Anyone else notice significant fuel economy improvement after break in?

[HoldenTX]

Fuel economy and Raptor should never appear in the same paragraph.

LOL agreed! I recall one of the first things my sales guy told me "If you ask me about Fuel Economy then I'm telling you right now that this is not the right truck for you".

 

[Quaesta]

I am holding strong in the 11’s

 

[jzweedyk]

For most of the dedicated performance products (not just Ford, same applies for GM, Chrysler, etc) the OEM tire is designed specifically for the vehicle. The C load range version of the 315/70/17 A/T KO2 is made just for our trucks. If you go to Tire Rack and type in that tire size, it even comes up as "Ford" and the only vehicle this tire has ever been used on in an OEM application is the Raptor. The E range tire is much more common.

I'm not going to argue AT ALL that 38 is optimal based on the door sticker, but if they weren't safe at 45 it wouldn't be on the side of the tire for a tire made exactly for the truck.

You are right with everything you say. However "safe" and performing well are not the same. At 45 the contact patch is smaller, and it "juimps" over bumps which is not as "safe" as going over them smoothly. Maximum speed on the Raptor is 107, but I am sure Ford does not expect you to drive it at 107 all the time. Maximum tire pressure is 45, but Ford expects you to be at 38. I run less, which means more contact patch and smoother ride. You can run more, but understand what you are doing.

 

[Apex Ace]

It got 14.4 for the fist 1000 miles. 6000 miles later, nothing has changed.

 

[Wfo]

I’m at 14.8 with 1200 miles. Not driving it too hard, a few short pulls with mostly highway driving to and from work.

 

[ademarco]

Averaging 14 over life of truck and if highway cruising on flat land, then maybe 18. I do lots of city driving.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[bikenutty]

the tire pressure rating on the sidewall is for maximum load capacity. The Mfg will usually indicate the doorjamb pressure meant for safest on-road driving and/or best MPG rating.

my 2 cents

$$

 

[Cliff Lohner]

My truck has 250 miles on it and I’m averaging 13.4 mpg. My 2011 averaged 11 mpg. So I’m happyish but I’ll be happy if I could average 15......

 

[Wfo]

My truck has 250 miles on it and I’m averaging 13.4 mpg. My 2011 averaged 11 mpg. So I’m happyish but I’ll be happy if I could average 15......

My new 18 has been steadily increasing mpg. Started around 13 at 15.2 now.

 

[OriginalToken]

My 9 month old 2018 has about 18k miles on it. Around 1500-2000 miles I saw an improvement in highway MPG of about 1 to 2 MPG. However, after that I did two things, I calibrated the trucks MPG calculation (it was off significantly), and I started playing with the tire pressures. So it is hard to compare what I get today to the original log numbers.

The calibration of the MPG calculation reduced my indicated MPG, but made it dead on the money. When I refill and calculate from that the indicated MPG is typically +/- 0.1 of what I really got. But before I did the calibration it was common for it to be more than 1 MPG high, and sometimes as much as a bit over 2 MPG high.

And I reduced on road tire pressures from the recommended because I was seeing center tire wear, normally an indicator of high pressure. I am getting more even tire wear now, but it seems to have cost me a bit of mileage...and given me an even smoother highway ride than the already very good ride the truck has.

So now my lifetime average in 18k miles is a tad under 16 MPG (pre calculation correction this would have been 17 or 18 MPG). My normal on road driving conditions are mostly what would be called highway, but not freeway or interstate. I run it in 2H pretty much all the time on road. The truck probably has about 2k miles off road in 4x4 mode of one kind or another on it, mostly on lower speed desert trails. I have one long over the road trip of about 6k miles on it and a few shorter ones.

I can get 18+ MPG indicated on over the road trips, but that requires me to change my driving style. While I typically don't drive really fast (100 MPH or something like that) it is not uncommon for my cruise control to be set at 75 - 80 and I like to feel the acceleration when I take off from a stop or a light. So I get a bit over 15 on average, sometimes in the lower 14's. But, if I accelerate more sedately and stay within 5 MPH of the speed limit I can typically get on the far side of 18. I have gotten as good as 19+ MPG for an entire tank of gas, and that gives you some nice over-the-road range.

But I did not buy this truck with concerns about gas mileage. I have other vehicles that get pretty good MPG, but I still like to take the truck when I am not going to have to deal with city traffic much or try and park it in small spots. And I live in the desert, a traffic jam for me is 6 cars at a 4 way stop. So traffic is typically only a problem when I head south to the big city (L.A.) or something like that.

If you want to see how to do the MPG calculator calibration, zemuroon99 shared that in this thread https://www.fordraptorforum.com/threads/2018-screw-long-distance-trip-report-with-mpg.63372/

T!