Low rolling resistance tires for my truck?

Howdy Asian neighbor! I don't know if the 'good tires' will be available for you, and (frankly) how much better they are. I suggest that you inflate your current tires to as close to the sidewall max that you are comfortable with.

I think that tire RR will matter most at low speeds, At highway speeds wind resistance predominates, especially for, shall I say, the square-shaped vehicles.

I appreciate that you want the best fuel economy in your truck, so pump the tires, accelerate gently and keep the top speeds down, and combine short trips as much as possible.

There is no magic bullet, other than cars like Prius that make everybody look good . Keeping track of your fuel economy will help to show what works best for you.

I infer that you are military posted in SK, so big thanks for putting your butt on the line. Hope your work there goes well, and that we will hear from you again.

 

Well, let's turn this around a bit. My Prius came with Goodyear Integrity tires that are supposedly LRR. I found their performance on rain soaked highways scary, and in winter forget about it. So I put on Michelin Harmony.

No difference in fuel economy

My FJ came with some Dunlop Grandtrek tires that were even scarier on rain soaked highways. Had them replaced with Goodyear Fortera TripleTred, although I use dedicated Toyo Open Country G-02 Plus studless snow tires in winter

I also haven't noticed any difference in fuel economy running my FJ with the stock tires or the TripleTreds. The only difference is that on rain soaked highways, my FJ is one hell of a lot safer

You will probably gain more by keeping the tire pressure up. Don't run aggressive "off road" tires unless you really need to. Co-workers with suv's and pickups swear by the Michelin LTX MS. They are a smooth comfy tire with long life and good economy, not so great in snow and terrible in mud

I used to have a 2000 GMC Sierra with the 5.3 Vortec. Not sure if your model still has mechanical throttle or throttle-by-wire. Make sure the IAC valve and passages at the TB are kept clean, that has a big impact on driveability and economy

 

LRR tires should help at all speeds. Sticky tires will noticably reduce MPH in the 1/4mile even if all factors are kept equal (60' and shifting).

I doubt it would be economical to dwap out perfectly good regular tires for a set of LRR tires but when your current ones wear out it may be an option. That is if they ever become available and are affordable.

 

The Integrities aren't LRR tires. The 1st gen Prius came with LRR's, but not the 2nd.

I'm with F8L, wait until you need tires, and then look for LRR tires. Perhaps finding a tire's rolling resistance will be easier then. I n the mean time just keep the tire pressure up, and check out sites that have tips for improving any cars milage, like cleanmpg.com and gassavers.org.

 

Make sure whoever works on the truck knows what they are doing. The idle speed will be haywire unless they properly clean the TB and reset the idle

Locally, Canadian Tire is famous for using a vicegrip to pinch the fuel return hose to clean the injectors. Proper injector cleaning is done with a special machine that hooks up to the fuel rail, and proper technique is to pull the fuel pump relay

With our -40 winters there is so much vapor in the motor especially during winter city driving, that a yearly TB and IAC cleaning is necessary.

 

Hydroedges have one of the lowest roling resistance numbers around. They come on sale at Costco once or twice a year. Finding these roling resistance numbers is hard. Seems they guard 'em like it's a national secret.

 

Yep, that is the Gold Standard way to clean fuel injectors. Not sure if you will notice any difference though. I never cleaned the injectors on my 2000 GMC Sierra, and even running crap Canadian gas 4 years, had the same fuel economy

The rear axle is already synthetic filled from the factory. Transfer case is probably AutoTrak and is filled with the blue AutoTrak fluid. Might or might not be worth switching the front axle to a synthetic gear oil

 

The AutoTrak stuff is blue, and appears to be good oil. I changed it in my GMC every fall, but that didn't help the 4wd switch cluster from repeated failures. Never had a problem with the actual transfer case though

My G80 had a bit of slippage/chatter until I started using CRC LSD additive in addition to the Mobil 1 gear oil

 

That seems like an aweful lot of HP gain from just fluids. I'd like to know the other parameters. Total HP/TQ, forced induction or N/A, ambient temps, engine temps and intake air temps for both runs, time between runs, density altitude for both runs etc.

 

Heck yeah! Parasitic loss is the devil Bobby Boucher!

*modified Waterboy quote*

 

My 2000 had the message center, not sure how the newer trucks work. When the switch cluster failed, the message center would say "SERVICE 4WD" in scary amber letters. The switch cluster failure is a well documented problem on the 2000 Chevy/GMC trucks

Up here they will sometimes act up within a year, especially after the first winter. It stands to reason the G80 will get a lot more use in winter driving conditions.

The G80 combines clutch plates with a mechanical action to lock the clutch plates. So like any clutch plate axle, once the additives get used up you will experience slip/chatter from the rear end

This is also a common problem with HD and commercial equipment that use wet brakes and wet clutch systems, such as front end loaders, tractors, etc. The fluid is shared by the differential, wet brakes, wet clutch, and hydraulic system, so it has hard use.

In that application, a fluid change will usually restore proper operation. Not a cheap process, typical fluid capacity is 40 litres