I just recently noticed on my truck that if I'm going down hill under 60 mph and I put it in tow/haul mode the rpms will go down to about 600 rpm. Some of you guys probably knew that already but it is really helping my gas mileage around where I live. There is this slight grade hill for about 3 or 4 miles with the speed limit at 50 mph. I can coast all the way down this sucker and it says on my instant fuel mileage that I'm getting 99 mpg lol. So far I've gone over 100 miles and the needle has just left the Full mark. Usually that happens after 50-60 miles.

I am going to keep doing this until the needle gets close to Empty. This could be the first time I've gone over 400 miles on a tank of gas with only city driving.

 

So are you driving in the Tow/Haul mode all the time now? Or are you just clicking the switch when headed down hill?

 

Thats quite coincidental cuz I have just recently started coasting with the truck in neutral to improve fuel economy. Usually I get about 100 miles per quarter tank and on this tank I've got 146miles and I'm just above 3/4. There's alot of hills by me

 

Oh yeah, I meant to include that information. I keep it in regular driving mode until I start going down hill and thats when I push the button. When I get to the bottom and need to accelerate I go back to regular.

 

that's odd, I would think while in the tow mode letting off the gas on a grade would engage an engine break type situation. Seems like if this happened while towing your load would be pushing you like crazy down the hill.

 

Yeah I see what you're saying. Maybe it reacts differently if I was pulling a load (which I am not at the time being).

I was going to update you guys as far as things are going at the moment. I usually see the fuel gauge get to the 3/4 mark around 125 miles in city driving. I'm still just driving in town and have gone 151 miles and still haven't touched the 3/4 mark yet. It's getting close, but the way it is going, I expect to see close to 170 miles at 3/4 full. At this rate it might take me more than a couple weeks to fill up again (I don't mind that at all!).

 

Alright, I finally filled up my truck and after doing exactly the same driving like I mentioned earlier I got 19 mpg. Remember this was ONLY city driving, but every time I started coasting down hill I engaged the tow/haul button and right before I needed to accelerate I disengaged it.

A friend of mine drives a small Nissan suv with a V6 and said he gets about 12 in town. Needless to say he was pretty envious.

OH and yes this was the first time I went over 400 miles on a tank in town. Not only did I go past that, I went over 450 miles!

 

Awesome! Great idea. I will keep that in mind for the future.