My '23 Ltd. non-hybrid has terrible MPG

I'm just wondering if anyone has tried chipping their 3rd gen for improved fuel economy?
Mine came from the dealer lifted 2" with 20" Fuel Wheels and oversized BFG KO3 tires (275/65R20) tires. The package weighs in at 102 lbs. per corner.
I was seeing 15-16 mpg (mostly highway.) When I swapped the stock 20" wheels and Blizzaks (same size, due to lift making smaller tires look terrible) I've managed as much as 18.5 mpg.
I've also put the Fuel/BFG setup for sale and have invested in a lighter set up for Summer.
Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

Welcome to the club I guess, not much you do.

 

Hehe, my hybrid has a lifetime average of 15.1mpg! LOL! Loving every minute of it though!

 

Welcome to the forum. And welcome to the club of most of us can not get the advertised mpg. Narrow smaller diameter highway tread is only way I know of to maybe get a little better mpg. But then your truck looks pretty pathetic. It is a great truck but not designed for gas mileage. Pulls trailers with ease and lights the tires up in a drag race but thats the engineering focus not mpg. Maybe someone else can comment on what mods they did to improve mpg if they had success.

 

1) remove the lift and go back to stock tires = good MPG
2) enjoy the lift and the tires look = just forget about MPG, when its empty put more in

you can't have your cake and eat it too, thats a TON more weight than stock

looks and big tires or good MPG (for a truck)

pick one

 

I should have mentioned that the truck I bought was my only choice -or I could have waited "4 to 8 months" for one that I wanted. No orders (according to the dealer) -all trucks were being allocated by Toyota at the time (Apr. '23.) The lift, wheels and tires were all added by the dealer. I did manage to have them remove a bed cover and add a Leer canopy for cost.
I could remove the lift as suggested, but that would add even more costs. So, I will see how much (if any) mpg I gain with the lighter wheel and tire set up. Speed is another enemy of mpg. Anything over 70 and it drops drastically. I got the 18.5 on a trip to Canada and back where my speed was mostly 70 or below. I know if I keep it below 60 it gets even better but one trip I make several times a year is over 500 miles via I-90 and I-15 where the limit is 80 and at that speed it takes most of the day. I just feel a bit lucky that I live in/around two different rural areas and don't have to deal with much traffic or stop-n-go.
One more thing -I calculate the mpg with a calculator and go so far as to calculate the actual distance traveled not the odometer which shows less due to the oversized tires. The "lie-o-meter" in the dash isn't off by too far, but it's still off. I guess you'd say I'm a bit anal. ;-)
One thing is I do love the truck and even at 10 months I am still finding new things it can do. Looking forward to hearing from all-y'all

 

Yea trucks just suck for fuel economy. I had a Tacoma before the tundra and best I could get on highway was 17 mpg and all I had was a bed cover and 32” tires (no lift). I’ve only put about 400 miles on the tundra so far so to early to tell what I will get. But I’ve come to terms with any truck and bad gas mileage. Luckily I work from home so gas is not an issue for me and maybe fill up once or twice a month. I’m excited to get a road trip on the truck and see what I can get. If I can beat the Tacoma I’ll be happy.

 

I still have my 2006 Taco, 4.0, 4x4, 6 Spd manual. It never got better than 14.7 until I started using non-ethanol. Since then it gets 17.5. The Tundra is now a bit better. I tried non-ethanol in it for about 5 or 6 tanks with no improvement. The Taco mostly serves as my plow truck anymore.

 

Man that's like 25° F. I got 19 mpg over 545 miles at temps between -11° F and 4° F, including some large mountain passes. I got 20 mpg on the return trip. 275/60r20s.

Driving style, speed, and luck.

ETA: I was averaging probably 75 mph. I never could have gotten that mileage with my 4Runner.

 

OP there is no such thing as "chipping" the 2022+ Tundra...ECU is locked. Stillen, VR and a few others like JB4 offer "piggyback" tunes but they are strictly for performance and require premium fuel. Stock 20" tires are very light about 39lbs, wheels 41 so 80 pounds and narrow 265's. TRD Pro stock 18" are 41lbs and the forged wheels 39 so a wash on weight. I lost 1 mpg highway with the swap to Pro due to being wider (285) OEM Wildpeaks and more sidewall flex IMHO. 21 highway to 20. Any aftermarket tire will weigh more...most 10-20 lbs. over stock and will quickly get you to 17-18 mpg highway...if yours were oversize and on heavier aftermarket wheels 15-16 depending on the ole right foot lol...enjoy the truck!

 

I am averaging 19.5 over 15k miles on stock tires.

If you mod it your mpgs will suck. Physics has laws.

 

I worked for a major automotive OEM in their driving energy department and I can tell you that tires alone have a very significant impact on fuel economy both mechanically and aerodynamically. Mechanically, A/T tires tend to have significantly higher rolling resistance than the all seasons that come standard on these cars, which btw were definitely developed bespoke by the OEM to minimize rolling resistance and improve fuel economy. Additionally, aerodynamically, the wider the tire and the sharper the side wall gets, the more aero drag it produces resulting in even higher overall vehicle road-load. Additionally, ride height has a very significant aerodynamic impact as well, the higher you raise the truck the more frontal area you create and the more exposed the bare underbody of the car is to airflow, increasing aerodynamic drag.

What people don't understand is that OEMs make a very specific model mix to try and EPA certify the most fuel efficient model as often as they can. So Toyota very likely certified an all-season equipped, non-OR model to attain the best fuel economy numbers that they can. Anyone that is buying an OR or TRD Pro is not buying the vehicle that Toyota certified and anyone that makes modifications to their non OR or Pro, like A/T tires or leveling kits or whatever, is also moving the truck spec further and further away from the certified specification.

 

Bed cap instead of a tonneau cover also kills mpg. Plus cold weather affects hybrids but yours isn’t one.

 

You are in Ontario. You use centigrade/Celsius no? -4° C is 25°F.

The temps I drove in were closer to -24° c.

 

I didn't modify it, the dealer did

 

You got a truck! You don't buy a truck for fuel economy. And with any lift or changing of tires, there is an expected loss of MPG. Our stock 24' Limited 4x4 OR pkg is getting ~17-18 in the city and 20-21 on the highway. More than pleased with it!

 

First -Everything you posted, I agree with (but wtf is "OR"?). I have put the Fuel/BFG combo up for sale and have purchased a Wheel tire combo that is about 80 lbs. per corner (very close to stock/smaller tire -still 20") -perhaps a bit less. It won't change the lift or the width-aero penalty, but I believe that weight is the key element as it increases rolling resistance more than anything else. I don't want to go through the hassle and expense of lowering the truck to std. height. I believe the Blizzaks are heavier than stock tires but don't recall. Once I've got the new set up on the truck I will be able to see the results. The new set up is at our Spring/Summer home so once back I can also verify the weights. Also, incase you missed my follow up posts, the dealer modified the truck before I even saw it. My choice was to buy the truck or wait until one more to my specifications arrived (4-8 months and no ordering options at the time, or so I was told.) All said, I still love the truck.

 

You'll need to do a Prius motor swap

 

The dealer modified it before I even saw it. And, I am well aware of what causes poor fuel economy and the Tundra rating is one of the reasons I chose it. What is the "OR" pkg? And, I love my truck, in case you thought otherwise. Your mpg is excellent -not the norm as posted by others here.

 

I was thinking plug-in electric ;-)

 

"OR" = TRD off road package, slightly more aggressive tires, Bilstein shocks, TRD stickers, upgraded front CV axles, etc.

 

As others stated, there's a piggyback tune available for performance, not really fuel mileage. I had a 21 Tacoma SR5, (completely stock everything) before my 24 Tundra and I would only avg about 18 mpg. When I got my Tundra SR5 non hybrid it was also avg 18 mpg. After installing a 1.75 in level kit on the front only and adding 20" Black Rhino wheels on BFG KO2's I'm down to 16-17 mpg. All things considered, the Tundra being a full sized truck should have gotten worse fuel mileage compared to my midsized Tacoma and I'm not upset that I lost 1-2 mpg with the bigger wheels and tires. The Hybrid Tundras only get an advertised 2 mpg more, but those cost more money and have more potential for expensive repairs and the added 2 mpg was not worth it IMO. If you're buying a truck for "fuel economy", there's Rivian, Tesla Cybertruck, Ford Lightning, and Hummer.

 

It'd just be easier to convert the Prius to OR setup

 

OR = Off Road package

 

My post wasn't aimed specifically at you as much as it was to the general truck owning population who's taste for A/T tires and a 3" lift to almost entirely drive to work or the grocery store and then complain about fuel economy anyway.
That being said, wheel/tire weight actually reduces rolling resistance counter-intuitively but that normally accompanies width increase or tire construction changes that hurt rolling resistance. Winter tires are definitely worse for rolling resistance compared to A/S as well.

 

They're both cold, so

 

Perhaps (in the future) someone will offer an ECU swap. Otherwise, going to be putting on lighter wheel/tire set up this Spring after the snows come off. The weights are very close (maybe even 1 0r 2 lbs less,) but they're at my other home and I can't verify until I'm back there in April. I bought the new set with weight in mind. Nitto Recon Grappler A/T 275/65R20 116T = 47 lbs. ea.
Black Rhino Chase Custom Wheel - Brushed Gunmetal - 20" x 9", 12 Offset, 6x139.7 Bolt Pattern, 112.1mm Hub = 31 lbs.
Perhaps the heavier tire (weight toward the outside of the overall diameter) may not be as ideal.

 

First off, 3 strikes against stock configuration per what you said, #1 oversize tires = more weight, #2 oversize tire rolling resistance, #3 lift = disturbed aerodynamics. Also oversize tires going to affect speedometer and odometer as well as it's system calculated displayed MPGs

 

I would think that rolling resistance from a stop would increase but while coasting would increase due to inertia, but adding unsprung weight is never a good thing for a vehicle. My new set of wheels/tires (Black Rhino/ Nitro 275/65R20 116T) weigh 78 lbs combined -very close to stock and about 10 lbs lighter than the stock wheels with the Blizzaks. I won't find out how much of a change they'll make until April.

 

Yep, that's all covered here -read on.