Same for me. Didnt install it for fuel economy, I installed it so the bed had rain protection.
One would have to spend lots and lots of highway time at "highway Speeds" to see an increase in gas mileage. Most likely you would see a very slight decrease in city mileage from the extra weight...
I would assume that its negligible either way and within the margin of error of my foot. But again, I dont really care I got it for bed protection.
I went to college about 350 miles from where I grew up. On one of my visits back home, I drove (in my '03 Ranger) 70-75 mph against the prevailing wind to go home, but kept it around 60 mph with the prevailing wind on the return trip back to school. My MPGs were about 13% higher on the return trip. It was pretty cool to top 30 mpg in a pickup, but totally not worth the extra hour of drive time!
Dear Bear: I am getting 19+ in mostly city driving of my FX4 2019 Ranger, using Regular (87) gas and with the Auto Stop Start mostly off (unless I forget). I do not tow at all and rarely haul anything of significant weight. I do try to stay within the posted speed limits (or slightly above), and I engage the Cruise Control wherever possible, meaning on less crowded stretches of highway or freeway. I also try to accelerate gradually instead of punching it, never mind what the other drivers do (or think), and look ahead for stop signs or red lights so that I can gradually slow down ahead of time. School starts this week, and that will add a lot of daily drives on the freeway, and so I would expect to break into the twenties as freeway driving takes over most of my miles. The 2014 Explorer Limited that I traded for the Ranger only got 17.8 MPG lifetime, and so I am very pleased with the Ranger's mileage so far and expect it to improve. I hope that you will see improved mileage. If changing your driving habits does not help significantly, take the truck to the dealer and ask for an explanation or adjustment! Regards, Marc
I think the better question is gas mileage using ethanol. Ethanol has less energy and impacts gas mileage. It's hard to determine the actual content at a pump as they usually state "may contain up to X % of ethanol by volume. According to the link below 10% ethanol is 3% less MPG's. Ethanol overall has about 30% less energy by volume than gasoline. It may be different blends by refinery so I find it an interesting question. Does buying gas from certain dealers give you different MPG's? At 3% it would not appear to be so but still a factor.
Turbocharging makes the engine run hotter and with higher compression, which can lead to premature ignition (pinging). Strategies to avoid that (and potential engine damage) include retarding the timing (which reduces power) or running rich (basically using extra gas to cool the cylinder). A higher octane fuel may be able to delay or avoid those mitigations and get better mpg.
