Real world pickup fuel mileage?

[Lawnman23]

My 98 K1500 with the same drivetrain and rear gears as yours but with stock 265/75/16 tires get 14-15 mpg on average with 17 being the best it ever got on a long trip over 20 years ago.

I also have a 98 K3500 with the 7.4L/ 4L80E/4.10 gears/ 245/75/16 tires and it gets around 10-13 mpg unloaded and 8-9mpg hauling or towing.

Yep, with stock sized tires, 15 sounds right.

The 7.4 BBC is a drinker but the torque for its time was fantastic. I drove a K3500 CCLB 7.4 SRW a few times and although it was slow as a dog, it felt like you could pull a house off its foundation. Paled in comparison to the 6.5 TD of its time I'm sure but

 

[mr_boring]

~18 mpg and I consider that pretty good for the way I drive it.
2018 F150, Supercrew, 3.55 gears, 4X4, 36 gallon tank, 20" Terra Grapplers, and every other option that makes it heavy. Payload is only like 1240

 

[wtd]

Yep, with stock sized tires, 15 sounds right.

The 7.4 BBC is a drinker but the torque for its time was fantastic. I drove a K3500 CCLB 7.4 SRW a few times and although it was slow as a dog, it felt like you could pull a house off its foundation. Paled in comparison to the 6.5 TD of its time I'm sure but

Yes, the 7.4L only had 290 HP but had 410 ft lbs of torque for the vortec version.

 

[GMBoy]

My truck's avg as displayed on the clusters are:

2016 Ram Limited 4x4 Hemi - 18.8mpg
2020 Jeep Gladiator (gas hog with 35" tires) - 16.1mpg
2006 GMC Sierra Denali 6.0L AWD - 14.1 mpg

 

[Silverado12]

2000 Dakota extended cab with the 3.9L/auto.. As I say I might as well punch a hole in the tank. In the lower teens regardless of highway or city. The trans really kills it. The RV gets 4 or 5 less mpg and it's way bigger with the 6.0L. I've thought about swapping a 4.8 or 5.3 in it.

Those 3.9 Dakotas seem to last longer than any other truck I know of, though. I've seen two with over 400K miles and one was on the original transmission. Both never had the motor opened up for anything.

 

[DGXR]

Fuelly says my average is 23.6 MPG over 139,081 miles tracked, pretty good overall. But who wants to drive a stock 4-cylinder automatic pickup truck? Most people are too interested in looking cool and buy giant noisy 4wd beasts for their stressful mall crawling LOL

 

[wander2039]

Those 3.9 Dakotas seem to last longer than any other truck I know of, though. I've seen two with over 400K miles and one was on the original transmission. Both never had the motor opened up for anything.

The Dodge cast iron 6’s do seem to live a long life. The transmissions on the other hand.

 

[cptbarkey]

OP, if you mean a 5.7 tundra, good luck. The 4.6 isnt much thriftier. I have the same engine in my SUV, I get 17 max, about 10-11 when towing. I dont care though, its smooth as silk.

 

[mark pruett]

Just took my 24 Honda Ridgeline on a roughly 1100 mile trip (Dallas to Carlsbad, NM and back, with some side trips) along with some minimal city driving, and I averaged 23.5 MPG, and 51 MPH over the trip.

Generally speaking, the highway parts were around 75-80 mph, except for the stretch on Texas 176 between somewhere east of Carlsbad through about Andrews, TX. That part was considerably slower, because of road construction and slow semis.

 

[IndyIan]

Fuelly says my average is 23.6 MPG over 139,081 miles tracked, pretty good overall. But who wants to drive a stock 4-cylinder automatic pickup truck? Most people are too interested in looking cool and buy giant noisy 4wd beasts for their stressful mall crawling LOL

4WD? That's pretty good. I like those engines, our rented Hiace high top campervan had the 2.7 with the 6spd auto and it hauled us around quite well, and sounds pretty good when its revved up IMO as you are sitting right beside/on it. It did some long grades in the 3-4k rpm range, not hunting for gears, just sitting at peak torque and getting it done. We got around 20mpg with mostly 55mph roads.

 

[Dr_Dr3i]

Closing out towing season, pulling 5K lbs (21' boat and trailer) I averaged 23 mpg.

Otherwise, running around locally about 24-26mpg. On our 3x annual WI </> FL trips I've seen 30+ mpg.

This is with a 26 gal tank, running 3.21 rear end, fully loaded with luggage in the back and 2 ppl + doggo in the cab.

 

[raaizin]

Pushing a brick which weighs over 2 tons, can't see how it can get good gas mileage. You can't fool physics

 

[svtrit]

My 2017 F150 with the NA 3.5 gets 19-20 in the summer and 17-18 in the winter. I have a commute that is 50% city and 50% rural 2 lane roads.

I would get an NA 6 cylinder in a full-size truck any day if not pulling trailers regularly. My 86Ram with a 318 was abut 180 horses. These new V6 engines are 250-300 before turbos are added.

 

[Number_35]

Just took my 24 Honda Ridgeline on a roughly 1100 mile trip (Dallas to Carlsbad, NM and back, with some side trips) along with some minimal city driving, and I averaged 23.5 MPG, and 51 MPH over the trip.

Generally speaking, the highway parts were around 75-80 mph, except for the stretch on Texas 176 between somewhere east of Carlsbad through about Andrews, TX. That part was considerably slower, because of road construction and slow semis.

My BIL bought a Ridgeline in 2012. Moving to it from a 4-cylinder Accord, he found the gas mileage atrocious.

Don: " I can't imagine any truck doing worse!"

Me: "I'm surprised - how bad is it?"

Don: "10 l/100 on the highway."

(That's just over 28 MPG Imperial/23.5 MPG US.)

Me: "That's actually not too bad at all!"

My work truck at the time was a 2002 Ford F-350 6.8 V10. 'Nuff said.

 

[Cheetah-kins]

If you care about gas mileage, you should not be driving a pickup truck.
If, for some reason, you still want to drive a pickup truck, drive a Ford Maverick Hybrid if it otherwise still meets your needs.

Yep, I have to agree. The terrible mileage of trucks is what keeps me from ever getting one. It's ok if you never go much beyond your own town, but I do a lot of long day trips and recreational driving and driving a vehicle with bad mileage just costs too much money to me. I would love to have something the size of say the Maverick one day that got 30-35 mpgs. I guess it's not to be.

 

[ARB1977]

My 24 Tundra gets 18-23.

 

[OM617YOTA]

My 98 K1500 with the same drivetrain and rear gears as yours but with stock 265/75/16 tires get 14-15 mpg on average with 17 being the best it ever got on a long trip over 20 years ago.

I also have a 98 K3500 with the 7.4L/ 4L80E/4.10 gears/ 245/75/16 tires and it gets around 10-13 mpg unloaded and 8-9mpg hauling or towing.

Older thread, apologies for the revival.

How do you get 10-13mpg with your '98 K3500? I have the same truck but a dually, and get 8.9mpg empty or full. Fresh tuneup, clean air filter, free flowing exhaust, all that.

Any idea when your torque converter locks up? Mine doesn't until ~65mph, which I seldom hit on these back country roads, which I'm sure is a huge part of the terrible MPG.

 

[mobilnissan1991]

My ‘12 crew cab F150 3.7 according to the dash gets 15.5-17 interstate driving, 10-13 pulling a trailer. Its true what they say about the 3.7, 2k rpm and under I get excellent mpg. It is only a 302 hp V6 pushing around a full size truck. I care way more about reliability than mpg and this truck is very reliable, even with 301k miles.

 

[meep]

2024 Tacoma hybrid. Only mod is a trimmed front air dam to about 2.5”. 23.6 mpg pretty much all the time, oem Michelin primacy tires.

 

[GR_CoB]

There is no excuse for these mid-size trucks getting the MPG of a full size truck. My dad had a 2009 Tacoma. 2.7L was plenty to do basic truck stuff and it got 28MPG highway, normal average was 20MPG.

My 5.6L Titan gets a little over 18 on the highway, maybe 15 towing my 1300 pound aluminum boat. I think the 5.7L Chevy only gets about 15 even without a load, but it’s been years since anyone checked.

2014 Armada 5.6L here. 16MPG average, 19MPG highway. When I had a 1995 Tahoe, its 5.7L got 12MPG no matter what.

2013 1.4 Fiat 500 (stock) gets 26mpg no matter what. It is an automatic.

Dang... my 2015 Fiat 500X (4dr) 1.4T and 6-speed manual got 30MPG average, and up to 43MPG on highway.

OP, if you mean a 5.7 tundra, good luck. The 4.6 isnt much thriftier. I have the same engine in my SUV, I get 17 max, about 10-11 when towing. I dont care though, its smooth as silk.

2012 Tundra 4.6L here, 16MPG average, 19MPG highway. It is smooth as silk for sure