Howdy folks, I've read alot about fuel milage and gears lately so I thought
I'd kick my 2 cents in in the subject. I've got a 97 V-6 4X4 with an auto
trans and 3.92 gears*. I recently toook a long road trip (about 1500 miles)
all through California and recorded about 19.5 mpg as an average. In my
truck the fuel warning light comes on after about 330 miles (from a full
tank) and at that time I can usually only stuff 17 gallons in the tank
(17.5 if I want to sit there long enough and keep squeezing). One thing I
found was that on mountain roads where your'e limited to 30-50 mph I was
getting remarkable milage, at one point I'd gone 250 miles on half a tank!
On the other hand, many Ca. freeways have 70 mph speed limits so that
means 75-80 or you get run over; at those speeds I doubt I'm getting 19+
mpg. I've found that my around town mileage is about 17-17.5 but that
usually includes a few freeway jaunts per tank.
*This goes to show that a little knowledge goes a long way: when I picked
up my truck
(which I ordered custom from the dealer) I checked the sticker to make sure
all the options I wanted were there etc.. and where I could, I checked the
actual items themselves. Well one thing I couldn't check was the
differential ratio (at least I diddn't know how at the time). The window
sticker said "atni-spin differential" so I was happy with that but I had
also specified a 3.55 gear ratio. Until recently I just assumed thats what
I had, but when I finally found the info on the glove box door it reads
axle ratio 3.9 option code DMH. The order sheet I gave the dealer (which I
still have a copy of) said Axle ratio DMD - 3.55. Go figure!
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+ Tony Mastres, Photographer, Instructional Development +
+ +
+ University of California @ Santa Barbara +
+ __ +
+ []_.-' (Q,___\ +
+ *********`(o) >>>}__(o)s> +
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