99 ford ranger
 

Hello all. My project is my daily driver I have a 12 mile commute to work amd I also use my truck to hall furniture for my side business of buying and selling. My goal is in my project is to average 30mpg. Using the baseline of factory average is 21mpg. I'm ordering a vacuum gauge to help my driving habits. I plan on also getting a scan gauge so I can get accurate instant feedback of my mpg and driving habits. I know aero mods will be a must also. I'm currently planning a build for an aerodynamic bed cap. I'm also thinking of adding rear wheel skirts and wheel covers. Any tips amd suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cool bedcap project. Keep us posted with pics and stuff. Subscribed to follow.

Tire choice is huge. Street tires will perform much better than some mudders or other blocky tread. Others will tell you to go through the front end to make sure it's tight and aligned.

Auto or manual tranny? You'll want to drive as slowly as possible in top gear for best FE.

I plan on trying to find the smallest width and tallest height tire that will fit my truck. It is a manual 5 spd

Skip the vacuum gauge
 

A Scangauge will do everything you're asking the vacuum gauge to do, and be a lot more precise.

I have a carbureted Toyota Truck, pretty similar to yours in specifications except it's about as computerized as a 2x4. I have a vacuum gauge and frankly it's a letdown.

It's lost calibration twice (fixed it once, haven't bothered since) so it's really only good for showing whether you are pulling a little more or less vacuum moment to moment. An SG will give you much clearer information.

Welcome to Ecomodder.

Nice to see another Ranger owner. My '97 before it died had 285k miles on it and averaged 28-30 mpg highway. The new to me Ranger gets even better. I can give you some tips for the engine and maybe some tires.