Would Gear change help improve MPG? (USPS Mail delivery vehicle with a ton of start/stops.)

[sattech2000]

Good morning everyone!

Was recently hired for the USPS and am loving it so far. I use my 1999 Explorer with the 4.0 OHV which is doing good EXCEPT for the fuel consumption/MPG LOL. I mean crap, my dad's 05 F150 with the 5.4 gets better mileage then my Explorer. (I don't know that for certain but feel very strongly about that).

Anyways I was wondering sense I do mostly low speed driving with a LOT of start/stops would I benefit any by doing a gear change?

And/or is there any other recommendations thst anyone might have to help improve fuel economy given these specific circumstances I'm in.

I would certainly appreciate any and all in put.

Thank you
Randy

 

[RangerX]

What's your current gear ratio, and what kind of MPG are you now getting?

 

[Centaurus5.0]

Anyways I was wondering sense I do mostly low speed driving with a LOT of start/stops would I benefit any by doing a gear change?

Yes and maybe.

Are you a full time rural carrier in st joe and plan on keeping the job for years? Then yes. I think it would be worth having a dedicated delivery truck with the steepest gears you can (figure not seeing +65mph ever). The $1000 in a gear change would pay off eventually in increased mpg (again, low speed stop-n-go only). But if your thinking long term savings and figure on spending money to save money in the future, I'd try and find a 4x4 4 cylinder truck for work. Honda CRV to small?

If your a temporary or auxiliary driver and don't know how long you'll be doing the job, then regular maintenance like ,fluids, filters, tires, electrical corrosion, etc is all I'd worry about. Dependability is everything when it comes to vehicles. Mail delivery vehicles more so.


@CDW6212R would be the man to talk to about this sort of thing.

 

[96eb96]

Stop and go is not going to be pretty with this truck. I'm not sure gear ratio makes a big difference when you aren't on the highway. My 4.10s for example are going to make the engine spin faster @ 60 than 3.23s or whatever, but I get more low end torque. Tire size also comes into play.

Make sure you have good plugs, and your long term fuel trims are close to zero. Synthetic oil in the diff and engine is a good idea too. Doubt you will ever see over 15mpg ish delivering mail, even with all of the above. Trucks are MPG rated with the numerically lowest ratio and smallest tires, so YMMV there. You may want to remove some weight like the back seat, spare tire, drive with 1/2 tank, even passenger seat. Every pound counts getting that thing up to speed.

Axle Ratios & MPG

 

[sattech2000]

What's your current gear ratio, and what kind of MPG are you now getting?

Those are two very good questions that I need to probably need to find the answers out to begin with LOL. The MPG won't be accurate because of the intense stop/go driving but I'm sure I'll want it for a baseline if I decide to go through with it. Roughly speaking I go through about a half of a tank of gas each day I run the route. I believe I have a 21 or 22(?) gallon tank and I think the route was 46 miles long. Again, I need to double check all of those figures for accuracy. For the gear ratio is it still pulling the numbers off the tag on the differential covered or is there a better/easier way to find it? Ie vin lookup or white tag on door pillar or ? That's probably the first thing I need to figure out I would guess.

Yes and maybe. Are you a full time rural carrier in st joe and plan on keeping the job for years? Then yes. I think it would be worth having a dedicated delivery truck with the steepest gears you can (figure not seeing +65mph ever). The $1000 in a gear change would pay off eventually in increased mpg (again, low speed stop-n-go only). But if your thinking long term savings and figure on spending money to save money in the future, I'd try and find a 4x4 4 cylinder truck for work. Honda CRV to small? @CDW6212R would be the man to talk to about this sort of thing.

Those are also very good points. Unfortunately I am 'NOT' a full time carrier at this point. I do thoroughly enjoy every bit of the job and have hi hopes that I will someday but its usually 3-8 years of doing what I do before getting hired in....Specifically I am guaranteed every other Saturday and then on call to cover for vacation and sick days. Plus also available to cover on other routes AND other post offices as needed. They say it's usually feast or famine and so far it's been festing which I PRAY will continue.

I did pick up a Chevy Tracker with a bent valve not to long ago that was originally intended to be my route vehicle (And still might end up being one) with brand new Goodyears all the way around and is in pretty nice condition visually however this explorer is set up very nicely for what I'm doing from an operation standpoint on the inside plus it has been extremely dependable/reliable for me so far. I did reman heads and the heavy duty felpro head gaskets last year and front brakes/rotors/calipers and wheel bearings a month ago. The entire front end is Moog (except the rack and pinion) along with a super heavy duty trans cooler when I first got it a few years ago, I also put in the updated valve body gaskets and seperator plate along with a few other parts on the Tranny with Motorcraft full synthetic trans fluid. Royal Purple is in the transfer case and both diff's. And I ultimately I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to end up with a CRV if I decided to go with the four cylinder. I'm a big Ford fan but even bigger japanese car fan for reliability.

With all the work that I've done and how surprisingly dependable this truck has been I am just having a really hard time giving it up along with the full frame sense I do a lot of heavy duty towing. Just having a hard time trying to decide right now what my game plan is going to be so I guess the answers to this question might help determining that. On the other hand it seems like I'm hearing the rods/mains rattling a little more then I would like to so I'll probably have to also put a crank kit in it if I end up keeping it around for a while yet. And finally I picked up a 2000 explorer last year with a blown head gasket (Had brand new 30x9.5x15's on it.) for $400 so I have a full parts vehicle also that even still runs and drives.

Umm....generally speaking I tend to be a tightwad that is always looking for deals on stuff. If i'm looking at $1000 plus to swap out the gears then I doubt it would ever be a consideration. But once I figure out if/exactly what I'm looking for then I'll keep my eyes pealed (Craigslist, Ebay, etc...) and if it takes 6-12 or longer to come across the crackhead deal that I'm looking for then it's not an issue at all. I've done ring and pinion on a 9" before and did a complete front diff rebuild on an 03 before not to long ago.


With all of that said I suppose I should also ask how's the typical life on the transfer case and tranny is in these? I believe I'm at ~230k miles. I haven't heard of anything that was super common but also haven't looked into it much either.

Sorry for the long winded rambling post, it kind of helps me myself sort things out when I'm having a hard time making a decision. and THANKS AGAIN everyone for any advices, opinions, suggestions, etc...

 

[sattech2000]

Stop and go is not going to be pretty with this truck. I'm not sure gear ratio makes a big difference when you aren't on the highway. My 4.10s for example are going to make the engine spin faster @ 60 than 3.23s or whatever, but I get more low end torque. Tire size also comes into play.

Make sure you have good plugs, and your long term fuel trims are close to zero. Synthetic oil in the diff and engine is a good idea too. Doubt you will ever see over 15 mpg ish delivering mail, even with all of the above. Trucks are MPG rated with the numerically lowest ratio and smallest tires, so YMMV there. You may want to remove some weight like the back seat, spare tire, drive with 1/2 tank, even passenger seat. Every pound counts getting that thing up to speed.

To be honest I think this is the answer that I was looking for when I posted the question LOL, and thank you for the link. I will check it out in a little while. It's sounding like I just need to move to the tracker (Sense I already have it) and eventually to the CRV because I like those but honestly it's whatever is going to be the most functional on the interior for me. I also plan on having a backup vehicle on hand so maybe the explorer would be good for that. A little known fact using my personal vehicle.Say I complete 95% of the route and I blow the tranny, If i'm not able to get backup transpo like very quick I won't get paid at all for the day. Everything will go to the person that gets called and finishes the route.

 

[96eb96]

To be honest I think this is the answer that I was looking for when I posted the question LOL, and thank you for the link. I will check it out in a little while. It's sounding like I just need to move to the tracker (Sense I already have it) and eventually to the CRV because I like those but honestly it's whatever is going to be the most functional on the interior for me. I also plan on having a backup vehicle on hand so maybe the explorer would be good for that. A little known fact using my personal vehicle.Say I complete 95% of the route and I blow the tranny, If i'm not able to get backup transpo like very quick I won't get paid at all for the day. Everything will go to the person that gets called and finishes the route.

Yeah, and with your old 5R55E Transmission you are going to be putting serious wear and tear on the band and servo system making 100s of low speed takeoffs. I would budget for a new one. My 96 has 4R55E, yours works the bands at double duty to get the 5 gears.

Ironically some of our explorers though were used as mailtrucks, they put a different shell on the frame. They were new though.

 

[swshawaii]

@CDW6212R would be the man to talk to about this sort of thing.

Definitely. Don has first hand experience using 1995-01 (Gen 2) Explorers as USPS delivery vehicles.

Very knowledgeable and always helpful on EF. Hopefully he will see this thread, or maybe send him a PM.

 

[sattech2000]

Yeah, and with your old 5R55E Transmission you are going to be putting serious wear and tear on the band and servo system making 100s of low speed takeoffs. I would budget for a new one. My 96 has 4R55E, yours works the bands at double duty to get the 5 gears.
Ironically some of our explorers though were used as mail trucks, they put a different shell on the frame. They were new though.

Thank you for the input, that is very helpful! I do believe retiring this one to a backup status is going to be my best bet. I'll get the tracker up and going and see how functional/reliable that is and go from there I think.

Thank is interesting about the Explorers, I haven't heard that as of yet. I do know the current mail trucks (LLV's=Life Long Vehicles) that are being used are based on an S10 drivetrain.

 

[sattech2000]

Definitely. Don has first hand experience using 1995-01 (Gen 2) Explorers as USPS delivery vehicles.
Very knowledgeable and always helpful on EF. Hopefully he will see this thread, or maybe send him a PM.

That sounds awesome! I'm sure I'll have a million other questions he could probably answer also, is it acceptable for me to private message him if I can find him?

 

[swshawaii]

Don was on the forum yesterday. Would prefer to read what he has to say, but here's the "PM" link found in your profile page.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/index.php?conversations/

 

[sattech2000]

Don was on the forum yesterday. Would prefer to read what he has to say, but here's the "PM" link found in your profile page.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/index.php?conversations/

I ABSOLUTLY AGREE!!!

 

[CDW6212R]

Hi Randy, welcome to the forum, and the job you may love or hate eventually.

The V6 transmissions are not ideal for mail usage, with ideal care they will last long enough. But a rebuild is more expensive with those, they very often damage expensive hard parts inside when things go wrong(mainly because people keep driving them until the vehicle will physically not move any more(then it's "burned up")).

If you have not delivered mail between Thanksgiving and Christmas, you will want the biggest vehicle you can find during that time. The parcels will be heavy enough to make you make two trips almost every day. My route takes about 30 minutes to get to and from the PO for a 2nd trip.

I prefer the 302/AWD 98-01 Explorers, they are the most reliable vehicle for mail delivery that I know of. I see lots of new people at work with various near new vehicles, all makes and mostly Jap cars. They spend more money on various things than I do, and my 98 Limited is 20 years old. I got it as a keeper, but short term mail truck until I fix my 99 Limited(V6/5R55E(needs rebuilt)). I bought this 98 with 158k on it, now in 16 months I've got 194k miles on it. All I've done during that time is one front brake job, one in back(calipers were sticking and I replaced them), and kept an eye on a small radiator leak.

We get good money to take care of a vehicle, there's no reason to be too cheap with repairs, parts, or buying a vehicle. You need two to do this regularly, one will not be enough because something will happen. Where I am everyone is installing RHD conversions, $1000 I hear. I've always driven from the right, easily reaching the pedals and wheel, I prefer the open space in front of me, plus no cost.

I removed both back seats before I began on my new route 16 months ago, parcels are much worse than before. I drive my truck to and from work, and see about 11-12mpg overall. My guess it that it's running me about 10mpg on my route(52.5 miles), and about 18mpg commuting. When I get my 99 fixed, I'll leave it at work, that 4.0 SOHC used to get 9-10mpg on route, this 302 is doing at least that well. My 99 has 4.10 gears, the 302's are all 3.73's.

At work, try to find an FFV, not the LLV, but the narrower one with a window in the left rear. That's an Explorer SOHC V6 chassis, 99-01 I believe. It's identical under the hood, except for the brakes and steering parts, and no AC. I hope to one day buy one of those with a bad SOHC, and convert it to V8/AWD etc. I'd like that if it has AC and a radio, tough to do but who knows.

Your gear ratio is on the VIN tag, the axle code tells you that. You want to see a letter, that's an LS, numbers are an open diff. The OHV V6 often got 3.55 gears. For mail delivery, I think 4.10 would be good, 4.30 may or may not be any better. My 99 with 4.10's will work for me when I swap it to a 302 also, it could use more gear in 3rd on most of my route(I keep the OD off a lot).