My 4x4 off road Ford F250 and trailer are both lifted.  The truck came from the factory that way. but I don't really do any "off roading", other than to find a good camping spot. Not to mention the hassle of climbing in and out of the bed.

I've been told that lifted vehicles get worse gas mileage than non-lifted.  My question is:  Is it possible to remove the lift kits on the truck and trailer in order to improve the gas mileage?  Or would it even be worth the effort. The truck is no longer under warrenty so that's not an issue.

Thanks.

Lifted trailer???  Do you mean blocked axles to clear the holding tanks?

As far as the truck goes, you might loss a 1 mpg at most, so it really would not be worth the time or expense to change anything.

I have lifted trucks a few inches over stock and little larger tires and never noticed a change.  Now I have lifted one 8 inches over stock and installed 38" tires and noticed about 2mpg less!

What kind of engine is in your truck and what year is it?  If you have not added some cheap aftermarket itmes to it help with fuel mileage, I can help with some ideas you can find on ebay and for the most part cheap!

That's what I was thinking.  That is common for 4x4 stuff.

Is you truck a diesel?  And what year is it?

Ok, The way I am reading the orignal post is, "it came from the factory like that", more than likely it is not actually lifted, they just got one of the better trucks with a heavier drive train. I have had a hand full of F-250's and F-350's and only a couple of them set up really good from the factory, the others looked like squating dogs.

Still, if I knew what engine it had I can maybe help out with the fuel mileage and power.

Aerodynamically, it doesn't really matter if your truck is two feet off the ground or three feet. The turbulence of the air under and around the truck is relatively constant. By lowering the truck and using add on air dams and ground affects, the air can be routed around the frame and reduce the drag, such as used in race cars. This would increase your mileage, and make your truck pretty much worthless as a work vehicle.

As was stated, the raising of the frame includes the usage of larger tires which have a greater rolling resistance than the stock ones. This increases the drag and reduces the mileage.

Gard

1st of all Ford doesn't sell a "Lifted Truck"  The dealer may have "lifted" as part of their dealer add-ons. But Ford didn't.

A lot of folks did have the dealers install some leveling blocks. Some trucks looked out of level because the rear springs when unloaded. The dealers added a leveling kit, which basically raised the 2-4 inches.

All 4x4 trucks of a given model/year are pretty much the same. All 2x4 - same story.  There is a difference between the 4x4 and 4x2'.

Are you saying it's lifted because it's taller than a 4x2, or that it's taller than other 4x4's?

Lifting the truck does increase it's wind resistence. More wind resistence does decrease fuel mileage.  the question is how much effect does it really have.

A truck 2" higher, probably not much.  A truck lifted 10" and shod with 38" tires, it probably is significant.

I'll give an example.  I recently sold a GN LQ horse trailer. It weighed 16,000lb when loaded.  When I towed it with my Ford F350 I got 11.2 mpg.  I sold it and bought a Non-LQ trailer from the same manufacture.  I towed it home empty from Boise Idaho, empty weight was 6000lbs.  That was 10,000lbs lighter than my loaded LQ. But the trailer was basically the same hieght, same width, same double axle with the same size tires. Towing the empty trailer I got 11.5 mpg.  Now that is very little difference for 10,000lbs difference in load.

When I went to pick up the trailer, I drive my truck up to Boise empty. The empty truck with no trailer got 19 mpg.  The differnce in Wind Resistence of having a 7'6" tall trailer behind the truck made a huge difference.

Bottom line, removing the lift from the truck my give you better mileage, but not if you keep the big tires. But is that improvement worth of .5 or 1.0 mpg worth the cost of removing the lift.  I personally would like to add blocks to my trailer to lift it up a couple of inches to help with clearance on forest service roads.  But if you never leave the pavement, then it might be worth while.

daafy, if you would let me know what engine you have in your truck I can give you some ideas that will raise your fuel mileage and power for little cost!

If it is a diesel, there is a number of add on's that will improve mileage!