[Shomeyrwit]

Driving a long bed supercab f150 2wd 4.6l auto.

when I bought this truck the first few tanks were returning 19mpg on my 20mi each way hwy commute. Since that was the same as the 6cyl minivan and only 3 less than my girlfriends Acura cl (6cyl) I got all curious about breaking into the 20+ mpg range (which hasnt happened)
So I tuned it up which it didnt really seem to need and set off on base line mpg runs, 3 days driving the same exact route at the same speed filling up to the same level at the same pump at the end of the day and was happy with a 19.1 avg, the next week I started monday with a full tank and drove that tank till friday and was again plzd with a 19.2 avg.
At this point I started checking every 3 days and was suprised that the more careful I tried to be accelerating the worse the economy got, but was still ok with above 18.5 averages.
The real shocker was my in town mpg. on the weekends I stay around the neighborhood and was checking this mpg vs my work commute, this is all surface street max 40mph driving lots of stop signs and lights. Driving normal produced an avg of 16.6mpg, driving as insanely carefully as I could and not get run off the road neted 14.4????? so I tried again and got mid 14's and a third time only a 14.8 ??? so I decided to romp on it without mercy and was rewarded with 15.5 and a 15.0 and there was no third test because I only have so much nerve and tickest cost to much.
So if your still with me why would being super cautious and accelerating slowly net less than practically street racing light to light???

my current mpg per tank is between 16.8 and 18.3 which is not bad considering that all the orig mpg testing was done on 225/70 15's and the truck currently has 255/70 16's on all four corners. The plan was to run 235 75 industrials but money and availability (and the 16 yea old that still lives in my head and thinks big tires and loud exhaust rule) have conspired agin me