F150 Ecomods(?)

[Steven Wrigley]

Your f150s like mine only with a 5liter. Thats realy good mileage!

[Steven Wrigley]

Originally Posted by Fat Charlie

Get an Escort and move the F-150 nameplate over to it.

hahahahaha I would so do that!

[Steven Wrigley]

Ive seen a little of the aerocap threads. Right now Im patching my trucks rusted out wheel wells so will look some more tonight.

[slowmover]

. . So, [in] my senior year of high school [there will be] a 40 mile daily commute; easily 4/gls/day

I hope English is included in the curricula.

Length of the school year is 180 days = 7,200-miles (4-gls/day is 10 mpg)

Fuel at $4/gl

At 11-mpg = 655-gls @ $2,618

With a 25% improvement:

At 15-mpg = 480-gls @ $1,920

Difference = 175-gls @ $700

It is difficult to spend money in order to save money.

The best way to save money on this truck, with this commute, is to otherwise use it as little as possible: No personal use except as combined with the academic trudge and/or family business. The fewer the miles, the lower the cost of ownership to the family on a dollar basis.

I'm sure that'll fly with a 17-yr old, ha! (But were you Benjamin Franklin, it would. He'd have found a way as he did with a much harder self-imposed course of study and working as a printers devil). Teens -- an invention of the Twen Cen -- have no excuse to ignore literacy or practical skills.

Think you can "save" $700 without spending it first? Maintenance, repairs and upgrades are all different categories. The first two are unavoidable, but the last is purely optional. This talk of FE upgrades (tuners, etc) is in that category.

Skill is what matters. Records first. Planning second.

As of today what is the odometer reading? Real numbers -- as derived from accurate record-keeping -- are the only thing that counts.

.

[Steven Wrigley]

As you can see English isnt my best subject! (I hate writing too) It makes me mad that some schools are getting rid of their woodshops. Thats very practical! Anyway I will not use the truck for personal business (unless the thing Im hauling cant fit in our van.) What is the material of choice for making wheel skirts?

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by slowmover

Length of the school year is 180 days = 7,200-miles (4-gls/day is 10 mpg)
Fuel at $4/gl
At 11-mpg = 655-gls @ $2,618

With a 25% improvement:
At 15-mpg = 480-gls @ $1,920
Difference = 175-gls @ $700

With a similar vintage and far less utopian 40mpg car under the same circumstances :
7200 miles is 180 gallons or $720 - a whopping 72% less !
That's a $1918 saving on gas - likely enough to buy the car.
Selling the truck(s) would be an extra.

What are the differences in insurance / taxes on a truck vs passenger car ?

Originally Posted by Diesel_Dave

How about we stop arguing about what's possible and give Steven some tips on how to do the best he can with what he's got--be that 13, 15, 18, 20, 30, or 1,000 mpg? He's starting at 11 mpg, let's see what he can do.

Well, let's not do that.
He's not going to get up to 30 mpg anytime soon - if ever - and it's not going to come completely free either.
All the while it's going to cost him and the family dearly, and for what ?


If money was really tight, I sure wouldn't waste it on a gas-guzzler.
But apparently, the pick-up truck is a deep-rooted virus in the US.

[Steven Wrigley]

Its more of convincing my mom to let me get a car.She doesnt want to sell the truck and for some reason she thinks it would be cheaper to keep the truck. Its no use convincing her either. She says if Im ever in a accident Ill be wishing I was in a 11 mpg truck. Which is probably right.

[cleanspeed1]

That's a $1918 saving on gas - likely enough to buy the car.y, the pick-up truck is a deep-rooted virus in the US.[/QUOTE]

It's not so much that, it's the pickup trucks that we have access to. I wish we had the same pickups that are sold everywhere else, the same half ton and small pickups that the US OEMs sell to other markets that get double the mpg.

But that's a whole 'nuther story.

I hate to say it EM, but Amuricans have been indoctrinated well on truck ownership.

[cleanspeed1]

Originally Posted by Steven Wrigley

Its more of convincing my mom to let me get a car.She doesnt want to sell the truck and for some reason she thinks it would be cheaper to keep the truck. Its no use convincing her either. She says if Im ever in a accident Ill be wishing I was in a 11 mpg truck. Which is probably right.

Negative, nope, no way. Mom's wrong on this one.

That whole philosophy of "bigger is safer" is not necessarily true.

You want to bolster your argument, you present facts. Show her the safety ratings of the truck versus the car you want to get. Then you show her how much money you are going to save by going to an automobile including insurance, maintenance and upkeep.

[Steven Wrigley]

She wont have any of it. Im hoping the my Greenguzzler has a 1 star safety rating! lol That may convince her