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24 Posts
I'm facing two contrary objectives for a planned vehicle:
- Lifting a vehicle for better off road performance
- Keeping it as low as possible for minimum frontal area/aero load
I want to build a vehicle competent off road because I plan thousands of miles a year in 4x4 mode... but I expect potentially tens of thousands a year while towing, so even a 1/2MPG improvement will pay for itself over a few years so i'm trying to figure out how to have my cake and eat it too. If it's not wheeling it will probably be pulling a trailer though. So my first exploration is how big of a difference the lifts make/maybe I don't even need to be that worried.
If I were towing big 13.5 foot tall park model mobile homes i'm pretty sure the aero would make zero difference so people with physically large loads need not post "0mpg difference". But if i'm doing half my miles unladen flatbed, and the rest usually hauling a flatbed with fairly low and compact loads smaller than the frontal area of the truck i'm assuming it does.
MOSTLY FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE TOWED FAIRLY AERODYNAMIC LOADS both before and after something like a lift kit, what kind of changes have you noticed? If you towed a non-aero load like an RV and still had an mpg change you can post too, but i'm assuming dozens of people will say 0 difference for their RV.
I'd like to figure out some rules of thumb, like a 6 inch lift might drop it 2mpg for instance. Or if some trucks show more decrease than others due to shape. I'm especially curious about empty flatbeds (about as aero as you can get) - I wont ask a bunch more detailed questions, but more detail is encouraged. Diesel vs gas, size/shape of load, mpg no-trailer vs mpg empty flatbed vs mpg with load, etc. I'll read it and find it all valuable.
- Lifting a vehicle for better off road performance
- Keeping it as low as possible for minimum frontal area/aero load
I want to build a vehicle competent off road because I plan thousands of miles a year in 4x4 mode... but I expect potentially tens of thousands a year while towing, so even a 1/2MPG improvement will pay for itself over a few years so i'm trying to figure out how to have my cake and eat it too. If it's not wheeling it will probably be pulling a trailer though. So my first exploration is how big of a difference the lifts make/maybe I don't even need to be that worried.
If I were towing big 13.5 foot tall park model mobile homes i'm pretty sure the aero would make zero difference so people with physically large loads need not post "0mpg difference". But if i'm doing half my miles unladen flatbed, and the rest usually hauling a flatbed with fairly low and compact loads smaller than the frontal area of the truck i'm assuming it does.
MOSTLY FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE TOWED FAIRLY AERODYNAMIC LOADS both before and after something like a lift kit, what kind of changes have you noticed? If you towed a non-aero load like an RV and still had an mpg change you can post too, but i'm assuming dozens of people will say 0 difference for their RV.
I'd like to figure out some rules of thumb, like a 6 inch lift might drop it 2mpg for instance. Or if some trucks show more decrease than others due to shape. I'm especially curious about empty flatbeds (about as aero as you can get) - I wont ask a bunch more detailed questions, but more detail is encouraged. Diesel vs gas, size/shape of load, mpg no-trailer vs mpg empty flatbed vs mpg with load, etc. I'll read it and find it all valuable.