Why does my 3.4 Tacoma get worse MPG than my 4.7 Tundra?

Just the title.

Why does my daily 03’ DCSB 3.4 get the same MPG as my 4.7 with an overcab camper?

Both around 14 MPG around town

 

Look on the bright side. My ‘06 AC V8/4WD with 77k miles barely clears 11-12mpg in the city, so you’re doing pretty awesome IMO.

 

Each horsepower takes a certain amount of fuel & it takes a certain number of hp to accelerate an amount of weight, and a number of hp to push the wind to hold speed. If you drive a certain way, you're not wasting the extra fuel. For the 4 speed turn off OD below 55, and the trans will lockup in 3rd & be more efficient.

 

I live in SoCal . . . the land of people jumping on any latest 'trend'.
I like pulling up to all these lifted 'Overland Tacomas' and calculate how much money was spent on all ornaments hanging off it, as well as trying to guess what it all adds up to weight-wise.
Couple that with the additional wind resistance and their gas mileage has got to be a total disaster.
All that said, I dig Tacomas, probably be my next truck . . . but my jam is more of the 'Less is More' program with those things.

 

Overland tacomas is the new tattoo

 

I'd even go as far to say "tramp stamp". Someday they'll look back and ask "WTF was I thinking?"

 

Im gonna get a traction board tattooed on my back because i need them everywhere i go

 

Makes sense. "2010 DC 5.7 2wd".

 

I also have a 2003 DC Tacoma with a 3.4L. My 5.7L 2008 Tundra gets worse gas mileage than the Tacoma, but not by a lot. The 3.4L was released in 1995 where the 5.7 was released in 2007 so it did get 12 years of technology improvements and a six speed auto. The Tundra is my daily driver.

 

The gas mileage on these is frustrating.

Having no idea the general condition of either of your vehicles, it's impossible to say. I will say that for its first 300,000 miles, my 3.4 Tacoma got a solid 19mph highway. Almost regardless of 65mph vs 80mph, mountain passes or flat. Never broke 20mpg, rarely dropped below 19mpg. Towing a 3,000lb trailer with a lot of wind drag, I'd average 14mpg. Where these Tundras get 17mph highway, and when towing pretty much anything, or a slide in camper? 9mpg. I felt like my Tacoma was doing pretty good, aside from lacking the power to comfortably tow the trailer.

But that's a well maintained, well tuned 3.4. These days I average 17mpg highway. Really no better than the Tundra. But the Tundra has 227,000 miles, Tacoma has 330,000 and has been pulling more weight than it was meant for, for years.

Hard to make a fair comparison unless we're comparing a new vehicle to a new vehicle. Maybe your Tacoma needs a tune up? I don't know.

 

Dont the trucks have a very similar transmission? The 4.7 is working a lot less to maintain speed than a v6

 

The 5vz is only a 24v engine - no other real features while the 2ur probably is the later gen with VVti - that addsa fair amount of hp and efficiency. So they're not really in the same family to compare - other than 2 of the greatest engines Toyota has ever made.

 

You will never see 20 mpg or even 18 with either. My '03 Tacoma had 4.10 gearing and I could never get over 250 miles on a tank. My Tundra is just as bad and it's geared higher.

Sounds right to me.

 

My '04 taco gets 17-19 mpg and the tundra gets 15-16 mpg. Same size tires on both trucks, both automatics, both have bed toppers. I can drive the piss out of the taco with no big change in mpg but the tundra will get bad gas mileage if I don't baby it.

 

I enjoy my AC 06 4x4 with a camper top mileage. I'd bet close to 18 on road at 75 80, and solid 13.5-14 hand calculat3d in town

 

That's impressive. Who knows, I could need new plugs or wires or some other tuning, but when I drove my 02 home from Boise, it was pretty flat driving for this area of the country, only one real mountain pass. Had light highway terrain tires and had trouble breaking the 17mpg mark.

 

The Tacoma is just about to hit 170k, but honestly feels like it has some looming issues in its future. Transmission feels funky to me, but mechanics and myself haven’t found any issues. My tundra has about 30k miles, and runs really well.

I think my main point of comparison is my 2.7 Manual that got over 20mpg even with a camper and a full bed.