09 Ranger fuel economy mods
 

Hi Guys,
I have a 09 Ranger 4 litre standard shift. I live in Canada so my fuel economy will be in litres per 100 kilometres.
I have done a couple of mods already. My base fuel economy was just under 10 litres per 100 kilometres which is almost 28 mpg to an imperial gallon. I pumped the tires up to 40 psi. They are Goodyear wrangler and this pressure is still under the max. I put in Castrol syntec 5w30 oil. I also added a G3 bakflip to cover the bed. My mileage so far now is about 9.5L/100k at 100 to 105 kph. So farI'm very happy with the mileage. I drive very carefully and am doing a lot of the 65 tips on this website.
I need as many tips as you guys can give me to increase fuel economy. Have people tried headers or a catback system. I'm thinking about lowering the truck and a belly pan. I do metal work for a living so this will be no problem. What about an electric fan. Any suggestion is worth considering. The truck now has just over 15000 kms so its very new.
I'm leaving soon for western Canada to work so I will let you all know what my average is for the 4500 km trip.
Thank you ecomodder people for your input. I can't wait to get started.

Welcome to the site ranger40mpg. A lot have shot for that number, few succeed.

Also, 10l/100km is 23.5 mpg. You probably used imperial gallons vs US gallons. Your truck is rated at 15/21, so you're not doing too bad. It shouldn't be horribly hard to get you into the high 20s. But 40? I dunno about that, not without extensive mods.

Efan is a good mod to start with, bellypan is also good. Grill block is a good one to start with. I would definitely not buy an aftermarket header. A custom made header with the design intent to improve mileage would increase mileage, but all aftermarket headers are designed to improve horsepower output and this is not what you want.

Our gallon is almost 20 percent larger . I've gone almost 700 kms on a tank. And not to a dry tank.

Thanks for the tips. I love a challenge. My friend has a wrecking yard so I have access to some parts.

How long are you going to be working out west? You're not far from me (I'm just down the 416 on the St Lawrence River).

If you don't have anything yet, I'd also strongly recommend getting MPG instrumentation - ScanGauge, MPGuino (for the DIY types) or equivalent. Helps keep the nut behind the wheel adjusted.

do a search for my thread for a 99 ranger XLT w/ a 3.0L auto.
the post will list all the mods I was planning on.
those things you posted will help, each one wont give you much of an increase, but together the total increase in FE would be noticeable.
my goal was to hit 30mpg on my ranger, it just became more important to have a safer family vehicle. now Im going to use most of the same mods on my Xterra, but I dont think I can reach even 30mpg. of course, if I can, I'll do an Irish Jig :D

[edit]
oh, and welcome to the forums :)

I'll echo the suggestion about the instantaneous fuel consumption display. A lot of gains can be made in driver technique.

An electric fan is a good idea, as it will only spin when needed. Taller gearing, though if your truck is a 4x4 it doubles the cost of that mod. If it is a 4x4 manual hubs may help, I do not know if that generation has unlocking hubs or not.

Since you haven't done so yet, I'd start entering your fuel economy data into the fuel logs on here. I also have a helpful MS Office 2007 Excel spreadsheet that will help you track your fuel economy, although you would have to modify it to fit your fuel measurements since it's currently configured for US Gallons. PM me if you want a copy. I can e-mail it to you (although the fuel log on here does basically the same thing except mine tracks savings compared to another car).

Remember, if you want to track fuel economy you will always need to top-off your tank every fill-up. If you stop at the first click of the fill handle you will have inconsistant data.