Hello!

[EcoSuperDuty??]

Hey Everybody Been a big fan of this site for a while now and as I am moving soon and will have a 40 mile round trip to and from work instead of a 6 mile round trip lol figured I would join in and see what I can do for some mpg

I have no tools, no experience and no desire to drill holes into my truck lol I'm not going to go nearly as far as any of you but a few extra mpgs will help me get my transport costs in budget. Thinking of making a tonneau cover out of plywood, adding a partial grill blocker and maybe a lowering kit, but I don't want anything that will mess with suspension linkages or anything else. So pretty much cheap and easy mods for now

I have a 2000 F-250 Supercab Superduty 7.3 turbo diesel, short bed, 2 wheel drive, automatic, previous owner did a bunch of deletes added a bigger turbo and exhaust which means it actually gets pretty decent mileage already. Right now I'm recording about 20mpg on average per fill up and am hoping after I move, as it is all highway to get 25mpg at least.

Think that covers my intro, so look forward to hearing from everyone

[Daox]

If you're looking to save money, buying a beater car is the way to go. You can spend $1500 and the car will pay for itself in a year. Its hard to beat that anyway you look at it.

[EcoSuperDuty??]

Not really, the cost of the extra insurance and the space taken up would just not make it worth it.

[Daox]

Yes, insurance would cost something, but you're literally saving $1500 a year in gas alone if you only drive it to work and back. If you drive it more, you save more. Not to mention you save miles and thus depreciation on your truck. Also, insurance won't be THAT much more because you will only get liability on the car, and insurance for the truck will be less because you aren't daily driving it.

Space... well that is a different issue. Money wise, it works out.

If you can't or don't want to swing the car thing, check out the 65+ mods link and the hypermiling tips. Adjusting your driving technique will be your biggest gain, especially if you're not going to go overboard on mods. Oh, and start with getting instrumentation too, it really helps tweak your driving. Good luck!

[EcoSuperDuty??]

Having one super reliable vehicle instead of a super reliable vehicle and a beater just makes sense to me, like I said no tools or experience so as soon as something breaks on the beater there goes all the fuel savings for the year. I'm keeping the truck forever so just wanting to get the most out of it.

Was looking at instruments but then heard that the scan gauge does not work on diesels?

[elhigh]

Hello EcoSD, you have an admirable goal.

Boosting your rig's economy by over 20% is doable, there are other guys on this site who drive trucks comparable to yours and doing as well as that. You're running a diesel, too, which means some things might be a bit easier - forum member Diesel Dave's White Whale2007 Dodge Ram 2500 ST Quad Cab 2wd, short bed Gas Mileage (White Whale) - EcoModder.com whistles up damned good numbers, and his rig is in about the same weight class as yours.

I totally get not wanting to drill holes. But if you're going the distance of the tonneau, take a peek at some of the aerodynamic bed toppers guys have put on here, including Bondo's "Aerolid," an excellent example of the breed I tend to call a "whaleback." It looks pretty slick.

Aerohead lives and breathes aerodynamics. I think the guy is a literal rocket scientist; if he ain't then he's an aerodynamicist. I dunno, I just know he knows waaaay too much about aerodynamics for a regular person. I view his suggestions as citable resources.

Me, I'm just a guy with a little pickup.

Welcome. It's fun here.

[EcoSuperDuty??]

Wow awesome thank you very much I will check out everything he has done and see what I can apply to my truck

That aero lid is fantastic but I want to keep it down to a 5 minute job to remove lol

Thanks for the welcome and the info

[UltArc]

Sir, we are very similar. I wanted to make my Mustang as FE as possible, and did not want to hurt it or depreciate it while having no valuable skills.

I have explored on here and resources in these volumes of knowledge, and been able to build my skill set AND my vehicle. I thought the same about another car, but full coverage for my Insight took me from 440~ to 540~ for six months- and that was full coverage, the same as my Mustang.

Plus, it not only let's me keep my baby in the garage, but works as a mule to experiment on and it doesn't take much space sitting out in my yard.

Since you are familiar with the site, you know the links at the top, and one of our top dogs Diesel Dave, so welcome aboard and we look forward to seeing your progress!

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by EcoSuperDuty??

Having one super reliable vehicle instead of a super reliable vehicle and a beater just makes sense to me, like I said no tools or experience so as soon as something breaks on the beater there goes all the fuel savings for the year.

Not every econobox has to be a rust-bucket. Something like a '02-'08 Corolla would be a good choice, and occasionally even handle some towing
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...uck-25485.html

I'm keeping the truck forever so just wanting to get the most out of it.

If you're gonna keep it "forever", you might feel free enough to do some experiences with it if you were more mechanically-inclined. Maybe it's time for a new hobby

Was looking at instruments but then heard that the scan gauge does not work on diesels?

Since your truck is compliant to OBD-2, the ScanGauge is going to work with it.

[EcoSuperDuty??]

Guys I don't think you are really getting the picture, I am buying a house I don't have extra money to buy another vehicle or the time to wade through all the cheapies finding the ones that have been taken care of instead of the lemons lol

I appreciate you trying to help really but you aren't going to sell me on getting a new vehicle right now.

With that said I do intend to start working on my mechanical knowledge and building up a tool and experience base but that's going to take time and the main reasons I don't want to drill holes in my truck are I don't have a drill and I don't want to end up drilling 3 times to get something to line up, which as most of you probably know is happens when you are inexperienced.

So simple things for now, more advanced stuff later lol

Also Scan Gauge 2 vs Scan Gauge E? Only thing I can see that I would want is the 2's ability to read codes if they ever came up other then that saving 50 bucks just to have instant mpg sounds good.