I did my own experiment on my own truck last week while I was on a big trip. I have nothing to gain or loose by not telling the truth in my findings. I have a '12 Ram 1500 with the 5.7 Hemi. 4.10 gears, Vararam CAI, a Diablo sport tuner with a Hemifever 87 and 89 tune on it. MDS delete, speed limiter delete and raised the red line to 6000 RPM. I've had this tuner for about 1 1/2 years and 15,000 miles. I have it on the 87 tune also. I have a camper shell on because we are going on a week long camping trip. Ended up being 2600 miles total. With everything we had for the whole week (which was a load) I guessed we had around 1000 lbs. in pay load. Went from NC to New York on the east side, went west into and through the Adirondack mountains which is absolutely beautiful this time of year. Riding along the US/Canada border, went East over to Niagara Falls. We stopped at more waterfalls than I can count through the Adirondacks. Also around Ithaca and what they call the finger lakes, Watkins Glen, waterfalls everywhere. I ran 89 octane on the first half of the trip and 87 octane on the second half. According to my evic I couldn't tell any difference in MPG. I couldn't tell any difference in performance either. (I know as a mechanic of 45+ years there has to be a difference but it was marginal). I averaged 18.1 MPG by the evic and 17.5 calculating by hand. To me that was great with the load I was carrying, the mountains we were driving in, the stop and go traffic we was in while in the New York city area and the 70 to 75 MPH driving we was doing on the interstate roads. I have now around 140,000 miles on the truck and it never missed a stroke. Tickled to death with my truck and the great time we had on the entire 8 day trip! Hope this may help someone else. As for when it comes to going to the dragstrip........One bumper length is worth it to me! LOL
