crew cab dually ecomod

[nemo]

Originally Posted by infinite-foamies

im 17 and this is my DD, i love my truck and dont plan to park. i can afford the fuel but enjoy tinkering and if i can save fuel then why the hell not?

I would encourage you to understand what it cost to operate your vehicle, not just the fuel. Hopefully you bought your truck, pay for the insurance and maintenance and are saving for a replacement. Even if you didn't / don't, track these expenses understand what it costs to drive each and every mile.

In the mean time enjoy your truck and good luck with your mods.

[Ecky]

The biggest improvement you can make is in how you drive, though I imagine an aerodynamic cap for the bed would help on the highway. Partial grill block, air up tires, and maybe a belly pan would help. Lowering may provide a small improvement too but probably won't be cost effective.

As an aside, at work I recently convinced a coworker to switch from her SUV to a Prius. I calculated that she was spending about $9000 a year in fuel, and driving the same miles in a used Prius she was saving almost $6000 a year. The car payment on the Prius plus gas actually came out to less than just gas for her SUV, nevermind the money she'll get when she sells it.

[GRU]

Due to his short comute aero mods will not help much...he would be better off driving a box on wheels with a small engine

[Frank Lee]

Like a school bus.

[trooper Tdiesel]

staying with the original 235/85/16 or going to 215/85/16 will help with drag.

versus the 285/75/16 or the 265/75/16 that's common as replacements.
if you can find a good deal on alloys on CL or some where else they will help in the long run.
you could run on the rear two 215s on the out side and two 235s on the inside. and when your empty it would create less drag.
or you could just delete the dual wheels on the rear.


theres two gear sets that are common 4.11s in 1 tons and 3.55s in 3/4 tons.
would be a lot of work but would help for as long as you don't move big loads.

best i remember the 2.73, 3.08, 3.27 ratios are for 1/2 tons

with are 89 and 94 IDI fords, (94 was the ODD year ford sold three versions of the 7.3L)
the last thing id want is to have 3.55s with 5 ton+ in tow....with 166hp on tap in the 89 and 190hp in the 94
the trucks are about 7,000lbs empty if i remember right. add in near 60gal of fuel and its nearing 7,500lbs.

but when empty on flat ground the 2,000rpms at 60 seems rather high.
we range from 12 to 21.9 mpg 16/18 is more common do to the very up and down ground of the area..
haa i see you have the gear vender that should help.


oh yea if the injectors have over 100,000 on em they could use new tips or replacements.
this is the best bang for the buck ive found on injector systems.
you can get a complete injector set and replacement pump for WAY WAY less then the cost to do the same on a newer power stroke diesel or any computer-ised diesel for that matter.
7.3 Ford Injector & Return Line Kit 1983-94 7.3L Diesel, Diesel Care and Performance Inc

[infinite-foamies]

the mechanical pump is around $1200, the truck has almost 106,000 miles on it. dont know if the injectors have been replaced or not.

it weighs 5150lbs according to the title. came with alcoa aluminum rims for 4/6 of them. came with the 235's, i put 215's on off my parts truck. i probably spend $8k per year on fuel depening on how many trips i do and i work hard to pay for it. The truck my dad had sitting around so i did not pay for it, i split the insurance with my mom. I got a slide in camper for free. I pay for the maintenance and obviosuly do all my work. i payed for all the parts when i was in a five car pile up. its a 1 ton and was set up for towing large loads. I obviosuly dont keep the camper on all the time because of mpg, i keep a normal bed cap on. I love this truck and understand it is very expensive but i feel it sowrth it. i am however working on building a 73' mgb which would be better on mpg i imagine however im building it as a road racing car. I am purely trying to improve mpg on the long highway trips.

sorry for this being jumbled, english is not my strong hold...

[GRU]

wow, 8 grand a year is crazy expensive...car payments on a nice new car is half of your fuel bill

[infinite-foamies]

its worth it to me, i dont like the look of new cars or the lack of ability to work on them(i know its not impossible its just more difficult because of the computerized everything and compact everything). i may have calculated that wrong, that was with 14mpg and $4/gal; which is basically the worst case scenario. it will probably work out to be more like $6k.

[jakobnev]

Still, with interest, $6k/a is like $100k by the time you are ready to settle into a home and start a family. And by then you might regret letting it all (literally) go up in smoke.

I think before you start modding the truck you need to catch up on your mrmoneymustache.com for a different way of seeing things.

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by infinite-foamies

its worth it to me, i dont like the look of new cars or the lack of ability to work on them(i know its not impossible its just more difficult because of the computerized everything and compact everything). i may have calculated that wrong, that was with 14mpg and $4/gal; which is basically the worst case scenario. it will probably work out to be more like $6k.

So you arrived at your $8000 estimate using 14mpg and $4/gal, correct? That would mean you drive 28,000 miles a year?
I understand that you like the truck, but I like to work smarter not harder, especially when the consequence is money out the tailpipe. You could buy a $2000 dollar car that gets 30mpg (fairly easy in most any car if you want to hypermile), and even at $3 a gallon, it would still pay for itself in under a year.

I admire you trying to save fuel with what you have and I wish you success in whatever route you end up taking. I just recommend taking a long, hard look at the cost vs benefits.