Truck Data

Fuel Economy.

We tracked our mileage on a 9000 mile cross country trip in 2019. We refueled 31 times. Afer the trip, I compared the calculated fuel economy (miles per gallon or MPG) to the instrument panel average on our 2018 Ford F150, 5.7 liter extended cab truck. The instrument panel average MPG indication seemed to be very accurate although it seemed to be a little low at the higher mpg data points. There are probably not enough data points at the high end to really conclude that however.

Conclusion: We can trust the panel average MPG and don't need to bother with tracking miles and gallons in the future.

Effect of Speed on Fuel Economy (MPG).

On that same trip, I roughly estimated the average speed of travel for each tank of gas. This is a rough estimate and ignores the huge effect of a headwind at higher speeds, but the results confirm what I have heard before--that above about 68 mph your fuel economy begins to suffer.

Effect of Octane on Fuel Economy.

On the same 9000 mile road trip, with 31 fuel stops, we experienced a range of Octane values in the gas supply, even though we always go for the cheapest grade available. When we looked at the Fuel Economy versus the Octane level, it confirmed what we had always understood: That Octane has very little or no effect on your fuel economy. There may be other reasons to use higher octane fuels, like manufacturer recommendations, but fuel economy does not appear to be one of them.

Conclusion: We will save money by using cheaper gas and spend the savings on better beer.

Do I need Airbags for leveling the truck?

We planned to install airbags on our F-150, but being a klutz, one of us stripped the bolts on them. However, we measured the height of the front and rear top bed rails before and after loaded the Four Wheel Camper Hawk shell. We discovered (we are truck newbies) that truck suspensions are built for a certain load so the rear end was about 3 inches higher without a load and since our Hawk Shell was well below payload capacity (thanks to the aluminum body of the newer F-150s), the rear bed railing was still higher than the front bed railing by about an inch after we loaded it on the truck!

Conclusion: We feel comfortable that we don't need air bags or beefed up suspension for our specific setup with a camper below the maximum payload rating. Three years and 50,000 miles of use on interstates and two-tracks have not changed our minds.

Back to the the Air Bags-- we got a cheap torque wrench to properly install the airbags and we either didn't hear the click, or it never happened, but we sheared off the bolt on top of one of the airbags. The instructions were a little lacking too, for a non-mechanical klutz.

Conclusion: If you are not very mechanically skilled and you need air bags, bite the bullet and consider having the tire store install them.