Anyone know how to get better fuel milleage out of a 2007 ranger 3.0 5 speed without breaking the bank.

 

Change you driving habits.

 

damn he just Pooned your Noob driving skills!@

you could get a new better flowing air filter, muffler, larger exhaust pipes?

 

i also find driving style is the biggest impact on my fuel economy. But check your tire pressure, that is key! under inflated tires kill gas mileage. I dont know if its true or not, but i find that i get better gas mileage running supreme fuel

 

An exhaust and stuff will help but my biggest gain was from changing my driving habits. I let off going down hill, I keep at one set throttle position on the freeway, I let myself lose some speed when I go uphill, I use no more than 35% throttle going uphill and I avoid taking off hard. I can monitor my TPS and MPG with my scangauge. I have gone from 220 miles to about 260 to an 1/8 of a tank. I don't let it get past 1/8.

 

I monitor my TPS as well, its hard sometimes to keep it below 50.

 

change your driving habits get off the gas and shift more... run at lower rpms.. i pushed 3 more mpg this last time because i slowed down and excelled slower so i get 300 miles instead of 240.. its all in how you drive.. driving a little slower is cheaper than any mod you can do my friend.

 

in my 4.0 i've found that running at lower rpm actually hurts ur economy... cuz if u run too low ur totally out of ur power rpm and the engine has to pump more fuel to accelerate u. wut i do and it REALLY helps is, stay in the same gear and run it up to about 3k rpm before shifting, but do it slowly. so that way ur up in the power but ur not hard on the gas. and if u do wanna accelerate, downshift for sure. that way ur in the power and u dont have to floor it. (thats my 4.0 tho... i never paid attention wen i drove my 3.0)

 

i run to about 2500 in my 4.0L and i run it super low once im at the speed im going to be maintaining. and in that case i find i do very well. just dont try to fast excel if you know your tooo low.

 

I think the way you drive is a big part of it. How ever putting better fuel i.e. cheveron or 76 will help too, but when I did the math it was cheaper to get the cheaper gas i.e. safeway, costco, etc. then the better companies. In other words the about of mileage i gained w/ "nicer" companies was not significant enough when compared to the amount saved per gallon w/ "cheaper" companies. (but safeway was 10-20 cents cheaper per gallon too (club card discount)) now they are about the same price :(. Any ways I am not sure if running supremum well help or not, but I would consider the cost per gallon vs. mpg gained. I Also heard that if you run higher grade in a F.I. car it throughs off the computer calibrations b/c better octane burns cleaner which could through off air to fuel ratios and what not (don't know if it is true or not though!!!!).

Or you can just buy a Honda Civic or a Prius. You are in a truck after all.

 

You know, everybody seems to think that driving habits are a very big impact, and I would have to agree... most of the time. But in my truck, it doesn't really matter how I drive, I seem to get the same mileage. The one thing that I can say does make a big difference is the type of fuel I run. If I get ethanol free fuel, I get 19-20 no matter how I drive. If I get gas with 10% ethanol, I get 17. It sucks though because most everywhere has some ethanol in their gas.

 

Wow we dont even have that out here.. I work for an Oil/Gas company and I dont think we do that.. but we are changing our Diesel to 30% bio and 70% crude.. that way higher profit margians yay us right!!!! =]]

Gotta love Flying J.

Well prerunner i think if you drove heavy on the gas you would yield 16 - 17 not 19 - 20

 

Ok i cant believe nobodys said it yet but buy a honda...or one of those Smart for 2 things. Those look pritty cool

 

smarts only get like 30 - 36 mpg... not worth the money being the diesel ones arent avialable here which are 70mpg

 

I thought the newer Rangers got around 24mpg.

 

Want to know how much driving habits can effect your MPG. Two years ago I made an 8,000 mile summer trip in my 35' motor home. Towing a compact car. (Honda CR-V) WITH THE CRUISE SET AT 75 MPH I got an overall average of 4.9 MPG. High was about 5.5 and the low was about 4.0 on windy days with lots of mountains. This year I made essentially the same trip. This time I stood in the right hand lane and set the cruise to 60-65 MPH. My average was 7.6 MPG. With a high of just over 8 MPG. Remember @ $4 per gallon, it was costing me about $250 per fill up.


I know you can't compare a 35' motor home with a Ranger, but the idea is the same. When I drop my MPH from 75 to 60-65, on my Ranger. My MPG goes from hi teens to low 20's. About a 10-12% improvement. My best is about 22.3. That's a 3.0 with an automatic, with about 750-900 lb of "accessories," Hard cover, twin subs, amps, etc. permanently installed.

THINK ABOUT IT.

 

A K&N O.E.M replacement filter, change exhaust, lower your Tailgate and drive a bit slower. With 4.10 gears and shifting into your highest gear while in town you'll see 18 and 24 MPG's. Plus if using 4.10's don't go over 65 MPH. that's the limit you can go with 4.10's without using obscene amounts of fuel. Plus here's another thing you can do. Most Rangers use 5W20 or 5W30 conventional motor oil. Switch to 10W30 synthetic. It will run cooler for alot longer. and for those interested in the ultimate fuel saver: WEIGHT REDUCTION. The less amount of weight the engine has to carry the better. here's a link that might interest those wanting to do weight reduction: www.glassworksunlimited.com they make fiberglass fenders and front clips specifically for the ranger as well as various offroading stuff.

 

i got worse

 

lowering your tailgate also hurts you, Myth busters proved that one

 

a few things i do to pick up some extra mpg.... is when i pump gas i usually go really early in the morning or very late at night... whichever is the coolest. This helps when ur pumping the gas that it doesnt expand in the tank which means u can actually hold a little more gas in the tank. Also when im pumping gas i set the trigger to its lowest setting so that the gas doesnt evap. bc of it being shot into the tank so quickly, and the biggest thing i do is go easy on the pedal... By doing all this i picked up 2-5 more mpg. In the end it really does make a difference. i average out in the city 26-28 mpg in my 3.0

 

1.) Drive truck to dealership
2.) Trade truck in
3.) Drive off with small eco car.......LOL

 

The ford vulcan isnt an econo engine...or a power house. It's just a work mule.

 

The 3.0 is just a work mule. You can dog it bloody and it will come back for more.

Your generally going to get about 20mpg driving it and keeping up with traffic and not being that painful douche that takes 5 miles to hit 65 on the road.

In the end, It is a truck. If you run offroad tires, you can buy a second set with standard street tires and lower your truck when not hitting the trails, this will make the biggest diffrence overall.



Really the best thing to do, is make sure that you have your engine in perfect running order, make sure you run fuel system cleaner every third tank, have your FI system cleaned every 30k keep up on your trans fluid and use some good gear lube. Use decent oil, I go to the dealership for my oil changes as a full synth/blend change is like 28$ and they inspect everything while your there. Over inflate your tires a bit (40 PSI but make sure your tires are in perfect balance or life is going to suck in the long run ^_^) get some lighter rims, use a k&n filter, tuned exhaust for torque if you do alot of city driving or hp if you do alot of highway, chip tune your system for MPG and efficiency possibly get a better intake thats got better airflow, do everything you can to lower your engine temps (does make a diffrence) reduce resistance where you can.

Something also to keep in mind, american engines are horribly inefficient. Fixing some of the design flaws can improve performance, economy and durability.

I sat down with a respected engine builder back in detroit. We went over the engine on my 87 town car. I was pulling a cool 27mpg stock no mods on long trips. What we came up with was a simple set of mods that would completely revamp the old 5.slow and bring the efficiency up to a more respectable number.....

When it was done, it cost over 3k and I didnt see any diffrence in performance except the car ran alow smoother and seemed more responsive.

I also got 475k miles out of the engine before the rear end exploded nicely =)

 

when driving if your coming up to a red light, slow down early and time it so you never have to stop completely. this way you dont always have to accelerate from a stand still.

 

I've done a few things that help with my mileage but there's just so much you can do here. Clean filters. proper tire pressures, don't move the gas pedal more than you have to, time the red light stops, let a little speed rub off on hills, keep your eyes on prices arround you. That's about it - oh, the last word on high octane gas...it's not 'better'; it just has a higher flash point which keeps the high compression engines from pinging. It just burns slower. So - if you burn high octane gas and you don't need it, you are likely to run your exhaust valves hotter and not get full power from each explosion. Big wast of $$$.
That's my take on all of this.