock.

 

Look up articles on "hypermileage or hypermiling". One of these tips should get you that last .2 mpg. Good Luck.
I read an article about this during the last gas price run up and have been using them for years.
I had to find an article to copy and paste from the have all the tips that I had forgotten or that I do not use.
Those guys in the HYBRIDS have a group that try to see who can get the highest gas mileage in a hybrid.
From your comments you seem to be doing a lot of these but I figure that tips in one place and all together might help you.

Their tips work for trucks too. Some of their tips only APPLY to HYBRIDS. So please understand that when reading the article. Also the article is from Europe, so please understand that their terms differ from our terms.

Stuff I added has a * symbol beside it.

Hypermiling is the art of driving economically and exceeding vehicle manufacturers stated efficiency by modifying driving habits and techniques.

Before we start with Hypermiling Techniques I would like to address the safety issue that is getting “Hypermilers” a lot of bad press. Hypermiling, as with any other form of driving technique, can be dangerous if used on the wrong road and in unsuitable traffic conditions. Please always be aware of other road users and do not endanger yourself or others for the sake of saving a few miles per gallon.

HYPERMILING BASICS
Hypermiling is a great way to help improve your fuel consumption and there are also some other ways to help maximise your Hypermiling Techniques before even considering your driving style. We suggest you:

• Track your MPG. Keep detailed records of your mileage and fuel usage so you can gauge your hypermiling efforts. Use our MPG calculator or download our apps for both Apple and Android devices.
• Keep your car well maintained and serviced regularly. Some people opt for a thinner oil when trying to optimise their MPG. Thinner oil means less energy is required to turn the engine.
• Remove excess weight i.e. golf clubs, tool boxes and prams/push chairs. *WTF IS A PRAMS?
• Ensure your tire pressures are correct. We do not condone over inflating your tires, as this may cause premature wear and possible blow outs. Low tire pressure causes more drag and thus less MPG.
• Keep the windows up. An open window cause drag
• Keep the air-con off. Air Conditioning can decrease your fuel consumption by up to 10 percent in some cases.
• Take any unused Roof or bike racks off, they too increase drag
• Don’t drive in big shoes, they take away the sensitivity you need with the throttle. The best way to Hypermile is to feel how the car is responding to your right foot. Two inches of sole doesn’t help.

HYPERMILING TOP TIPS

Here are our top 5 Hypermiling driving tips

• Don’t drive The best Hypermiling Tip that we could ever give. This not only saves you 100 percent of your precious fuel but it also keeps you healthier and saves on vehicle maintenance. Short journeys use much more fuel than longer ones. You engine doesn’t have time to get up to it’s optimal working temperature thus causing increased engine wear.
• Drive defensively. Anticipate the road ahead. By driving “reactively” You effectively hand control over your fuel consumption (and safety) to other drivers. Look well ahead so you’re aware of what you’re driving into and can anticipate changes before they occur. And in order to be able to see well ahead, you need to leave adequate following distance to the vehicle(s) in front of you.
• Drive without brakes (DWB). Every time you brake you effectively turn fuel into heat & brake dust. This type of deceleration maximizes uses your car’s stored momentum and energy.
  *Tips are to never stop at a stop sign. Slow down look and go if it is clear.
  *The gas you use to start from a stop is more than a rolling stop.
  ***Now the ticket you get for running the stop sign will eat away your profit though.
• Slow down! The faster you go the more drag and resistance is placed upon your trusty steed. A reduction of 20mph can increase your MPG by up to 45 percent.
• Coasting. Shutting the engine down when stopped or while coasting to stop/turn is one of the main reasons for hybrid vehicles’ excellent city fuel consumption. We would not ever suggest coasting with the engine off but simply remove your foot from the accelerator when approaching a junction or red light. A modern engine uses no fuel at all when coasting in gear.

GET YOUR FUEL FOR THE BEST PRICE - *I use Publix promo cards. I get $100 in gas for $80. That comes out to .20 saved for every dollar spent. I save ONE dollar for each gallon when gas is $5 a gallon.

Using Hypermiling Techniques will help you maximize the return from your tank ensuring you get the best price for what you put in it. Check out PetrolPrices.com for the best prices in your area. This saves running about town looking for the best deal.

Keep an eye out for fuel vouchers and discounts from supermarkets. Many offer discounts of up to 5p a litre when you spend a certain amount in store. Just be sure that you are buying things you need and not just spending to qualify for the voucher. 5p of a litre will save you £2.50 from an average 50 litre fill up.

CHOSE THE RIGHT ROUTE

The shortest and quickest way might not always be the best when you are trying to Hypermile. Hypermiling is all about driving smoothly and when you are stuck in traffic or having to stop start about town you are NOT driving smoothly. Taking a less uninterrupted route, it might take slightly longer but you wont have the start/stopping effecting your MPG.

TURN IT OFF!
If like me you are faced with the common problem of railway crossings and dithering folk that hold up a queue of traffic at a junction you should switch off your engine as soon as possible. When you are idling you are doing ZERO MPG. While idling you also run the risk of overheating your engine. Idling for any more than 10 seconds is a waste of fuel.

PARKING
When parking don’t opt for the closest space to the front of the shops, not only will you have to waste fuel looking for the elusive “prime” spot. But very often you will have a car parked in front of you meaning you will need a lengthy maneuver just to get out. Try parking away from the crowds in a forward facing spot – also known as “face out”. That way you can just start up and drive off. Also try and pick a spot on a slight hill so you can utilize the gravity of the car rolling down. If possible try and park in a shady spot, in the summer months it make not using the air conditioning a lot easier! Also consider your parking in the winter months. Face your car into the morning sun to help defrost your windscreen or even better get a plastic sheet to put over it to help stop any ice forming. I often see people leaving their cars running for long periods of time just to defrost their glass. It also saves buying de-icer.

YOUR OIL MATTERS

Keeping on top of your vehicle servicing is a must for any motorist to ensure it performs at its optimum efficiency. Using engine oil of a low viscosity (but still within your manufactures recommended oil requirements) can not only improve your MPG but also increase the longevity of your engine. Thinner oil reduces friction of the engine components. Many Hypermilers opt for a high grade fully synthetic oil to help maximize economy.

WINTER HYPERMILING TIPS

During the cold months there are a number of reasons why our cars use more fuel. These can have a major effect on your cars MPG and cause more wear and tear on the engine. Some claim that the cold can reduce your MPG by over half. Here are some of the reasons why:

• Snow, ice, rain, grit and other muck on the roads make a car work harder to keep moving.
• The cold reduces the air pressure in tires, leading to more wasted fuel.
• Cold air is denser than warm air, which is why cold draughts spill down from a draughty window. That puts more aerodynamic drag on a vehicle, which means it has to push harder to get through the air, especially at high speed.
• Engine and transmission oil is thicker in low temperatures, it takes more energy to turn the engine.

To help minimize the cold weather’s effect on your precious fuel we suggest:

• Reduce idling: Use your Garage (if you have one) or cover your windscreen up over night to ensure an ice free morning.
• Park into the sun: If you don’t have a garage or windscreen cover – Let the sun de-ice your windscreen instead of idling until your heaters slowly thaw it.
• Take off the snow: It may look pretty but snow not only weighs a far bit but also increases drag.
• Set your alarm clock ten minutes earlier! Give yourself extra time so if clearing the car takes longer than anticipated, you don’t feel compelled to “make up time” on the road to avoid being late.

Remember to ensure you always have a warm jacket in the car when travelling in the cold weather. Having to wait for the AA for over an hour in the snow is not enjoyable. Trust me… I know!

SUMMER HYPERMILING TIPS

In the summer months (or days in the UK) – heat is your enemy, and if you are anything like me driving in a hot car is something I despise. The instant reaction to a hot car is to open the windows or turn the aircon on. Both of these will cost you in terms of your MPG. Follow these tips to minimize the effects of the raging sun.

• Park in the shade. Use tree, buildings or what ever you can to stop the sun from cooking your interior.
• Use silver windscreen deflectors to divert away the sun if you have no shade
• If possible find a parking spot that will allow you to leave you windows open with out attracting undesirables to your valuables. *I use the wind deflectors on all four of my windows. That way I can leave the windows cracked but they are covered by the visors. I use AVS In Channel Visors. Go to their website. Cheapest way to buy. They are on sale about every month and usually have free shipping.
• Under 40MPH open windows cause very little drag, they are still a much better option than having the air conditioning on.
• If you simply must have the air condition on, set the mode to recirculating. This ensures that you are chilling the cool air already in your car and not having to cool the warmer air from out side.
• Hanging material such as towels in the rear windows is a great way of stopping those nasty rays from cooking you. It’s a blast from the past but very effective. *I would tint your windows as dark as the law allows. I used ceramic tint. It is more efficient than metallic tint.

HYPERMILING GADGETS

There are a number of Hypermiling gadgets that have been designed to assist you in not only monitoring your MPG but also watching how you drive. These devices often plug into the diagnostics port of the car and can access readings from sensors and the ECU. These include throttle position, air to fuel ratios and speed.There are also a number of iPhone apps such our very own MPG Calculator for IOS that helps you keep track of your fuel consumption. Manufacturers have also pushed to help you make the most of your fuel with the introduction of systems such as Honda’s Eco Assist feature its flagship Hybrid Insight.

FUEL ADDITIVES

Fuel additives work by improving the combustion in the engine by creating a finer fuel mist. While additives it may not offer the huge increases that other techniques give you but combine it with your newly learnt Hypermiling techniques and it could see you returning some very impressive results.Aderco Fuel Additive and read our experiences with such products.

COASTING - *Some of this only applies to hybrid vehicles

There are 3 different types of coasting that can be adopted, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

In gear coasting

When in gear coasting, most modern engines use no fuel at all. The fuel injection system goes into fuel cut off mode and the forward momentum of the car is what keeps the engine turning over.

This is a great way of saving fuel buts its best suited to situations where you have to come to a standstill, like at a busy junction. Your coasting distanced are greatly reduced compared to neutral coasting due to engine braking but you use less fuel in the process.

As the vehicle remaining in gear, its seen as the safest form of coasting. It enabled you to be in full control of the car at all times.

Neutral coasting - *This applies to our trucks

To maintain idle revs fuel must be consumed. This is the biggest downside of this technique compare to in gear coasting, however on the upside – your coasting distances are greatly improved.

Due to the lack of engine braking, this technique is more suited to situations where deceleration needs to be minimized, like on a motorway. Many Hypermilers adopt it on hills to further increase the coasting distances with the possibility of adding a little speed too.

Engine off coasting (also called FAS Forced Auto stop)

This technique involves turning the engine off while the car is still moving and rolling for as long as possible only using the cars momentum. This is a dangerous technique. It can effect braking and power steering performance. If you insist on using this technique, we would suggest you dip the clutch, turn off the engine (leaving the ignition on). This ensures the car can be started quickly by releasing the clutch.

This FAS technique also ensures that your true mileage is recorded. Many cars will still show the current driving speed with the ignition on and will not effect your estimated MPG if you are working it out with mileage vs litres used.

DRAFTING

Drafting is used to reduce wind resistance and is used most commonly in bicycle racing, car racing, and speed skating. It simply means following the vehicle in front and sitting in their slip stream. Following other vehicles to the extent that some Hypermilers do is very dangerous and has caused a lot of bad press towards the Hypermiling Community. If you are going to adopt this technique we would recommend for your own and others safety that you only follow the vehicle in front with guidance from the highway code (the two second rule). This may not be as efficient as sitting on the vehicle in fronts bumper but Its still a very good way of helping increase your MPG. People have suggested that an increase of up to 40 percent is possible and until I saw the Mythbusters episode featuring drafting I was very skeptical about these claims. In true Mythbusters style, they have confirmed that drafting does work. Check our the Hypermiling Videos page to see the Mythbusters Drafting Episode.

 

Thank you. Certain aforementioned practices I consider questionable, but most of it is spot-on, mate!

 

A pram or perambulator is a stroller.

I can't condone not stopping at stop signs. Not worth the risk to save a few pennies in fuel.

All you guys saying not to idle your vehicles must live in warm climates. When it's -40, my truck is not happy when she first starts up. The happy medium I struck is to idle until the engine drops to 1100 rpm but I also have a fairly long commute that lets everything get up to operating temperature. If your drive is shorter, you may want to warm up longer.

In the summer, open one front door and quickly open and close the other one a few times to blow the hot air out of the car.

 

stop using ethanol. www.pure-gas.org is your friend.

 

Maybe. Depends where you live. Here you can only get ethanol-free gas in 91 octane, which costs 25% more. Given that 87 is only 10% ethanol, that's unlikely to pay for itself.

 

I agree. However, isn't the point to just achieve 23 MPG, at least once?

 

Put a little less gas in it and redo your calc. You can probably get 50mpg no problem.

 

I always reset my fuel MPG trip meter at the top of hills and my MPGs are alway 99 MPGs…

 

...Before getting shot for using those hypermiling techniques?

 

@Cpl_Punishment , I agree. Certain risks are not worth risking over. I like to stop on stop signs, even though it's more expensive to start from a full stop. You never know when a policeman will spawn out of nowhere with bad day.

Also, cold weather is no joke. By the way, I was doing one trip to Massachusetts and got measly 16mpg on the highway. I did keep my tailgate down and thought I was saving gas. What an idiota!

@apwisher , using ethanol free would be cheating.

@ScenicRoute , as in, using less weight to drive around? That should work, but it would be little unfair. I like to get my average fuel economy for the whole tank. Besides, it's only like 26 gallons.

@glowblue , that would be cheating.

@dherring256 , they eat my peaches. And apples.

Anyways, so today I was really trying. Speed limit is 65 on the freeway and going uphills, I was down to almost 48.(legal is 45 minimum). It feels like gas isn't leaving my tank. Look! This was fueled up until nozzle clicked and then one more squirt after about 5 seconds. It's still showing full, even after almost 50 miles! No cheating involved, just pure pedal gentleness.

 

Get a an OBD2 with wifi and an app that show you both instantaneous and average mileage. I use DashCmd. It may help you find better practices to improve mileage, whether rpm range, acceleration rate, or similar. Nothing beats data.
Like warming up your engine, unless in extreme cold there’s no need and the engineers tell you a gentle start is better than a warmup...

 

Speaking of warm up, you wouldn't believe what I did on Monday! I started up my engine, and 10 seconds later, started rolling in neutral and at the end of driveway shifted into drive and drove away! I felt like a rebel! It was a venza 4 cylinder. engine though, but I'm improving. Today I started truck and planned to start going easy, but homeowners delayed me for about 60 seconds. No biggie

Maybe one day I'll get that gadget. For now don't kn0w where I'll stick her. My driving area is already spaghetti with dashcam and Garmin's wires.

 

I think when Mythbusters did their tests, the most fuel efficient options was one of those plastic tailgate nets. Then you get the advantage of reduced weight due to taking the tailgate off while maintaining the aerodynamic advantages of having it on.

 

I see where you could gain a bit more - that dust on your steering column is unnecessary weight.

 

48mph on the freeway? Please find more hobbies

 

@Hbjeff :

 

If you're doing <50 on a busy freeway, you're ticking a lot of people off, and NOT for a good reason. It does not matter whether you're going uphill or downhill.

 

Life is too short to give a damn about gas mileage....I step on the damn pedal all the time I want, just don't care. It makes me happy!!!! $130 to fill up....bye bye who gives a damn.

 

Start truck to warm up.
Let one gallon of gas burn then immediately shut off.
Then push truck for twenty three miles.
Easy.
It is just a math problem!

 

Full disclosure, I didn't read everything posted, so apologies if this was mentioned, but I'd shoot for ethanol free fuel to see if that gets you there. Corn is terrible fuel.

 

Watch the weather. Go with the wind, bring a tent to camp out the weather. Winds shifts direction, drive home then.

 

My suggestion would be to do some weight saving mods:

Swap the hood out with carbon fiber.

Take out all of the seats

delete the entire bed and the hitch

remove the ceiling liner

remove the spare tire

remove the “unnecessary” trim items from the interior (speakers, radio, plastic liners, cup holder molds, etc)

hit the gym and lose 10lbs

All of this combined would probably get you an additional 1-2mpg….. but Is it worth it? Your call lol