It's probably possible to build vehicles that get fantastic mileage, but I
doubt that they'd give very good performance. And in trucks, especially
4x4's that are high, wide and flat in the front getting really great
mileage would be on the high side of difficult. An engine that'd give 30
or 40 mpg with a Dakota 4x4 at hiway speeds probably couldn't pull itself
out of 1/4 inch of tapioca pudding empty let alone loaded.
I had a '64 Plymouth Belvedere 2 dr hardtop with a 318 V8, Torqflite, 2.73
rear end that gave 17-18 mpg on the hiway and 14-15 in town. A 5.2 (=318)
Dakota 4x4 with automatic will do at least as well with probably better
acceleration and give away about 8 or 900# in weight to that '64.
If you want power it's gonna use gas, if you want a truck that's big
enough to do truck like hauling it's gonna use gas, if you want hi mileage
you're probably gonna have to settle on an econobox with a nice low drag
coefficient. Not much of a conspiracy : ).
Larry Elliott
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