5.7 Tundra Real World MPG?

[OldVwHunters]

I'm still on the fence about getting a Tundra to replace my current 18-20 mpg Tacoma. I talked to a guy yesterday who claimed to get only 13 mpg on his Tundra empty, when just a week earlier I talked to someone that claimed to get 18 mpg pulling a big boat in the mountains. If you have a 5.7 Tundra please enlighten me with your own real world results.

[aftermath]

I have an '08 with the 5.7 and tow package. I purchased it new and it now has a tad under 60k on it. The first few years it was a daily driver for me and during the commute I was getting very close to 15. Around town it is less. On the few occasions when I drove it on the highway empty I would get 18-19.

For the last couple of years it is mainly used to tow my 25FB. I get right at 11 when towing. Just got back from 4800 mile trip through the western half of the country. Covered 12 states and went through a few passes, encountered winds both tail and head and tried to keep it between 65 and 60 on the road. Averaged 11.6 for the trip, calculated not estimated. We got as high as 14 on a short leg with the wind behind us and as low as 8.9 on a hill climb into a head wind. Mostly between 11 and 12.

It runs on regular gas, 87 octane and in Washington our gas is mixed with alcohol. I have never had a problem with this mixture but when down in some of the southern states, "regular" might mean 85 or even lower. I filled up with 85 one time in Kansas where I knew I wasn't going to be climbing many hills and it worked fine. Don't remember a hit on the mileage either.

[Bassrats2]

We have a 2012 Tundra 5.7 with the towing package. We have around 11,000 miles on the truck. On the last road trip we took, without the camper, we averaged 19-20 miles to the gallon. This was manually figuring the mileage. On our trip to Florida last month pulling the camper we averaged 11. This was pulling a 31 foot airstream.
It is by far, a great truck. We sold a Dodge Dually to get the Tundra and we are super pleased.

[wolf146]

We have the 2007 Tundra 5.7 l with the towing package. We have about 50,000 miles on it most of it towing our 2004 - 30 foot Classic. We average 17.5 mpg without the trailer but with most of our camping "stuff" in the back of the truck. Towing we get between 10 to 11.5 mpg. Those averages are consistent averages for all of our trips whether the east coast or Colorado Rockies. I keep records of all of our trips.
There are two of us and in the back of the truck I keep my bike, our camping "stuff" including my Honda 2000i and Yamaha EF 2800i ( if we need the air). Many times I also carry my kayak on the top of the truck cap.

[Mike91208]

I have a 5.7L 2011 Tundra w/tow package and average 12-13 mpg towing a 27FB International (including tows in the Colorado/California mountains). When not towing, I average 17-18 mpg on the highway. Average tow speed ~ 60 mph.

[AlaskaSafari]

I have an '07 5.7L Tundra and after towing my 25' Safari almost 7,000 miles this summer, loaded to the gills (both the truck and trailer), I averaged right at 12 mpg. Non-towing highway mileages hovers around between 18-20 depending on how heavy my foot is.

[m.hony]

12 mpg towing. 16 mpg empty. I never really get a chance to calculate empty highway mileage. It's good mileage as far as I'm concerned for such a big, roomy, powerful,truck. I test drove a Ford 3.5 EcoBoost today. It was a big ole hunk o' junk in camparison.

[BicycleStream]

Avg 11 mpg towing and 15+ mpg otherwise. Generally drive 60-65 mph and absolutely love driving my Tundra. Good luck.

[desertair27]

I had an 07 extra cab 5.7 4x4and avg 15-16 city/hwy and 11 towing 78 Safari weighing about 5000 lbs. I now have 12 crew max 4x4 5.7 and get same mpg. Great trucks!

[TG Twinkie]

On a 4,000 mile trip to Canada and back. Towing a 26' Argosy. The lowest mileage was 12 mpg and the highest was 14. Always use 87 octane or higher.
I live in the country and rarely drive in the start/stop traffic of the city. I get a consistent 20 mpg.
When towing, I use the "S" mode and limit the top gear to 4th and drive at 60mph.
All of my driving has been throughout the Rocky Mountain Region.

[OldVwHunters]

All of these posts are making the Tundra look much better to me. Looks as if the mileage isn't all that much different from my Tacoma. The best part is that everyone seems to be really pleased with them as well.

[slowmover]

FE is arranged this way

1] Vehicle spec
2] Climate
3] Terrain
4] Vehicle Use (Driver Skill)

Start with EPA figures (appears to be 13-18 & either 15 or 16 combined) and add a bit of improvement for warm climate / flat terrain, or deduct a touch for colder / hilly to mountainous.

I've not ever seen a problem in exceeding EPA estimates going back to the 1970's, so the revised downwards testing procedure now in use should be easy to match for a lazy driver.

If one avoids 4WD spec and uses closed shoulder tread tires (such as MICHELIN LTX A/S) mpg will be as high as can be across the range of use. Consider such an approach as Smart Spec (and for any truck would include a bed cover, etc, that eases aerodynamic quality) where the goal is the most work for the least fuel burn.

Smart Use is in an FE-consious approach. Combined trips, pre-warming of fluids, etc. It is possible (I have done it) to nearly equal highway mpg while in town with skill improvement.

For Towing a deduction of 30-40% from highway mpg is a rule-of-thumb assumption. If one records all gallons, all miles in a spreadsheet to find the actual highway mpg average this will be easy. An EPA-based deduction would show that 10.5-12.5 towing is a reasonable start.

An 11-mpg average with fuel at an average $3.50/gl is 32-cpm [cents-per-mile] for purposes of planning. This number -- cpm -- is the meaningful one to acquire as mpg actually means little by itself.

The average vacationer may cover 5k miles annually. $1600 in fuel for this vehicle.

It is the annual solo miles that matter for purposes of budgeting for the non-full-timer.

EDMUNDS calculates overall cpm for a Tundra at 15k annually over 5-years shows an overall cost of .98-cpm. And alternative tow vehicle, a V6 Dodge Charger, would be .79-cpm. Or, $10,000.

In comparing new vehicle numbers (any numbers) start from a baseline such as this. For a towing rig it is the trailer that drives ultimate fuel consumption numbers (on this an A/S is unbeatable), but a poor choice of TV (safety and FE) will exact a higher cost at higher risk.

.

[OldVwHunters]

Wow! Now that there just made my brain hurt!

[TG Twinkie]

I find my Tundra gets better mileage in cooler weather. We live at 4100 feet in elevation. Don't really know what the mpg would be at sea level.

[azflycaster]

There are so many things that effect the MPG, it is a relative number. This summer we traveled almost 8K miles in 19 states. Different blends of gas, speed, air conditioning, trailer weight and others can push the MPG number all over the board. For what it is worth, we averaged 11.6 MPG this summer with 95% of it towing and speeds of around 62 MPH.

[dougandlori]

I have an 08 Crewmax and get about what the above have been getting. On the freeway empty on cruise control 20. Pulling a 25 foot Excella about 14 on flat and near 11 with a combination of flat and mountains. For me a great truck and nice to know my MPG is average for the group.

[RickDavis]

Originally Posted by slowmover

If one avoids 4WD spec and uses closed shoulder tread tires (such as MICHELIN LTX A/S) mpg will be as high as can be across the range of use. Consider such an approach as Smart Spec (and for any truck would include a bed cover, etc, that eases aerodynamic quality) where the goal is the most work for the least fuel burn.
.

There is another bonus with the Michelin LTX/AS. Every set I used on my Dodge ran 100,000 miles plus and still looked good when I pulled them. The downside was I usually had to order them. The LTX/MS is commonly stocked but not the / AS

[m.hony]

I got 130,000 miles from a set of Michelins on a 2007 Chevy Express.

[Ed Emerick]

Call it an average of 10.5 pulling my 29' with my foot in it. That means 65- 71 MPH on the highways, I don't play around when I have to be someplace.

I get 15 on the highway/city average without the trailer.

Love my Tundra....

[Gene]

We have an '07 Tundra Double Cab with 4wd and the 5.7 L. engine. We also have running boards which increase weight and a hard tonneau which also increases weight, but improves air flow. We live at 6,836', although I haven't seen much difference in mileage at sea level. Our trailer maximum weight is 7,300 lbs.

Towing we get 10.5-11.5 and not towing, 16-17. Since it is virtually impossible to buy gas without ethanol blended in, our mileage has dropped slightly as the use of ethanol has become universal.

Your trailer weighs less, so that will help. Different versions of the Tundra have different weights. Different people drive differently (we don't go over 65, but mileage drops after about 55).

While it is nice to have the best gas mileage available, if you work out the numbers over the time you will own it, you will find that a few mpg doesn't make a lot of difference in total cost for most people. The Tundra is reliable and the drive train seems invincible. If I were buying a new truck, I'd look at the 4.6 L. V8 with the optional supercharger ($3,999 extra, a dealer option). It should increase mileage when not towing by quite a bit–maybe comparable to the Ford EcoBoost (the real EB mileage, not the bogus, higher EPA numbers)—but towing may not be much different. It has been hard to find out much info about the supercharger, but a deep Google effort may turn up more. You could also look at the Sequoia if you want more plushness, but probably lower mileage.

Gene