Using my box as a delivery vehicle and was wondering what if any fuel mileage gains can be accomplished with removing all that is not necessary, seats, door panels, etc...

Anyone stripped an XB to see what kind of weight can be removed?

Fuesad

 

It should theoretically improve your mileage, but it's hard to say how much. Would obviously depend on how much weight you really lost.

 

Not much, you'd have to remove a pretty substantial amount of weight for it to add up to any noticeable savings.

Changing you driving style would be the biggest place for improvement. Pull away from lights more slowly, coast whenever possible, start slowing down early for stops, keep it between 60-65mph on the highway, etc. the more gently you drive the less gas you'll use.

You can get some slight improvements (1mpg TOPS!)by upping your tire pressure to 38-40psi

 

Except that would cause uneven tire wear... by wearing down the middle of the tread first. So you'll be paying for more tires instead of gas.

 

Not really. the carcasses in modern radial tires are much more rigid and don't allow for the tread to bow as much as they used to (and nowhere near what bias-plys allowed). hypermilers have been running overpressure for years and none have noticed abnormal tire wear or uneven wear.

EDIT: I've been running with 38-42psi in my tires since I bought my xB 18 months ago, and show no excessive wearing of the center of the tires. In fact the most wear is at the outer edges of the front ones from autocrossing (at 45psi cold).

 

I too run a higher psi - 39 in my case. Been running that since 10K miles, and Im at right about 50K now, doing tire rotations evey 8-10K miles. Lincolns head is still hiding in the tread and Im running the stock tires.

 

Im not being facetiousby this comment, but I bet you would see a greater gain by losing 10 lbs or so rather than stripping the interior.

Plus, you are getting healthier.

Just my 2 cents.

 

ive run 40 PSI in my tires since i got my new set.
ive got 8,000 on them with only 2/32 loss, even all the way across.
but then again i rotate the tires every 4,000 miles and i check them every time with a tread depth guage on both sides and the middle



just a side note:

ive always laughed at the type of guy with the 40 pound bear gut talking about how he saved 7 pounds with his new titanium exaust on his Vett.
thats just funny to me

 

Might help to lose the giant wheels you have in your avi if you want better mileage.

 

you could always do this
http://www.daleholley.com/nissan.htm

 

I've been running 45psi or so for a year with really even tire wear.

If you do a lot of highway driving, block off half of the grille (no, really), slow down, and keep your tire pressure up. That will go a very long way.

I also just installed a Rostra cruise control, and this weekend is my first test of it on a long trip, so we'll see how that pans out. I'm hoping to be able to crack 40mpg in hot weather this summer (believe it or not, while you lose power in hot weather, you can actually gain efficiency if you keep your AC use reasonable-- I'll put it on recirculate and only run it a few minutes at a time, and just turn it on and off as I need).

 

so umm is my audio causing me lose mpg......



maybe





worth it

 

you should be happy with the miles we get on our cars! if youre not satisfied you shoulda got a hybrid

 

you can remove the sound dampening. those things are heavy.

 

If I were spending a lot of hours driving every day, I'd look at making the xb more comfortable. I'd sacrifice an infinitesimal mpg increase that gutting the interior might gain to add more sound damping for quieter cabin. And run the tires at recommended (or only slightly higher) pressure to keep the ride from being too harsh.

 

look into mixing acetone in you gas tank, haven't tried it personally, but there is a lot of info on the web. There needs to be a specific gas:acetone ratio.

 

i have done the acetone thing

3oz acetone and 3oz lucas uper cilinder lube per tank got me an extra 3 MPG on average.
tell you what works better is Tolean (im not sure of the spelling

 

Since rotating weight reduction is much more noticed than just car weight. Invest in the lightest wheels possible, and stay with the OEM size tire . They have rims 15" under 10 pounds, and that is about 5 pounds per wheel lighter. I have heard 1 lb rotating, is equal to about 10 pounds weight. That would be like a 200 pound reduction. I agree with stew32. don't sacrifice comfort, totally. The very light wheels don't do anything but reduce ratating weight. But even 200 pound reduction (calculated), I doubt if it would improve mileage even .5 mpg. Enjoy the uniqueness of the box.

 

yeah the stock steel wheels are around 20 pounds or a tad more.

 

Moon disc wheels help.