MPG Help

[Jon Windham]

Yes, my ram is lifted. Yes, I have 35x13.5" tires. But, is 8-9 mpg in the city what I should be expecting from my 2014 ram? I used to get atleast 12-14 in the city, but recently it's plummeted down to unreasonable numbers. On a full tank I'll get around 300 miles of range. Is there anything I could do to help this? Throttle recalibration? Cleaning my CAI? I mean sure I'm 21 years old and like to punch it every now and then, but ever since I've noticed this drop in mpgs, I've tamed myself to the point where I feel like I'm driving like a grandma. And, if I'm lucky I'm getting 9.5 avg mpg in the city.. I just don't get it...

 

[Jon Windham]

Oil is changed frequently, truck has 68k on odometer

 

[michael harpe]

What size engine? On a 2018 power wagon with the 6.4 hemi I get 13mpg hand calculated and 14-15 evic highway and probably would get 10mpg city or 12-13 evic. But I live in a podunk town where I drive 30 miles highway most of the time to get to the main city.

I'm waiting on my 37" tires on 20" wheels and expect to see a 1-2 mpg loss. Did the mpg drop right after the tire upgrade and did you use alphaobd or another option to recalibrate the speedometer and fix the transmission shift point issue? Also what gears are in your differentials? Power wagon comes with 4.10 front and rear.

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[RLJ10X]

Jon, You answered your own question. Lifted and huge tires. Costs a lot of money to look cool, doesn’t it?

You can park it and look at it.

The short answer is There is nothing you can do. You, or the PO spent a whole lot of money to spend more money on fuel, and still more money at trade in time, because a lot of us used truck shoppers wouldn’t touch a lifted truck with a 20 foot pole.

For a 21 yo, that truck is a colossal money pit. Either sell it, or deal with it. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, often the truth isn’t pretty.

 

[tidefan1967]

What transmission and gears do you have? Unless you have 8spd auto and at least 3.92s I would look into a gear swap. I bet a set of 4.56's would improve your trucks performance as well as its fuel economy.

 

[Ecofx86]

do u have a 6 speed? how long gave u had the truck?

 

[RLJ10X]

Yeah, he could regear a that '14, but at what cost?

Lets say he recoups 2.5 mpg my regearing. That's a stretch. He probably won't. But let's be optimistic.

Let's say he drives 12,000 miles per year.

12,000 mi divided by 9.5 mpg (which is what he is getting now) is 1263 gallons used.
12,000 miles divided by 12 mpg is 1000 gallons used.
1263 gallons minus 1000 gallons is 263 gallons save by our mythical mpg increase by regearing. If he's paying $3.00 per gallon X 263, he saved $789 per year.

I don't know what it costs to regear a 2014, on the cheap, because there are so many variables, but let's estimate $3200, which is again, optimistic. It would, best case scenario, take him over 4 years to break even on a gear change.

Did I mention that thing is a money pit?

 

[Midnight Storm]

Yeah, he could regear a that '14, but at what cost?

Lets say he recoups 2.5 mpg my regearing. That's a stretch. He probably won't. But let's be optimistic.

Let's say he drives 12,000 miles per year.

12,000 mi divided by 9.5 mpg (which is what he is getting now) is 1263 gallons used.
12,000 miles divided by 12 mpg is 1000 gallons used.
1263 gallons minus 1000 gallons is 263 gallons save by our mythical mpg increase by regearing. If he's paying $3.00 per gallon X 263, he saved $789 per year.

I don't know what it costs to regear a 2014, on the cheap, because there are so many variables, but let's estimate $3200, which is again, optimistic. It would, best case scenario, take him over 4 years to break even on a gear change.

Did I mention that thing is a money pit?

 

[ramsare4real]

Jon, You answered your own question. Lifted and huge tires. Costs a lot of money to look cool, doesn’t it?

You can park it and look at it.

The short answer is There is nothing you can do. You, or the PO spent a whole lot of money to spend more money on fuel, and still more money at trade in time, because a lot of us used truck shoppers wouldn’t touch a lifted truck with a 20 foot pole.

For a 21 yo, that truck is a colossal money pit. Either sell it, or deal with it. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, often the truth isn’t pretty.

 

[69GWC]

Is the speedometer corrected for the larger tires?
I would change all your fluids over to synthetic oils, maybe look at a real cold air intake, check out the plugs and make sure they look good , clean the throttle body and install a catch can, ever run a good fuel injector cleaner through it ? RedLine S1 is a great Fuel injector cleaner.
keep those tires aired up to a higher air pressure.

Maybe doing those things will get you back to your 12mpg, but like was said big tires hurt gas mileage.

 

[ram1500rsm]

It's normal for the tire size. You could make it a little better by 1-2mpg with ligther tires in 35x12.5 AT thread, you could also try to run in 8 cyl all the time. Sounds counter productive but i doubt lugging the engine in 4 cyl with massive tires helps you in the MPG department.

 

[Jon Windham]

Thank you all for the replies. And no, I'm not an idiot, I knew that lifting the truck and putting these tires on it was going to drop mpgs tremendously. for me atleast, it is well worth the money spent to break some necks every now and then. But I see the glass half full, and there's always something to be done to improve anything. Saying that, I appreciate the comments that provided some insight and help rather than telling me stuff I already know. To answer those questions, it's an 8 SPD auto, I've never changed the gears out and haven't got to look which gears it came with. It's a 4x4 with the towing package. My CAI is a k&n Blackhawk, and regarding the MDS I always drive with it on.

 

[Jon Windham]

What size engine? On a 2018 power wagon with the 6.4 hemi I get 13mpg hand calculated and 14-15 evic highway and probably would get 10mpg city or 12-13 evic. But I live in a podunk town where I drive 30 miles highway most of the time to get to the main city.

I'm waiting on my 37" tires on 20" wheels and expect to see a 1-2 mpg loss. Did the mpg drop right after the tire upgrade and did you use alphaobd or another option to recalibrate the speedometer and fix the transmission shift point issue? Also what gears are in your differentials? Power wagon comes with 4.10 front and rear.

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

What size engine? On a 2018 power wagon with the 6.4 hemi I get 13mpg hand calculated and 14-15 evic highway and probably would get 10mpg city or 12-13 evic. But I live in a podunk town where I drive 30 miles highway most of the time to get to the main city.

I'm waiting on my 37" tires on 20" wheels and expect to see a 1-2 mpg loss. Did the mpg drop right after the tire upgrade and did you use alphaobd or another option to recalibrate the speedometer and fix the transmission shift point issue? Also what gears are in your differentials? Power wagon comes with 4.10 front and rear.

Sent from my SM-G960U1 using Tapatalk

I actually haven't used anything to recalibrate the speedometer, might have to look into that.

 

[69GWC]

You wont get accurate fuel mileage data unless you fix the speedo.

 

[Ecofx86]

I think u should be atleast 11 to 12 mpg. Getting 8 doesn't sound right at all. Sounds silly whens the last time u cleaned your air filter?

 

[Ecofx86]

You wont get accurate fuel mileage data unless you fix the speedo.

what did u use ?

 

[Jon Windham]

I think u should be atleast 11 to 12 mpg. Getting 8 doesn't sound right at all. Sounds silly whens the last time u cleaned your air filter?

Probably a year ago

 

[69GWC]

what did u use ?

I have never gotten around to fixing mine either..lol its off a good 5mph at 65mph.

 

[ram1500rsm]

A custom tune can also help. You have a 14 model so you don t have to buy a new pcm and have it unlocked.

 

[michael harpe]

what did u use ?

Most people use alphaobd and the mx+ from scantool. Alphaobd will let you add luxury package upgrades as well like factory led lights heated and vented seats etc.

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