Putting my pig on a diet (FJ Cruiser)

[mmonce]

Originally Posted by elhigh

For your commute, diet. Pare out every ounce you can. If you don't usually carry passengers and it isn't too big a hassle, removing seats may help you.

For your longer trips (5,000 miles? Seriously? Dang) you could consider fabbing up a sort of trailer tail to improve your vehicle's wake. It won't help you on your daily drives but at extended cruising speeds the savings would rack up pretty fast. If you don't pull a trailer on your long trips but have a hitch, you could make the trail on a frame that installed on the hitch receiver.

All blue sky ideas that are easy to talk about from my comfortable chair in front of the computer.

My long trip challenge is 5 family members, bikes for each, fishing poles, cooler, and clothing. I have a cargo trailer (Morris Mule) that needs some aero help. Since the long road trips are only once a year, I can't invest much money for a solution.

[oil pan 4]

Sounds like the most economical thing is to put the roof rack back on for only those few weeks every year that you actually need it.

[mmonce]

Well, it looks like my mods are helping. 11.37% increase in mpg.

[MetroMPG]

Consider posting a fuel log so we can see your progress?

Also: what kind of factory MPG instrumentation? Considering half your commute is city driving, you are going to have the largest impact on your fuel consumption. Do you have a resettable average trip gauge so you can play the "high score" game on your daily commute?