Cold weather really kills mileage

[DT444T]

Lol you silly Yooper. You think 13,000 is a small town. ?

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[D Fresh]

Heck I use mine here and love them! We'll have a few cold nights in the 30's but even in the summer when it's 100 out I'll turn them on after work, they're like a build in heating pad for my back.

Installed an aftermarket heated seat in my milk truck in the middle of summer. All the other drivers looked at me like I was stupid. Took a week off about a month later and a couple of different guys drove my truck 'cause theirs were down.

When I came back at least a quarter of our trucks had seat heaters in them.

Back therapy is my number one use of heated seats and I live in Colorado. Glad to be back in a Ford that gets so hot you gotta turn it down.

 

[peterson1604]

Lol you silly Yooper. You think 13,000 is a small town. ?

I guess by U.P. standards it's one of the larger cities in the Upper Peninsula. But if I lived in one of the tiny villages I'd have a 15 to 30 minute drive to work and get better mileage. ?

 

[Swingpure]

Temp this morning around 8 am

We were -13° F (-25°C). My brothers in Alberta were similar to you.

 

[Arly]

We moved out of Duluth in about 96. Here on the south shore, we rarely get that cool and today we hit 7. Do love Duluth and the north shore. My spouse is from Ely

 

[bloosh]

For what it's worth, I have been resetting my trip computer before driving back and forth from work to get an idea of mileage vs temperatures. It's not the most accurate dataset, but I definitely notice a drop when the overnight low starts to go into single digits. I have also occasionally reset the trip computer after letting it warm up for a bit, and the mileage improves (though that ignores the gas burnt warming it up).

I'm working in NE Washington at the moment. Basically no traffic and mostly 55-60mph speed limits. Generally my 6.5 miles to or from work I get 17-19mpg when its below 15F and 19-22mpg from 15-40F. When I do 37mi a few hours later that day, I usually average 22-25mpg. For another reference, when I work in Nevada I generally get 19-21mpg speed limits 70-80mph.

It seems at least for me short cold drives really lower my overall mpg, especially the first morning start.

 

[gasmanjohn]

I've noticed that having the climate set to "auto" uses the a/c pump to maintain constant temp even if the a/c button is not lit up. My mileage is noticeably worse if I have it on auto.

 

[P. A. Schilke]

I've noticed that having the climate set to "auto" uses the a/c pump to maintain constant temp even if the a/c button is not lit up. My mileage is noticeably worse if I have it on auto.

A/c is used to dehumidify....even in cold. very effective in my experience.

 

[Megawatt]

I almost had to bundle up today, burrrrr ?

 

[CB750F]

My 2001 Suzuki was doing 450km on a tank in summer & 350 in winter. I hope
the same will happen with the Ranger as I am still doing 13l/100km - 18 mpg.
If I can get the same result with the Ranger I might get 10l/100km -23mpg.
I once got 600km out of the Suzi(Niagara to the Quebec border).
Were out of the deep freeze(-20c) here now, just snow for the next week. Looks
to be a fair amount too, might be 2' during the week.

Edit : Got the 302 for the hot seats.

 

[ryyck]

When I first got my Ranger I was like "seat warmers in AZ"? One day after work my back was sore and I put them on as I never tried them yet. I'm not saying they're as good as a heating pad but darn close when you're back aches. I just wish you could switch the seat part off as that gets a little "uncomfortable" when it's hot out here.

The first button the wife hits to "on" is the seat heaters. You're absolutely correct...she loves it.

 

[Swingpure]

Many of my past vehicles, I had leather and heated seats and I used the seats warmer on the real cold days. My XLT Ranger has cloth seats and I do not miss the heated seats what so ever.

 

[createaneutron]

We've had a pretty wicked cold snap here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan the past couple weeks and I've noticed it's really dropped my Rangers average miles per gallon. I'm talking -20 windchills with the high during the day being about 5 to 10 degrees max.
I've been tracking mileage since day one and in the summer I get between 19 and 21 miles per gallon, during the cold season I've been running 17 to 19 but with this cold snap I'm seeing 15 to 17. I'm sure part of this is due to me starting it and let it warm up for 3 to 5 minutes before taking off when it's this cold, but when I watch the dash while driving it's definitely less. Not really bothered by it as it's part of living in the great White North. ?
I'm running an Fx4 with the Livernois tune and have been running Meijer 93 octane. Living in a small town of 13,000 doesn't help. Takes me 5 minutes to get to work with a couple stop lights on the way so I never really get a highway run in unless I travel south to Green Bay or north to Marquette.
Anybody else who lives in colder frigid areas seeing the same results?

I also live in Michigan (Grand Rapids) and I have noticed the mpg taking a nosedive during the past few very cold weeks. My last fill was 15mpg and I don’t drive too crazy either.

 

[BluBusa66]

Same thing here in NW Ohio. During the warmer months I saw as high as 21.9, but with the colder weather the best has been 17.5. Letting it warm up in the morning and after work has had it's down falls in the MPG area, but it does seem to like the cold air. SCT BDX set on 91 octane calibration seems to keep it happy. But with the rising fuel prices it will be back at 87 before long...Ugh.

 

[peterson1604]

Same thing here in NW Ohio. During the warmer months I saw as high as 21.9, but with the colder weather the best has been 17.5. Letting it warm up in the morning and after work has had it's down falls in the MPG area, but it does seem to like the cold air. SCT BDX set on 91 octane calibration seems to keep it happy. But with the rising fuel prices it will be back at 87 before long...Ugh.

I'm with you on gas prices. Going to run 91 & 93 as long as I can but under the current administration I don't think that's going to be long. Gas prices are already up $0.35 a gallon here.

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