2016 tundra - bad gas mileage

What about if you don't have the factory P-Metric craptastic tires? But have the Bridgestone Dueler H/L P275/55/R20 factory tires? The tire itself says not to exceed 44psi. I was thinking of running 35 - 38psi? Curious what you guys think?

 

lol Ive read good reviews on these tires... for street obviously. I really dont care for them tho. Thanks for the clarification!

 

Dang it. I need to make another trip up thru BC. Take my time next up. Fraser River, Peace River, Muncho Lake...Liard River.... Jealous. (But not as jealous as the folks who haven't been up there before..)

 

Latest tank 17.59 actual 18.5 claimed. Regular commuting

 

I'm getting 15.6 with a 3/1 lift and 35's.

 

what psi do you have your wheels at? I have same set up and im barely getting 14.0 mpg

 

on your 295/70/18 what psi did you set your tires to?

 

I can definitely attest to the tire pressure saving mpg. My goodness i had no idea. So Ive been running the factory tire pressure on my wonderful P-Metric craptastic tires (Thanks @ColoradoTJ ) since Ive had the truck. I have about 18k miles on it now, bought it at 11k. I was averaging about 14.8 - 15.5 on my daily commute each tank. I then installed the Bilstein 5100's (2" level) and a flowmaster cat back exhaust. Well that took some mpg from me as I was only able to average about 12.8 - 13.5. So i lost 2 mpg after doing all that.

I then found this post about tire pressure and found that I should be running my tires at higher than factory recommended (33psi) for better mpg. The next morning i went to the gas station and pumped them up to 38psi all around. Can you guess what I average now? I get roughly 16.0 mpg AVERAGE now!! And by no means do i drive anywhere near what @RussellVaughan stated on the last page... (wont accelerate past 1500rpm in traffic) blows my mind that people would buy a truck knowing it has horrible gas mileage to make everyone else suffer to save (LITERALLY) a few dollars at the pump... prob should have bought a dodge bro. God forbid if I was behind you. My time is worth more than a couple bucks... ridiculous (/end rant).
Trust me, after getting a nice sounding exhaust it will make you drive harder just to hear it lol. So that robbed some of my mpg, but the tire pressure more than made up for it! Overall it was an unexpected change that really made a difference. And it didn't cost a dime. Definitely recommend doing this if your commute is all asphalt

 

I used to run mine around 34-35 psi, and was only getting 15-16.5 mpg. My craptastic P-rated BFG 275/65-18 AT's say max of 44 psi, so I upped it to 40. I get around 17-20 mpg now, granted 90% of those miles are highway.

I'm going to go off on a tangent here, but who the hell thought it was good idea to run P-metric tires on a 6200 lb pickup? If I knew what I know now, I'd of had them put LT tires on when I bought the thing.

 

Damn, thats good mileage! I may have to up mine to 40psi now . See if I can get a little more out of it for nothing! lol.

As for the tires, I cannot agree more! I didnt even realize they were that tire until recently (sad on my part, i know). But none the less, I need to find a quiet area where no one usually is in my city and start doing some burnouts over the weekend and then rotate them after like 2 weeks, do it for like a month or so.... Only so I can justify to the 'wife to be' the $1200.00 that was spent . "Oh look sweetheart, my tire tread is dangerously low and for my saftey and yours baby, I'm going to get the safest tires with the most traction."

 

Oh I feel ya man, I was so excited when I bought mine that I didn't even think about it. If I did I'd of had em put LT 275/70-18 KO2's on. I'm not real fond of these "Rugged Terrains" the dealership put on pre purchase, can't wait till the bank account can afford a lift and some 295/70-18 Coopers.

 

Mines a 13, but I've got 35 inch toyos that I run at 45 psi and 3.25 inch lift. The toyos at about 88 pounds per tire. I used to get anywhere between 11-13 avg mpg. But now I'm sitting at an avg of 14.9 mpg. I didn't reset the mpg button, I just let it climb on its own. By manual calculation I've been getting around 17 mpg each tank of gas.

I'm not really sure the tire pressure makes a huge difference because ive been running mine with the same 45psi the whole time. But... There's a simple secret to good mpg... Drive the speed limit! A couple months back I started driving with no speeding whatsoever and aside from not getting pulled over, I'm getting much better mileage. The other thing I do is try and let the torque converter lock up as soon as it can. It all boils down to not getting into the pedal much. I don't worry about rpms, just not speeding. And I mean not even a few miles over. Boring, but it works.

 

So @sqa4life has your mpg improved since your original post?

 

I couldn't drive the speed limit all the time if I wanted to (like you said BORING)... to each their own, but I didn't buy the truck to be bored and drive the speed limit everywhere. I also would never drive at a certain RPM. I drive with traffic and try to be courteous to others on the road by keeping speed with traffic and not letting everyone else suffer for my pettiness (No offense, TruckyTruck). Im not saying i race around town all day everyday... and I don't see myself as an "a$$hole driver" but no one is perfect.

So if all of you are interested in saving MPG and that's the goal of your drive everyday... then I gotta ask why? Do you like driving slow? Have you calculated how much money you ACTUALLY save at the pump each fill up / each year? Why buy the Tundra if you are so worried about MPG, KNOWING its one of the worst in its class? Its always a choice. Im just curious...

 

I agree with this. My tundra was getting below 12mpg on average (fresh off the lot -with a reset mpg calculator). I do not recall the specific mileage but after approx 5k miles the truck settled on 14 combined.

 

I'm not at all worried about mpg... The point of the thread was talking about it and I gave my input. No offence to you by saying the following, but since you ask I'll give you a straight answer. And no, I don't expect anyone to be like me or have my reasoning.

I currently drive the speed limit and own a Tundra because:

I decided to not break the law anymore. Like we agree, boring, but even going over 1 mile per hour puts you in the law breaking category. Does it happen sometimes? Yes, but I'm trying very hard not to.

I've got children I want to set a good example for. And when they and the wife are with me, I want to make sure they are safe.

I can get off-road and haul ass anytime I want. And I do frequently.

My truck does work for me. Tree pulling, railroading, hauling, etc...

I have a cdl. If you get a speeding ticket in my state, you have no option to get defensive driving or probation. The only way to keep a small ticket off of my driving record is to pay close to a grand in court and lawyer fees. A couple of tickets on my record could keep me from driving with my job and would impact my family. They come before my urge not to be boring on the road.

I own a Tundra and know it has plenty of power and that my balls swing, so I've got nothing to prove on the road.

Basically, those are my reasons. I used to drive not thinking about the speed limit at all. I had a change of heart and now I don't speed. The mpg is just a byproduct of the big picture. Is it nice getting 17 mpg in a big truck? Sure, but if I got 10, it wouldn't bother me a bit. As for calculating the money saved, no I haven't, because it really isn't a big deal to me. What I can tell you is I'm getting close to 100 extra miles per tank of gas. I'm sure that adds up in the long run.

 

This is exactly what I was looking for! Definitely no offense taken sir, and I actually very much appreciate your response. Great reasons and it also gives others a different perspective on how others drive and why. If only we knew this info while actually on the road driving in real time lol. Probably would be much less accidents and alot more courteous people on the road.

I also dont want anyone to take my perspective as law. I was just giving my opinion on the matter and also my experience with the tire pressure tests I did. I honestly had to biggest ear to ear grin when i looked at my MPG average calculator after topping off my tire PSI LOL. I didnt expect it and it was a nice change.

 

Yeah I'd rather not have one, but you can't hold some of the higher paying jobs with the railroad without one.

 

18.5 actual, 19.4 claimed this time

 

I average 13-15 combo of city and freeway on my 2014 TRD. Before I added a Borla exhaust cat back system, the green instant fuel mileage bar never went above 20 MPG. Snce I've had the Borla, cruising at 50-60 MPH, the green bar goes above 20 MPG... But speed limit on I-5 in OR is 65... It's like the Tundra hits a wall of air above 65 MPH... On a raid trip at 65-70 I'll get 15-17 MPG...

 

@ColoradoTJ Thats not the first time ive heard that one. LOL but its funny everytime! I live near LA and its brutal out there... thankfully my town is much more mellow when it comes to driving. Slow drivers is a HUGE issue in LA. Its proven more accidents happen going slower than the speed of traffic than people driving faster than the speed of traffic. This obviously does not apply to anyone living outside a MAJOR city with extensive freeway networks. Check out this video if interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oqfodY2Lz0.

Any who, back on topic. I will be inflating my tires to 40psi this weekend (+2psi) more to see if I can gain anymore free MPG . I will keep you guys posted. I'm hoping for another +1 MPG average to put me at 17MPG average total over each tank.

 

First tank of gas in my 2016 Platinum Tundra yielded 21.6 mainly hiway but included about 1/2 hour of stop and go traffic on I25 in Denver. Yet another reason why NOT to live there. Not sure what octane the dealer put in the tank on delivery but imagine it probably was the cheapest one could buy. The truck has Dunlop Sport 5000 tires, rated at M+S and P255/55/20 size. Next tank I'll try 87 octane and see if there's a substantial improvement. Tires at 44psi. With a 20 cent surcharge for 87, it would require roughly a 10% improvement in mileage which would thus require 24 mpg. Don't think that's gonna happen. One can only hope.

 

Just back from a 1500 miles round trip and I got 18.0 on the nose hand calculated. Lots and lots of 75 to 80 mph driving. Bone stock 16' limited, stock tires at 38 psi.

I'm not unhappy.

 

So far I'm getting this ...



Driving in this ... no freeways, some flat around the edges of the lake, mostly hills and in town.

 

What octane is everyone using? So far just 87 for me. Anyone notice any difference using 89/91?