camper shell mpgs

DLOR

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 13, 2007
Location
Chapel Hill
i have a 03 2500hd 6.0 and getting about 12mpgs. i would definitely like to get more. i thought about putting a camper shell on the back. so how much has a truck camper shell affected your gas mileage? also, does it have any affect on towing?
 
Any info you want on gas mileage is found here ---> http://ecomodder.com/

Here's some of the Truck camper build pics
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best part: only cost $62!
 
How are you getting double digits from yours. I never noticed any difference when I had my cap on. It was a high topper which might have made a difference. It was about 8-10 inches higher than the roof line but sloped back and was areo dynamic.
 
I didn't have mine on long but I couldn't really see an increase
 
I lost 1 mpg with my 76 F100 camper shell installed. But it was worth it when I was hauling motors in the winter time. I gained between 1.5 to 2 mpg by loosing the bed when I took it off to install a gooseneck.
Bottom line - weight matters... This was with a 302 though. I'm sure larger ci motors are less noticable.
 
FunkSkunk said:
Any info you want on gas mileage is found here ---> http://ecomodder.com/
best part: only cost $62!
Click to expand...
WOW, a claimed 4% gain.
That will take you from 12mpg to almost 12.5mpg.
I would rather keep the visibility you will lose to any kind of camper top than gain .5 mpgs.
 
trucks are designed with the cab and bed how they are.......keep the tailgate up and just drive it with some common sense. the extra weight from the camper shell will take away any preceived gain from "aerodynamics". But the problem with trucks is the extermely large frontal area on top of a very high coefficient of drag......along with the weight of the truck itself, and the weight of the unsprung and rotating mass. everything is working against it. if you need mpg's for daily driving, buy a more efficent car for it.
 
i use the bed quite a bit for work, but the added weather protection would be nice. not sure if there would be too much noticeable weight additions bc of tools, materials, etc. i thought that i had heard the 2500/3500 work vans were getting 18 or so mpgs and thought that the shell would make my truck similar in shape and aerodynamics.
 
I don't know about all that......the 2500 express never got anywhere near that
 
99 F-250, with a camper that is about 4" taller than the truck, can't tell it's back there really. No noticeable difference in fuel mileage. 15mpg towing, ~19 w/o a trailer on the highway, hardly ever gets driven w/o a trailer but on a 2000 mile round trip to Canada and back at Thanksgiving it got about 19mpg.

My work van, 2000 Chevy 3500 w/ the 6.5 Diesel gets around 17-19 mpg as well, ALL highway. (20K miles in about 6 months)

Never seen the gas vans get better than 15-16 mpg (with the V8's or V6's), I've had 2 Ford 1500 vans w/ the V8's, probably closer to 13-14mpg.
 
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