Modding the Trucks

[Slow_s10]

I have no doubt that the Bravada could be made to get reasonably good fuel efficency and a Diesel would definitely be a huge improvement. But honestly the rest of the truck is just tired and to me it is just not worth it to sink that much money into it. I can't even imagine how much it would cost try and pull this off, but if I had to guess it would definitely be in the thousands of dollars and probably be close to half as much as I am planning on spending on a new car anyway. Not to mention it would probably take over a decade to recover the cost of a conversion like this in fuel savings.

Which to be honest I'm already tired of the Bravada and the bottom line is that it just doesn't suit my needs very well. All I really need is something that can hold 4 people and gets good mileage. As opposed to this compact AWD SUV with 3/4 of a small block V8 and less interior space than most sedans. When I need to haul stuff I have my truck, and when I need to haul people and stuff I have my wife's minivan. The Bravada just doesn't make sense for us.

[Slow_s10]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

On taller wider tire:
Back in 2007 I'd had the truck for about a year so I was well aware of its MPGs and had been tracking them for a while. When I went from 235/75R15 tires to 13x10.5R15 tires I lost no fuel economy as far as I could tell.
I was not expecting that result. I was expecting to lose at least 2mpg since 2007 seemed to be the hight of the smaller thinner tire fad.

I will probably do some experimenting with taller tires eventually, just not that much bigger. My main concern is that to get a 10% reduction in the overall gear ratio the tires wouldn't just be bigger but they would be huge on this truck. Like the way the truck sits now they would not physically even fit. The other set of wheels that I had on it the tires were only about 3% larger than stock and even they rubbed on almost every bump and turn. In order to get a 29" tall tire on the truck not only would I have to remove the lowering parts but I would probably have to lift the truck a couple inches. Which is the main reason that I would prefer to just swap out the axle. I can get an axle at a junkyard for around $100 and it would probably take me all of 2 or 3 hours to swap it in and asthetically it will look the exact same as before.

[Slow_s10]

So I have not posted here in a while but I thought I would throw out an update. I still have the Bravada due to circumstances beyond my control but hopefully once this sequestration nonesense blows over I will be able to start looking for a replacement vehicle again.

Lately I have been driving both trucks about the same amount trying to favor the S10 over the Bravada whenever possible. The weather here has been pretty cold and the traffic has gone from somewhat annoying, to just plain ridiculous. My average 20~25 minute morning commute now takes me a solid hour. The Bravada's fuel economy has dropped back down to around 16~17 mpg and the S10 has consistantly been averaging 22.5 mpg. Honestly I was expecting a little better mileage from a fairly light stripped down 90 hp truck but despite my best efforts the mileage stays right in that same range. Granted it is still an improvement over the Bravada, but considering it has Zero creature comforts, weighs almost half as much as the Bravada and has half the HP, I was expecting it to be considerably better.

Well for now I am going to just keep driving the S10 as much as possible and see if I can find any information about how to tune this engine to squeeze a little more efficency out of it.