Truck Miles Per Gallon

I've found it more challenging to find out how to increase my truck's ability to get a good miles per gallon because I've never been a truck owner until this 2004 Nissan Frontier 4X4, which I've only owned for a few years. It may be more challenging to figure out how to improve its miles per gallon more because I'm learning how to drive it for good fuel mileage. I already know a lot of driving techniques for my cars, but my Nissan was harder to figure out.

You see, normally to get good fuel mileage on the freeway, you just drive slower than everyone else and make yourself a hazard. It is certainly what I learned from Consumer Reports. Don't knock that source of information, their entirely right that many large vehicles do much better at 55 and 65 mph then they do at 65 or 75. My Chevy Prizm for many years got better fuel mileage at 140 KPH - or kilometers per hour for any surprised for me to not talk about it in the usual American way(!) - then it did at the slower 55 and 65 mph that you'd expect. I think that speed was just right for the engine design or some such. I mean, I've learned that to maintain 55 or 65 mph, the only way to get good mileage in the Chevy Prizm is to take it out of overdrive which feels strange because it makes the engine so much louder. The point is, to get good truck miles per gallon reading, the slower I drive the better I'm off. Whether I say slower because of the acceleration or slower because of the speed it all helps. Now, I'm not saying to all of you drive your big vehicles in the city to get good mileage because the stops at all the lights will get you, but maybe when the freeway is going a steady 30 to 45 mph, that my truck gets as much as 3 miles per gallon better! Yeah, traffic jams on freeway have only given my truck better fuel mileage! Isn't that nuts?!? You'd think that all the slowing down and speeding up would cost more, but my Nissan truck just doesn't get good miles per gallon at the higher speeds. Now, I've tried cruising on the freeway at 55 or 65 where the traffic was light to save gas and so far it hasn't worked, but maybe that's because I only drive it a long way on the freeway when I have a lot in it, or a payload that only the Nissan Frontier can move.

Sorry to get off topic, but if any of you were wondering why I was referring to the kilometers per hour (KPH) instead of miles per hour (mph) it's because after I left Europe focusing on going 140 KPH was the only way I could keep myself from driving too fast. It's much harder to maintain a certain KPH than the equivalent MPH because there are so many more KPH numbers on a gauge in the same amount of the gauge movement than MPH. It was the only trick I could think of to stop myself from driving too fast after being allowed to drive faster out of America.

Now, I'm not saying to all of you drive your big vehicles in the city to get good mileage because the stops at all the lights will get you, but maybe when the freeway is going a steady 30 to 45 mph, that my truck gets as much as 3 miles per gallon better (16.6% improvement, which is a nearly magically impossible improvement)!

In conclusion:
Seriously, traffic jams on freeway have only given my truck better fuel mileage! That's totally nuts!! (A generally moving traffic jam, but it did have some light stops too.)

Get more on the Truck or Car Miles Per Gallon from AutoBravado's other website.

by AutoBravado