Improving the gas mileage of my silverado: Lightening the truck

[Toyman321]

Hi all, long story short I had been commuting in my Prius, my wife recently changed companies and now doesn't have a company car anymore. She's been driving the Prius and until I find a new commuter I've been driving my pickup. I've been documenting and testing my attempts to improve the gas mileage of the truck, check out my first episode of the project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt9eIPtii4s

Hope it might help someone else, any input is appreciated. My next project are going to be some light aero mod's using corrugated plastic.

[benlovesgoddess]

Great video - thumbs up!

[Jay2TheRescue]

Weight reduction as a means of getting better mileage vary. If your commute is mostly highway, you probably won't see any difference. If it is mostly city driving you will see some improvements.

[Draigflag]

Good efforts, for comparisons sake, I used 193 US gallons last year in 10,000 miles. I think aerodynamics will play a huge part though, especially in a big, flat faced, high riding truck. Have you considered smaller, lighter steel rims with narrower tyres? Just as an experiment maybe?

[Toyman321]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

Weight reduction as a means of getting better mileage vary. If your commute is mostly highway, you probably won't see any difference. If it is mostly city driving you will see some improvements.

Im about 50/50 city to highway so I've picked up some. I figure Aero mod' will help be out on the highway. If I can get this thing into the low to mid 20'd I'll be a happy camper.

Originally Posted by Draigflag

Good efforts, for comparisons sake, I used 193 US gallons last year in 10,000 miles. I think aerodynamics will play a huge part though, especially in a big, flat faced, high riding truck. Have you considered smaller, lighter steel rims with narrower tyres? Just as an experiment maybe?

I would but this thing still has to pull my trailer, and see's dirt trails pretty frequently. I'm not planning on commuting this thing indefinitely. I'll be picking up a commuter car soon and the truck will go back to limited mileage and truck duties. Im looking at a grill block, some sort of easily removable air dam and something under the truck to keep the air away from the rear wheels, bumper and diff. There will be a video once that's complete and I've run through a couple of tanks.

[Jay2TheRescue]

You can probably do that in your truck. Mine is a 98 and doesn't have the newer engine. Is yours new enough to have cylinder deactivation on it?