My 4runner is so bad on MPG

Hmm... maybe look into getting lighter wheels and light highway tires.... there's a few wheels 18-20lbs. Sr5 wheel weigh 27+lbs.

But it would be silly to remove the spare.

 

For driving around town no one needs a spare. Just keep a small tire inflater in the rig. Maybe a bottle of tire inflater. Leave the pig spare tire and jack tools at home. For longer trips, yes a spare is necessary. Taxi cabs never kept spares in the trunk and would only put one in for long haul rides. Remove the rear seats too.

Changing wheels might be pricey.

Love this 1GR-FE engine. Still standard on the 300 series Land Cruiser in the Middle East. Ya mon.

 

Lol!

This is terrible advice. Nobody should drive around without a spare.

What is an inflator going to do if there's a hole in the tire?

 

My wife old hyundai came with a plug set and a portable inflator....

But come to think of it. I've never needed to use my spare..knock on wood.

If you wanna chance it for 80lbs that's totally up to you.

 

It depends how far you want to take this hyper mileage experiment.

You could even go so far as keeping your gas tank mostly empty. Each gallon of gasoline weighs about 6 pounds.

You might research lower weight narrower tires. Maybe on 20 inch wheels.

For myself I’d rather pay the weight and cost penalty for self-sufficiency and convenience.

Let us know how this progresses with some data updates. Good luck.

 

Keeping the fuel cell half full is excellent. I have not begun to do this but I will. If I only kept 10 gallons in the tank that would save another 78 pounds.

A tire inflator and a can of sealant are all that's needed to get home as 99% of my driving is within 20 miles of my house. Drive home and change the tire or go directly to a Tire Choice shop to pull out the nail. You don't need to drive around with a spare tire all the time. Ridiculous.

 

And, if you get a blowout? Or, a bigger hole that a spray can won't fix?

Edit: If you want to run around without a spare to save .0001 miles per gallon, that's your business. But, I wouldn't advise people to drive around without a spare.

 

Clearly Hotel knows best. And if he/she has ever been on a trail ride and incurred a big enough sidewall slice that plugs and/or tire sealant won't fix, well...
Maybe a buddy with a 6 lug spare would come to the rescue.

I've been on trail rides in my TJ (w/ 5 on 5.5 wheels, stock is 5 on 4.5 or 5 on 5) and have had several sidewall blowouts. I'm glad I always carry a spare and plug kit to
complement the York OBA that I installed.

But there has been those guys on 8 lug tons and no spare that just destroy their alloy beadlocks in the rocks that we wheel in.

 

But in case you are, you could consider sucking in your belly to reduce wind resistance. It wont help when the windows are up, but you’ll make up for it in case you need to roll them down.

 

Fuel cell...

 

Obviously we would't go off road without a spare tire. We're talking about increasing MPG, which is generally not an issue when off roading. We're talking about how to get better fuel mileage both in the city and on the highway. Most of my driving is not far from my house, so leaving the spare at home and keeping a small tire inflator and perhaps a can of sealant in the vehicle makes sense. The 2WD 4Runner weighs 275 pounds less than its SR5 4WD counterpart and 400 pounds less than the pig Limited. Without the spare and jack it could be as much as an additional 85 pounds.

 

for what it's worth, YotaWerx Tuning customers frequently report fuel economy increases with tuning

 

I’d be curious to know what you’d get in S4 instead of drive. There’s a speed/torque window somewhere in there where there really isn’t much difference in RPM between 4th and 5th gear.

Sometimes I wonder if in some combinations of speed/terrain, S4 might crank out a slightly higher MPG due to not lugging in 5th gear on hills.

 

I've taken off all the seats and the seatbelts, and just have a lightweight plastic lawn chair for the driver and get 13MPG all day

 

I used to sit in my 19 RAV running the engine for the AC waiting for my wife at the gym. Now with the 4R, I sit in the lobby. I rarely get out of small community driving and my mpg is, in my favorite word to describe it, atrocious. I wouldn't change a thing. I'm crazy about my 4R.

 

Imagine what it would be if it was still carrying all that extra weight! I’m assuming you removed the headliner and carpeting already?

 

Having a flat/blowout and not have a spare is pretty stupid imo, one tow charge is going eat up the very small amount of change you saved by not carrying one

 

See my previous posts about carrying a tire inflator kit and only being a short distance from home. According to AAA there are over 50 models of automobile not sold with a spare tire but rather a tire inflator kit or run-flat tires. And with free towing for the next five years, I'm not worried. Perhaps I'll even leave the tire inflation kit at home to save even more weight. Totally living on the edge as I drive to the corner store.

 

I think @HotelMedicis is just trying to rattle our chains. Not falling for it.

 

I think @HotelMedicis is daring*






* Today’s Daily Euphemism

 

Been out driving quite a bit the past couple of days in the city with a few miles of 45 mph straight roads thrown in. Nothing over 50 mph. Stop and go, waiting at lights, parking lots etc and averaged 19.5 mpg. And that's with the spare tire and about 25 kg of extra weight (Trek 5200 in US Postal livery, futon, Jackery batteries, two gallons of water). Can't complain about that. I might send back the tire inflator and leave the spare where it is. Great mileage.

 

Wait a minute…exactly how many miles do you get on a tank? I never see anything line 327 on my distance to empty readout…. That tells me you are getting better mileage than you’ve led on! Admit it! You already have the seats out, carbon fiber panels, spare out, and have been sucking in!!! Fess Up!!!

Although, that 19.5 mpg your display is showing resets every time you refuel. So unless you have all that driving around on that tank, it’s inaccurate.

How many miles did you have on that tank in your picture? (If you tell me 73.4 miles, and still have 327 miles of range left, I must demand verification that you are truly in a 4runner, and not some confused Rav4 hybrid owner.

 

yeah, the computer projecting 400 miles of range is a bit fishy -- but also not whacky. I myself did a 400 mile roundtrip where I averaged a dead even 20 mpg (both per the computer and calculated at the pump). I hit 400 miles on the tank just before pulling into the gas station. So the fillip was literally 20 gallons.

I also averaged something like 19.9 on a roundtrip of about 1600 miles, and that included some hills, a bunch of miles over 80 mph, and an hour long traffic jam.

19.5 mpg for 73 miles is not that weird for speeds in the 40s. Don't know how much "stop and go, waiting at lights, parking lots" there was in that 73 miles. Either way, not a big sample size so should be taken with a grain of salt!

 

After more city driving the average has dropped to 18.6. I've only had the 4Runner for 5 weeks, and it's 2WD so 275 pounds lighter than an SR5 4x4 and 405 pounds lighter than a limited (I think). My 2000 Land Cruiser got 12.5 to 13.5 mpg so this is all gravy to me. The MPG is secondary to having a well-built and reliable vehicle - I would have bought a 200 series Land Cruiser in a heartbeat if there had been one available near me after Hurricane Ian. I will probably keep the spare.

 

my commute to work mon-fri is 90% highway then chores here and there over the weekends, gas light come on at around 363-370 miles, I pushed it to 400 once just to see if it could make it and it did, won't to it again as I don't want to mess up the fuel pump, stock vehicle, 20" wheels (XP) will be getting 17s soon.
also will be getting a roam case mounted so im sure that will affect my MPGs

 

400 + miles on a tank is possible. I have done it many times on long trips with summer blend gas.
I have stock Brigdestone dueler tires , zero lift, zero accesories, bone stock SR5 (except running boards) and I drive like an old man 60mph on the highway, so my mileage will vary from most 4runner drivers with big tires,lifts and roof racks that drag fuel economy down.

 

How accurate is the computer avg mpg? I just received a 2006 SR 4x2.V6. thanks

 

Can’t speak to the 2006, but the computer in my 2020 is remarkably accurate. I’m used to these computers inflating mpg by more than 1.5. My 2019 WRX did that. My wife’s 2021 Honda does. I’ve had other cars that did so too.

In my experience over 20k miles in my 4R, I’d say the computer is optimistic by around a quarter mpg.

A caveat though: the speedometer reads a few percent high, which presumably means the odometer slightly exaggerates your miles driven. If so, that would mean that both the computer and your calculations at the pump would be slightly inflated.

Thus, when I see my computer saying I’ve averaged 17.1 mpg over the last 20k miles, I assume that the real number is about 16.5.

 

Very true.

This means if you have 33's then your speedo/mileage will read correctly.