blacklamb

Sorry took so long to get back to you moving is less then fun. The other day we got the trailer weighed empty with a total of 17k (both truck and trailer) I'm sure one the horses, water feed and what not we will be over 20K but that trip isn't until Sept. The other pull with be a Uhaul car transport with car and crap to get my life started again so should be around 12-14k total weight. I picked my truck up from getting the manifold put on and and some other maintenance done. I had my new tires for the trip and set my cruise at 60 mph (1856RPM's) and the lie "o" meter said I was getting 26.8 averaged over the 100 mile trip (didnt hand calc it yet). This was a improvement ready from the 19-20 mpg read I would get with the lie "o" meter (hand cal at 15-18 depending on time of year and driving highway or not) with my 35's. I'll be interested to see what doing it by hand will net me. Well back to getting house crap done :/ EDIT: My Mods to my engine are now: K&N intake tube with AFE Filter: http://afepower.com/technology_detail.php?tech_id=6 S&B intake Elbow (its impressive how much the stock came to a pinch point) http://www.sbfilters.com/index.php/intake-elbow-76-1004.html ATS Ehaust Manifold http://www.atsdiesel.com/ats2/productdetail.asp?p=2049202272 4" Exhaust, no cat and Donaldson straight muffler) http://www.ryderfleetproducts.com/donaldson-m085171/muffler-4"-in-4"-out-p-w26-m085171 Edge Juice with Attitude I don't plan on doing anything else engine wise to my truck as I feel I got all the choke points out and now she can breath easy and run cooler, ok thats a lie, I'm debating replacing my edge with a smarty (http://smartyprogrammer.com/products/smarty-touch)

I'll keep track of my mpg on my first of three 1600 mile trips if not all to see what the toyo at's with 3.73's and I'll keep the RPM's between 1600-1900 in attempt to keep the test consistent. After my move I'll save some cash and swap the diff's over 4,10's and track the mpgs after that and see what the difference is. I'll be doing the trip twice loaded and one empty so it should be a decent test.

Well as in a pinch and time is not on my side I'm getting some decent used Toyo AT2 tires 32.8" quick and easy as I have the extra set of wheels laying around.

Hmm I wonder if I can pick up a set of 4.10 gears relatively cheap and call it a day, something tell's me I could. The exact tire I'm looking at getting is the Nitto Terra Grappler 285/75/17 (33.86) which is basically a 34, however they are weigh almost 20 lbs less per tire than my Toyo M/T's so I bet I would see a decent change. They sure made this truck capable of some awesome MPG's but if you want a good looking truck you better have a deep wallet... I was making an effort today changing my driving habits based on what I've read above but that went out the window when the fire pager went off, but it was a great fire!

Wow I must say that whole thing was quite the read, I think it may have answered my questions I've been having for a while now and if I understood everything correctly I've been going about better MPGs the wrong way however I am achieving one of my goals keeping it cool (temp wise) To start I have an 05 Ram Quad Cab with the following: G56 Transmission 3.73 rear axle 4" exhaust no cat just a Donaldson muffler ATS manifold, k&n tube with AFE 7 layer filter S&B intake elbow EDGE juice with attitude Cari lift (3" in front, and add a leaf in back) 35" toyo M/t's My goal with this truck is to have something that is pretty to look at and get great(18+) gas mileage. So far its just easy on my eyes and not on the wallet. It would appear that my first mistake was putting the 35 M/T's, I knew the M/T's would hurt my MPG but going from my 305/55/20 (33.23) A/T tire to my 285/75/18 (35"x11.25) crushed my mpg's by about 5mpg. At first I thought it was due to the M/T tread but now it looks like it was me going to a 35" with my gearing ratio. Recently I was pulling a 26' horse trailer and my mpg was beyond horrible, under 12mpg. It was at this point I figured I needed to figure something out, my first thought was with a 34" highway tire now it looks like I might need to go smaller.So with the G56 and the 3.73 rear I should be looking more towards a 32"and under tire or because I have a G56 can I get away with a 34" highway tire and still get decent gas mileage. I know my mods to my truck may not let me get the 20+ mpg's but I would love to get as close to it as I can as I got 4 1600 mile trips in the next month 3 of which pulling a trailers. Any advice you can give would be so greatly appreciated, and thanks for all the interesting posts from above. ADDED: If I were to keep putting on 34/35" A/T and H/T tires what would be an optimal/cost efficient rear end a 4:10's?