First Long Road Trip

Truck details: 2022 SR5 DC 4x4, “TSS Off Road” package. Trip details: Arkansas to Leadville, CO through Oklahoma and Kansas, then down to Westcliffe, CO and home through New Mexico, Texas panhandle, and Oklahoma. Truck was full, though not weighed down. A cooler and generator were the heaviest items I took.

I went to Colorado to climb fourteeners. Started with Mount of the Holy Cross, which involved taking the truck up eight miles of Rocky Mountain dirt road after an afternoon of rain. Probably didn’t need 4WD considering some other cars I saw up there, but it was muddy and steep in places, and I thought 4H couldn’t hurt. Set up my truck tent at the Holy Cross TH and slept on an air mattress in that good old 6.5’ bed.

Next I went down to the Westcliffe area and hiked Humboldt. This isn’t a 14ers trip report, so I won’t go into the details on why I bailed on Crestone. I will say that the truck in 4L handled the gosh-awful South Colony Lakes “road” well, though I did resist the temptation to go all the way up. I was too scared of tearing up my new toy before I’d even made the fourth payment on it, just to save a few miles of hiking. Let the thing get a few more years of use and I’ll get a little braver!

Overall thoughts: This truck handled I-70 and those mountain roads like a dream, much better than my 2015 or any other vehicle that I’ve driven in the Rockies. Gas mileage was excellent. Mid to high twenties on all the open roads. I even managed 31.4 mpg on the ~forty mile trek from Leadville to Buena Vista. The truck’s lifetime (right at 8k miles) average went from 18.4 to 18.8 over the course of the trip. Not sure how or why anybody complains about the MPG of this full size truck given the power it puts out. (Tangent: IMO, if you’re getting poor fuel economy, it means you’re either towing or hauling a lot, or you have a heavy foot. Either way, what do you expect when you’re driving a pickup?)

No ride or technical issues at all. I never got fatigued while out on the road. Never had one of those “I HAVE to get out of this truck!” moments. It was smooth and comfortable. I did see the “EPB Activation Stopped Incompletely” message during a gas/bathroom stop in Kansas. Methinks I was a little quick to turn it off—I’ll spare the details on why!

Anyway, fun trip. Love my truck. It ain’t the fanciest, and it doesn’t have a locker or the most bad boy off-road equipment, but it proved it can go long distances comfortably and climb some pretty sorry “roads” without even spinning a tire. It’s everything I need it to be.

Here’s hoping for many more pleasant travels in it.

 

Sweet! Like the tent setup. Did u leave back window open at all for music or anything?

 

I love the back window open, but mainly just for some fresh air while I’m driving.

 

Nice write up. Is the lifetime mileage captured somewhere? My resets after every trip and I’m averaging by hand let tank.

 

Wow, mid to high 20's on open road? I'm struggling to get 20.5 mpg with my '23 SR5 TSS. What am I doing wrong?

 

Going from Leadville at 10,000 feet down to Buena Vista at 8,000 feet in about 40 miles is probably the reason you were at 30+mpg there. Dropping 2000 ft in about 40 miles will tend to result in some good gas mileage even in a tank.