Chevy & GMC Vans

Dean unmodifies a vehicle. He took the custom dual exhaust off his truck and put a stock one back on AND he also took the 33's off and put on smaller than stock tires.

I guess the gas prices are hurting lots of folks. The main reason Dean went to the smaller tires is for better towing mileage when pulling the camper. Also the dual exhaust was loud and it echoed off the front of the camper when towing at highway speeds.

All I can say is the truck looks wimpy with those small tires on it. The wheel wells are not filled up at all. However we do seem to be getting a bit better mileage with them on. The true test will be when we camp this week.

I will get pics up once we return from camping.

man is sucks to get old. I'm in the same damn boat, the flowmaster is going soon and I'm going to drop an inch off the tire diameter.

kings-x59 wrote:man is sucks to get old.

Well...I am not "old" yet! Hell at only 37 some may say I am just a young pup. (pssst...Lynne is OLDER than me )

Yup I am officially turning into a wimp. Seems like getting 8.5 mpg towing with the 33's wasn't worth it so I slapped on some 245/70/17's and now get around 10. Not bad for running 75 mph and being loaded down with wood and gear for 4 or 5 days worth of camping!

Gotta do whatcha gotta do, Deano. I'm impressed that the tires would help out as much as they did. Did you compensate for tire height when doing your mpg calculations? In any case, reducing your gearing has to help while pulling the camper, so in the end all is well.

Yup, Dean knocked off about .5 MPG to compensate for the tire height.

Lynne is correct, I did the calculations with correction for tire diameter. It doesn't seem like much of a difference, but on a normal 400 mile round trip camping trip, it is around a $28 savings. Do that 5-8 times a summer and it adds up.

Here are few pics...

Hey that's a pretty neat mount for your bikes!
I wish I could go and ride my bike, but the doctor says not yet. Actually I think his exact words were "Absolutely not!".

Well after traveling around 320 miles this week, I have come to the conclusion that this mount will not work! ](*,)

I am having a hard time getting over 8.2 mpg and the truck is running probably 20 degrees warmer. ](*,) We filled up around 100 miles ago and moved the bikes to the bed of the truck hoping to get more mileage. It was slightly better but not much. I still ran most of the way with the OD's off. So much for an easy way to carry the bikes. I will test the mileage again the weekend of September 12th on our next camping trip.