People with gas mileage issues

[Glenn54]

I don't understand why some of you folks are going less than 80 on the highway.

 

[DMXS]

Is it possible to adjust the eco mode? I rented a 2019 classic in Alaska, and the eco light came on all the time from 25 MPH to 80 MPH
The truck ran great and got 21 MPG easily. It was the 5.7 Hemi with 321 gears.

 

[deer]

Is it possible to adjust the eco mode? I rented a 2019 classic in Alaska, and the eco light came on all the time from 25 MPH to 80 MPH
The truck ran great and got 21 MPG easily. It was the 5.7 Hemi with 321 gears.
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[deer]

I have a 2019 Ram Bighorn 1500 5.7 321 I am getting 14 on the highway I had the dealer look at it they said it may get better in the summer it has 2500 miles on it now I would love to get 18 miles to the gallon

 

[Willwork4truck]

I have a 2019 Ram Bighorn 1500 5.7 321 I am getting 14 on the highway I had the dealer look at it they said it may get better in the summer it has 2500 miles on it now I would love to get 18 miles to the gallon

Don't know whats wrong, but there's a lot of driving variables. 1st - hand calculated or not? 2nd - driving style (this is huge). 3rd - type of roads and speeds/stop n go. 4th - fuel quality/type. 5th - amount of idling.
All I can tell you is that with a heavier truck (Limited) with same gearing and engine, I get an honest 17-18 highway in mixed speeds (50-70 averages due to volume of traffic) and some hills. I have seen 20-21 when conditions were just right (cruising along at 65 or 70, no passing, no hills). It's really hard to know what gives with yours, mine has gotten the same mileage since 1,000 miles (currently 6,600). Maybe have someone else drive on the same roads/distance and see what they get, especially if they are known to have a different driving style.

My wife has more of a leadfoot and is consistently going 5-10 over and gets 2-3 highway mpg less than me. I'm sure she has cracked 3500k rpm's, I doubt I ever have gone over 2.5k!

 

[jdmartin]

Don't know whats wrong, but there's a lot of driving variables. 1st - hand calculated or not? 2nd - driving style (this is huge). 3rd - type of roads and speeds/stop n go. 4th - fuel quality/type. 5th - amount of idling.
All I can tell you is that with a heavier truck (Limited) with same gearing and engine, I get an honest 17-18 highway in mixed speeds (50-70 averages due to volume of traffic) and some hills. I have seen 20-21 when conditions were just right (cruising along at 65 or 70, no passing, no hills). It's really hard to know what gives with yours, mine has gotten the same mileage since 1,000 miles (currently 6,600). Maybe have someone else drive on the same roads/distance and see what they get, especially if they are known to have a different driving style.

My wife has more of a leadfoot and is consistently going 5-10 over and gets 2-3 highway mpg less than me. I'm sure she has cracked 3500k rpm's, I doubt I ever have gone over 2.5k!

Quoted for truth. No one wants to look in the mirror to figure out why they don't get good fuel economy. I have drove over a million miles in my life and I have *consistently* beat the EPA numbers for my vehicle by 2-10 MPG, over 15 vehicles. Impossible if it was just dumb luck. My wife does consistently worse than me in the same vehicles, sometimes by a wide margin. Things I notice in most drivers:

1. Jackrabbit starts, neck cracking stops.
2. No anticipation whatsoever - speeding up to red lights, jerk and slam movements in traffic, acceleration on off-ramps.
3. Little attention to the vehicle - underinflated tires, mismatched tires, things hanging out windows.
4. Needless bobbing and weaving in between lanes.
5. Acceptation up hills, braking going down hills.

I'm sure I could keep on going if I thought about it more. Most people just don't drive like they care about fuel economy and thus get crappy fuel economy.

I *don't* always care about fuel economy. Sometimes I speed, for example. But I understand that I am trading time for dollars (in extra fuel).

Best fuel economy, all things being equal, is the slowest possible speed (without lugging) at the highest possible gear. In most modern automatics that's going to be about 40-60 mph in the final overdrive gear. I haven't tested it on the Ram, but with 8 gears I suspect it's somewhere around 60 mph. On my Nissan Titan, it was about 45-50 mph.

Anything you do to increase RPMs on that number is going to reduce fuel economy, whether that is tow a trailer, accelerate, increase drag on the engine with more load, reduce aerodynamics by adding stuff, increase RPM at the same speed by carrying a heavier load, etc.

I did a couple of 2 week fuel experiments with my Kia 5 or 6 years ago because everyone was crying they couldn't get good fuel economy. I drive the same route to work, 5 days per week, 90% highway, virtually no traffic, 45 minutes long each way, same gas at same pump 3 times per week. Almost as close as you could get to perfect test conditions. I managed to wring almost 43 MPG measured at the pump (not on a guage) twice, over the course of a week and 300+ miles of driving on a tank. I also repeated the test with AC on, AC off windows open, etc. I could demonstrate the effect of things - on the Kia, for example, the engine is so low powered that open windows were better than closed with AC drag by over 1 mpg.

Now, would I want to drive that car in such a way that I could get 43 MPG? No. It sucked. I added 10 minutes to my commute and cars passed me like a grandma. Actually, I could have done better than 43 but I was unwilling to go slower than 55 on the interstate for safety reasons. I still drive the same car today to work, and I usually get 33-36 MPG because the speed is more important to me than the money.

Anyway, point is that poor fuel economy almost always starts with the driver and ends with the driver.

 

[cj7]

I'm not sure why some get so high vs others. I started around 13 and have increased to about 14 in mostly city driving which is about what is expect. I'm sure lift and tires make a difference too.

The biggest variable might be temps and fuel blends. I live in ND and it's been cold here (below freezing) for most of the time I've owned it.

There are lots of variables, but the biggest variable by far, is which nut is behind the wheel...

However, with the large number of significantly lower-than-EPA-estimated results, I’d bet there is a class action here. The sticker mpg numbers are provided to EPA by the OEM, and the EPA only spot checks a small sample.

 

[deer]

This is not my first Ram 1500 my last one a 2014 crew cab with 5.7 and 321 rear I could get 17 city and 21 to 23 highway . I thought the new 2019 would do as good or better.

 

[cmdr bobert]

I don’t think it’s all drivers either.

My dealer gave me a limited with eTorque loaner the last time I was in the shop. Had it for 2 days. Drove the same roads on the same conditions at the same times with the same load.

Hand calculation showed I averaged about 3 mpg better in the limited than in my Laramie which also has etorque. And I’m pretty sure the limited is heavier.

 

[Crowley]

Hi,
New to the forum and got here from a search as to why my 19 gets horrible mileage.. I have had 3 RAM's; 15 Big Horn, 17 Laramie, and now a 19 Big Horn Off Road edition. All with 5.7's, and 3.92 gearing. The Laramie had the large fuel tank. My previous 2 trucks got better than 15 to 17 MPG average all the time. On the highway, if I really tried to be frugal I could get around 20. My 19 is getting around 12 MPG average and maybe 15 on the highway. Iwent to the dealer thinking there must be a problem but they found nothing wrong. They said "it is what it is" and I should not reset the trip odometer because it ruins the average. I calmly replied that it is all relative to the fuel consumed and the miles driven and not so much those items over the long haul (even though I understand the long haul argument). He insisted that even though my driving habits, my commute, my fuel source, and my average payload haven't changed since my last two trucks, that it is me and not the truck that is the problem.. I realize that this truck has a little more lift and a bit larger tires but really?? So I drove it home and I am not satisfied with the dealer's response. I thought about it for a while; the trip odometer thing. I realized that I do not reset the "B" trip odometer when I fuel up so I checked it and guess what? My "A" odometer with 135 miles on it was at 12.2 Average and the "B" which was at 5300 miles was 11.8!! So much for that useful advice. I called him the next day and reported my findings and he said flatly that it doesn't make sense but it is not the truck's fault and all is normal.
I cannot understand how a newer model of the same vehicle can get drastically lower MPG and the dealer says it is what it is.. Has anyone else gotten anywhere with this problem?? If I knew it would be this bad, perhaps I would have chosen a different brand of truck.

 

[Rickyrocket]

Mine sucked for the first 1800 miles was 10-12 city,im up to 3600 miles and its 16-17 city

 

[PowerJrod]

When you are cruising at highway speeds what is your “current” at? Mine always seems to look like this on the highway. I haven’t noticed anything weird with fuel economy 3.21 gears 87 octane View attachment 21735

Well for starters...be careful with the 87 octane ...Hemi requires 89. (If you keep using 87 you'll end up getting the cylinder knocking). But I have the Hemi Etorque 4wd with 3.21 ratio. I'll usually get about 24-26 average with 70% highway. Of course it's about to go down since I just put new Falken Wildpeak A/T tires on yesterday lol.

 

[Willwork4truck]

Quick jaunt from Space Coast to Orlando Airport and back. Primarily all highway at 72mph on cruise. Hand calc at 19.43mpg. A shade over 2500 miles on odometer. DVIC stated 21.6mpg. Consistently 2mpg optimistic vs. hand calc.

Thats still good with 3.92’s and over 70 mph.

My latest highway trip (today) was about 170 miles at posted highway speeds of 65-70 mph with no hills, no extra weight other than driver and passenger, 89 octane, 3.21 4x4 Limited. Got it up to a 22.2 average. I have just under 10K on the truck.

 

[vdemarco]

I just took the Rebel with 3.92 and eTorque it now has about 2,000 miles on it, and i got 17.2 mpg (on the screen) i have been using 89 octane too. To get much better i think i need to drive slower, if you hit 70 mph the mpg really drops off.

 

[Rsorrell2]

Biga did your 2014 have the same size wheels and tires?

anything else different?

just as wildh24 stated too many variables. brand of gas, tires, temp, wheels, octane, if you use A/C or not, drive with windows up or down, outside temp, humidity tire pressure, how much weight, how you drive (fast, slow, easy )terrain, type of driving (City, highway, combined).

again it is a truck with a V8 engine.

 

[smashweights]

My instant economy when cruising in eco mode at 45mph is in the mid/upper 30s. Not that it matters since the driving I do around town kills mpg... however, I drove about 60 relatively flat highway miles and reset my trip as soon as I got up to highway speed. When I got off the highway I had averaged 22.5mpg going 70mph. FWIW, my reported mileage is usually about 0.1-0.5mpg above my hand calc numbers. YMMV

 

[smashweights]

Well for starters...be careful with the 87 octane ...Hemi requires 89. (If you keep using 87 you'll end up getting the cylinder knocking). But I have the Hemi Etorque 4wd with 3.21 ratio. I'll usually get about 24-26 average with 70% highway. Of course it's about to go down since I just put new Falken Wildpeak A/T tires on yesterday lol.

89 recommended, 87 acceptable I believe the manual says. Likely the computer with adjust and you just won't be able to get all 395hp.

 

[PowerJrod]

89 recommended, 87 acceptable I believe the manual says. Likely the computer with adjust and you just won't be able to get all 395hp.

That's true...87 is acceptable when 89 is not available but my coworker has a 2016 Hemi Ram and after a year of using 87 octane he's getting the cylinder knock and even some lifter tick now. Smh....

 

[Willwork4truck]

89 recommended, 87 acceptable I believe the manual says. Likely the computer with adjust and you just won't be able to get all 395hp.

Is that hand calc or lie-o-meter? I’ve been lazy and haven’t hand calculated, I should because several report around 2 mpg optimistic on the lie-o-meter. Better to know what it really is.

 

[smashweights]

Is that hand calc or lie-o-meter? I’ve been lazy and haven’t hand calculated, I should because several report around 2 mpg optimistic on the lie-o-meter. Better to know what it really is.

My lie o meter is a fairly consistent 0.5mpg optimistic