New Guy From AZ
 

Howdy From Arizona,

Just got a 2007 Toyota Tacoma PreRunner Double Cab SR5. Not the most fuel efficient vehicle in the world, but probably one of the best in it's class. I needed a vehicle to haul my girlfriend, her two kids, tow a travel trailer, haul my dirtbike, and bicycles. Unfortunately no one makes a vehicle that will do all that and get 50MPG like my motorcycle does.

My first mod was a custom home made diamond plate tonneau cover. The price of tonneau covers was so high that I went to Industrial Metal Supply on 48th Street and Broadway in Phoenix, and bought the materials to make one out of diamond plate. I wanted one that would be lockable, and didn't want to pay the big money for any of the ones on the market. I have less than $400.00 dollars invested, including gas, but not labour. It came out very nice.

Later,

Allan Greenblazer

Welcome aboard.

Welcome to the site. We have a few Tacoma owners here and some of them get pretty descent mileage. Make sure to start a mileage log so you can track your FE here, and also check out our 100+ ecodriving tips page as changes in driving technique will give you the best gains for your dollar.

Hi Allan. I thought for sure when I saw the user name "Greenblazer" we had another Chevy owner. :)

I'm curious if you documented any MPG improvement with the tonnea or not.

Welcome to the forum.

I also thought you were gonna bring in a blazer of somesort, but I was fooled! :D Welcome to EM!

Hey Ya'll,

Well I registered the handle "Greenblazer" in Jan 2002 on a Blazer forum and it has stuck, I use it as an alias, and many of my friends don't know that it's not my real name. I just sold my '74 Chevy Blazer. Since it got about 6 to 8 MPG, and my commute is about 21 miles, I could no longer justify spending money on it. I loved my Blazer, but I had no room for it in my life.

About the tonneau cover I didn't want to wait and see if it would make a noticable difference, so I just put it on. Since my commute is almost all freeway I expect it will make a difference.

How do I log my fuel consumption here? I got 355 Miles out of my first tank for 17.7 MPG, and the second tank did 428 miles for 24.17 MPG This improvement is thanks to hypermiling techniques learned from reading about them here and other forums.

Later,

Allan Greenblazer

It looks like you already found out how to use the garage feature as you have two tanks entered already. Did you have any other questions about it?

Yes I did figure it out thank you!

Later,

Allan Greenblazer

Greenblazer -

Welcome to EM! We've got a lot of Tacoma's here. Maybe we should have an MPG King Taco listing, ;) .

CarloSW2

Well OK, but we will need at least two Tacoma classes: 6 Cylinder and 4 Cylinder.

Thanks ya'll for the warm welcome BTW.

Later,

Allan Greenblazer

Welcome to the community. Was your sig pic taken on St. Patrick's day.:) Nice job with the Tacoma on the increase in FE.

Not St. Patricks Day, I have had green hair for almost a year.

Green is my favorite color.

Later,

Allan Greenblazer

hello Allan,

my 2006 Access-cab Tacoma is very fuel efficient and still have enough room for the 2 toddlers seats on the back seats. We use it to tow a camping trailer (boler 17 ft) (see www.fiberglassrv.com )

I got the access-cab 4 cyl manual 2wd and I managed to squeeze 32 mpg on my daily freeway drive to work by keeping an eye on the scangauge.

earlier this year I had a fiberglass truck cap on it but it was hurting the efficiency very badly so now I drive the truck with the open box (but closed tailgate). I may try to built a fastback (hatchback) top to keep the box dry and free of snow during winter without killing the efficiency.

Hello Smog,

I built a tonneau cover out of aluminum diamond plate for about $366.00 and it locks too. It's not as aero as a fastback might be, but since I use my truck's bed, I needed something easier to remove. I think I might be able to hit pretty close to 30 MPG, but my best tank so far is 26.66 MPG. To do 30MPG I think it will take some extreme Hypermiling.

Thanks for the welcome!

Later,

Allan Greenblazer

Yup, your pre-runner is higher than my base 2wd and the v6 is.... well.... a v6. Powerwise, I never found a limitation to the 160hp 2.7L 4 cyl. sure I can feel I tow something but at least, I don't have to fuel a v6 on my daily 50 miles commuting. I made a choice when I got the truck; I was selling a 1999 VW TDI going 50mpg @ 85mph with 195hp/360lb.ft available for my pleasure; I knew I didn't want to go v6 as the regular fuel in Canada is 5.67$ right now and was 3.70$ in april 2006. BUT I needed a pick-up as I used to carry the most ridiculous stuff in the Jetta's trunk; including engines and bricks.

what I love of the Tacoma is the comfort. it's as silent as in an european car but still feel tough as a truck.

My wife got a 2000 Suzuki Vitara 4 doors with the 2.0 4 cylinder (similar to the GMC Tracker). this little truck got the worst setup for fuel economy (according to manufacturers and car analysts). it's ladder frame, straight differential, mechanical transfert case, driveshafts.. all are supposed to be crap; not telling you the ground clearance, suv body and all... well, this truck is a regular 7.0L/100km (35mpg) runner. Still better than the more efficient front wheel drive cars out there and again better the the similar Honda CRV or RAV4 that are using a modern transaxle instead of the regular transmission in the Suzuki. and we are no hypermilers but 65mph highway drivers.