[sailormanbigd]

Noob here, stumbled on this web site. Cool Forum and site. I have just purchased for my retirement in 8 months an 1997 Ford F350 Ambulance. I have never been out west in the USA. I would love to see Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Colorado, Wyoming, etc. I will be living on Social security so I need to save money as much as possible. I purchased the F350 because it has a 7.3 powerstroke diesel and I hear they can get incredible mileage ? I drove it some 450 miles to get it home and its not bad bad, but not as good as I would have hoped. I didn't actually calculate as I was already too stressed with driving an unknown vehicle but I calculate somewhere around 10mpg based on my son driving a crown vic and me needing twice the gas/diesel he did and he gets 21.5mpg.
I was already thinking about an air dam like the semi's use to deflect the air over the box. There is a vertical area above the cab of the of the standard cab f350 of approx 3ft high by 8ft wide. Would an air dam be effective or worthwhile here? How much mpg could be scavenged from doing this? And what geometry should it have-a wedge that is tilted back is what I am guessing? thanks. Any other cheap mods would be greatly appreciated.