Offroad Trailblazers and Envoys

Fuel mileage.

Trailblazer and Envoy related, but not off-road related...

by ErikSS » Mon Aug 26, 2013 5:25 pm

I got 10.38 mpg. Mostly highway and mostly around 68 mph.
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by JorDaneeKey » Mon Aug 26, 2013 5:38 pm

ErikSS wrote:I got 10.38 mpg. Mostly highway and mostly around 68 mph.


Yep! That sounds about right to me! Lol.

HARDTRAILZ wrote:90 miles of 80+ mph showed 15.8 average. 90 miles of 60 mph showed 17.4 mpg. Both today and numbers via scanguage II. Last hand calculation was over 28 gallons and showed about 15.75 in mixed driving.



Got the front gears. Now to just find a 8.6 rear axle within driving distance that we can get on a weekend.....Kyle's numbers have me jealous.
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by HARDTRAILZ » Mon Aug 26, 2013 7:00 pm

I definitely don't hotrod the truck. Its not built for that.

I pay attention to throttle and don't use cruise much.

Opened airbox, Green filter, clean throttle body, premium fuel tune, catback, gearing...It all seems to work together nicely.
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by ErikSS » Mon Aug 26, 2013 9:37 pm

My 10.38 was pulling Hatchets truck on a tow dolly. That's why I posted the pic. I seem to be getting in the low 13's pretty regular. I'm pretty happy with that!
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by navigator » Tue Aug 27, 2013 1:27 pm

with my 32s and 3.42 gears I seem to average around 16 in mixed driving.
taking off slow vs fast doesn't seem to make a real big difference. Coasting to a stop does seem to help but I don't find myself doing that a whole lot.
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by Shdwdrgn » Sun Sep 29, 2013 5:48 pm

I just got my first fill-up after installing the 4.10 rear-end... I came in at 12.86mpg, however about 1/3 of that tank was dragging a 5000-pound trailer all over gravel roads -- my buddy didn't bother telling me all the bridges around his house had washed out , and he didn't answer his phone for nearly an hour :facepalm: so I did a lot of needless driving around trying to find a way to his place.

I'm adjusting based on how far off my odometer is, rather than the calculated difference from my old gears, but since resetting the dash gauge (after hauling the trailer), my mileage seems to be right in line with what I was getting with the 3.42 gears, which was usually around 15.75mpg driving in mostly stop&go traffic to work. I'll be real curious to see what the next tank calculates out to.
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by mikekey » Sun Sep 29, 2013 5:59 pm

Hey Jeff, what size tires do you have again? 33's?
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by Shdwdrgn » Sun Sep 29, 2013 6:11 pm

Oops sorry... no I only have 30.6" (265/70/16).
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by jhmeg2 » Thu Dec 12, 2013 11:56 am

With the 3" suspension and 3" body lift stock tires and 3.42s pulling a 1200 lbs trailer with a 6000 lbs tundra on it from south Ohio to middle Wisconsin. .. about 16. With no trailer and 35s... about 10-13. But now I totaled the tundra and put in another rear end (same gear ratio). New plugs, oil change, air filter, and fuel filter, no big improvement. Maybe I need an O2 sensor? But I didn't get a code.
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by mikekey » Thu Dec 12, 2013 12:28 pm

jhmeg2 wrote:With the 3" suspension and 3" body lift stock tires and 3.42s pulling a 1200 lbs trailer with a 6000 lbs tundra on it from south Ohio to middle Wisconsin. .. about 16. With no trailer and 35s... about 10-13. But now I totaled the tundra and put in another rear end (same gear ratio). New plugs, oil change, air filter, and fuel filter, no big improvement. Maybe I need an O2 sensor? But I didn't get a code.



Are you saying that you drive around on 35's with 3.42's all the time?
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by jonbo2002 » Thu Dec 12, 2013 12:46 pm

I'm trying to figure out the 16MPG with trailer and tundra when I only get about 10 without a lift and my 6-7000lbs trailer
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by BowTide » Mon Apr 14, 2014 10:00 pm

[b]from my limited calculations in the first few tanks (city driving 55 and under) 12.8-14 is best I can get, isn't that a little low for a 6 banger? Oh, it has 3.42 gears and stock 245 16's in a 'Fordstone' Destination street tire. /b]
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by Shdwdrgn » Mon Apr 14, 2014 11:41 pm

BowTide wrote:[b]from my limited calculations in the first few tanks (city driving 55 and under) 12.8-14 is best I can get, isn't that a little low for a 6 banger? Oh, it has 3.42 gears and stock 245 16's in a 'Fordstone' Destination street tire. /b]


You would have to answer a lot more questions before anyone could give you a reasonable answer. What year is your vehicle? Have many miles? How well has it been maintained (regular oil changes, etc)? When was the last time you cleaned the throttle body? Is your drive a constant stop&go, or do you do a lot of low-speed cruising? How aggressively do you drive? Do you have any extra weight in the vehicle? Towing a load? 2WD or 4WD?

As you can see, there is quite a list of things that can affect your mileage. Yes your numbers are on the low end, but if you've done something like going 50,000 miles between oil changes or strapped a sheet of plywood to your grill, then obviously your mileage would be lower than average.
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by DustinC1989 » Mon Apr 14, 2014 11:53 pm

Shdwdrgn wrote:
BowTide wrote:[b]from my limited calculations in the first few tanks (city driving 55 and under) 12.8-14 is best I can get, isn't that a little low for a 6 banger? Oh, it has 3.42 gears and stock 245 16's in a 'Fordstone' Destination street tire. /b]


You would have to answer a lot more questions before anyone could give you a reasonable answer. What year is your vehicle? Have many miles? How well has it been maintained (regular oil changes, etc)? When was the last time you cleaned the throttle body? Is your drive a constant stop&go, or do you do a lot of low-speed cruising? How aggressively do you drive? Do you have any extra weight in the vehicle? Towing a load? 2WD or 4WD?

As you can see, there is quite a list of things that can affect your mileage. Yes your numbers are on the low end, but if you've done something like going 50,000 miles between oil changes or strapped a sheet of plywood to your grill, then obviously your mileage would be lower than average.


Can tell its a 2004 4wd just from his info, everything else is still needed info though
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by Shdwdrgn » Tue Apr 15, 2014 12:08 am

Odd, I didn't see that when I replied. Maybe he just added it? Or maybe I just need to get some sleep.
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by drburke » Tue Apr 15, 2014 12:16 pm

I'm quite perplexed with my mileage too. When I had 33s, no tune, and 3.42, I was getting 12-13 hwy (65-70) and 10 city. With 33s, 93 tune, and 4.10s... I'm getting the exact same. Transmission stays in lockup all the time, which is nice, but it hasn't seemed to help at all, temperature wise or mileage wise. Can only get ~260 miles out of a tank. I thought the gears would have made it a little better. I just stopped worrying about it.
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by Shdwdrgn » Tue Apr 15, 2014 12:26 pm

I also just switched to 4.10s last Fall and noticed the same thing. My drive to work is a combination of some 55mpg highway, but a lot of stop&go traffic, so I assumed getting higher gears would help a bit. Instead it seems my mileage may have actually dropped slightly. On a recent trip across two states (nearly 2000 miles round-trip), my mileage appears to be in exactly the same range as my daily commute.
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by TBYODA » Tue Apr 15, 2014 2:15 pm

I know fuel mileage is really dictated by driving style, vehicle/driving condition. That aside I have been studying the gear ratio calculator chart to see if there could be are any sweet spots for MPG in each gear ratio/tires size. Comparing the stock rpm's and were the rpm's are very close to stock in each gear ratio I come up with the below sweet spots points. On 3.42 gears and 29.5" tires sizes you can easily get around 20 -22 MPG on the highway. Now I know Kyle has stated many time he get's around the same MPG's running 35". His comments intrigued me to look into this and the only explanation I can come up with is this theory or he is just BS us. Just kidding .... really. :finger: I could be all wet on this theory but i think it is worth noting.

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by HARDTRAILZ » Tue Apr 15, 2014 2:25 pm

I ran a bunch of numbers way back when and it worked out that with my tire size and gearing andsuch...My current setup equates to about a stock 3.55 ratio.

I think you are on to part of it. My lack of speeding much is another big thing. I know somewhere someone showed how much more drag you got going from say 70 to 85 versus going from say 55 to 70.
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by mikekey » Tue Apr 15, 2014 2:29 pm

I'd imagine increasing the distance from the ground as you go up in lift is a contributing factor as well. A lot of variables at play. Changing gears isn't going to magically make you get stock MPG's of 18mpg. These cars don't get amazing stock fuel anyhow.
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