Hello
 

Hello
I'm new here. I have a 1999 Chevy Astro van. I've gotten 26mpg the only time that I've measured it while pulling a small trailer on a couple hour road trip, measured round trip. I think it should be completely realistic for me to get 30mpg out of this vehicle with the mods listed on this forum.

But on the same topic I'm on another forum (name withheld) and have been told that its pretty much impossible to achieve this goal in the real world. So I'm going to do a bunch of reading on this forum. Then make a concerted effort to achieve this goal. Because either way, I will save a few bucks in any mileage gains that I do get.
Thanks

Sure your goal is not the easiest one, with the stock transmission of your rig being one of the the most limiting factors (assuming that it's an automatic), but it doesn't seem impossible at all. BTW what mods are you currently considering?

Welcome, ChopStix.

Are you talking about 30 mpg on a similar highway trip, or 30 overall? One is easier than the other, but they're both possible.

Keep us posted about your plans & progress.

Welcome to the site. 30mpg is doable, but it'll take some work. Good luck!

I think by "real world" that person means "a driver who doesn't care and doesn't have good instrumentation."

Welcome to the fun. Get a ScanGauge or an UltraGauge and see what your van is really doing. Then you'll have a shot at numbers that guy won't believe.

Well first off, (quoting the other forum guys) they claim that these vans only get low 20's in mileage. I got that for the first 100k miles on this van. But then I started having all kinds of gremlins and struggled to figure out the cause. So to make short of this explanation, my local Chevy dealer found a recall/warrantee on the stock computer. Then after he found the correct program for it, I've been getting mid twenty's with no other changes to the van. I can't say enough good things about how much better it runs after this was done.

So after reading down the list of mods others have done. My van already has several of those from the factory. For example smooth wheel covers. My stock hubcaps are very equal to the pictures shown. So I think I will start by repairing my front bumper cover (its cracked) and in the process I'll explore extending the front airdam a bit lower. Also my grill is cracked. So I'll look into blocking some of that off while I'm at it. I believe that these could show a little mpg gain, while cleaning up damage from an older deer hit. I'll post some pictures and results when its done.

edit - Yes its an automatic, v6, overdrive, and cruise control. 90+ % of my driving is all highway mileage.

So I think if I fill the top half of the grill opening, I'll see an improvement. I mean the part above the chrome strip between the headlights. But I'm going to explore stuffing an electric fan in there before I do that in case it blocks too much of the radiator.
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Then I think I will make a new lower half of this bumper cover. I think my filling these pockets, and grooves while making it lower to the ground will also help my mpg goal.
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Lastly I think if I made the bumper cover wider to better direct air around the front tires would help as well.
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What do you guys think?

Today I did a baseline run to measure my mpg based on my typical driving style. I went 130 miles round trip with half being highway and the other being city driving. I got 21mpg combined.

So next time my plan is to try some mods to the van without me changing my driving style to see what kind of difference I get. Yes I can change my driving style to get more mpg. But I'm more interested to see what I get without changing my driving style since that shows efficiency improvements gained from the van only.

Switching from an engine-driven radiator fan to an electric one already improves the mileage :thumbup: and it's a relatively cheap mod.

Best epa is 20 highway for the van do you're doing good right now, especially hauling a trailer. You are at 30% over. 30 will take some work and maybe lower average speeds.

regards
mech