Hello everybody
 

I recently found your website while looking for ways to improve the MPG I get on my 1997 Dodge Ram 1500 5.9L. Anyway, hello to all and to all a happy Easter.

Welcome.
Is it mainly highway or city driving that you do?

11.25 mpg? Ouch. Well, you came to the right place. Automatic?

Mainly highway. About 25% of my commute is city driving.

I just got around to changing my air filter so hopefully that should provide some improvement, I bought this truck a few months ago off of someone who wasn't treating it the best but it has worked out fairly well. Each bit of maintenance I get to on it is slowly improving it's MPG.

Yes, it is automatic.

Is your 5.9 a gas or diesel?

Welcome, you've come to the right place. Dig around and you'll see a lot of good things being done with pickup trucks here.

Should be the gas engine.

Being it's automatic, it runs ATF+4

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Cruise or no?

Tire size?

4x2 or 4x4?

Reg, Ext, or crew cab?

White or black tires...JK:p

It uses gas. So far I've been using regular.

It has cruise control with controls built into the steering wheel, but I'm fairly certain I need to rewire them as I have yet to see them actually do anything.
My tires are 16" x 7" and it is a 2-door crew cab.

Welcome to the site Redz. Best of luck with the truck. There is tons of useful info and people here to help.

You could make a quick and easy half tonneau cover with a sheet of plywood or coroplast. Cover the back half of the bed and leave the front open.

Do you know what's its differential ratio?

I realize this should be obvious to some degree but when you say the back-half, do you mean closer to the cab or to the bed's door?

The truck's rear- the tailgate.

Welcome to Ecomodder. This is the most helpful group of people I've never met. There is plenty you can do to boost your FE. I'd say start with figuring out how to drive like a hypermiler first as it will take time to learn, but will also give you the greatest improvement over any mod you could do. If you want to do some mods, I would start with anything related to improving aerodynamics, because that's a big factor in your highway mileage.

Start here: 100+ Hypermiling / ecodriving tips & tactics for better mpg

You can find mods here: 65+ Vehicle modifications for better fuel economy

I know this is a bit late but welcome to the forums! This is a really great place, I'm sure you'll fit right in!