I have a 93 4door suzuki sidekick ~20k on rebuilt motor, 5.63 diff gears, 32" allterrain tires, 3" calmini lift, 2" body lift, 2" coil spacers, custom front bumper, zor rear bumper and swing out tire carrier, trailridgeoffroad rocksliders.

I recently took a trip from Salt Lake City Utah to Las Vegas Nevada and got 18mpg there and back and really want to find a way to get better mpg before I consider trading it off for a toyota pickup or a stock sidekick. I dont really want to go through the hassle of taking the lift off and cant really go down in the tire size unless I regear.

Ideas on how to improve mileage?

Remove any extra weight....cargo or otherwise.  Pull the front and rear bumpers and rocksliders.
If you don't want to do any of that, then you'll just have to live with driving a lifted sidekick that gets mediocre gas mileage.  My stock 95 4 door will average 28MPG.
You could also slow down, if you are driving fast and running the engine RPMs too high.  I run about 65MPH and 3500ish RPM, on the highway.

Thanks skyhiranger. I might just pull the bumpers and sliders off and just install stock ones again and get a small brush guard on the front(I have very bad luck with animals). As far as speed I have to go between 65-75 here in utah and usually am running about 3800rpms at those speeds with my 5.63s.

Anyone know what size tire the tailgate will carry comfortably? I have 32's and dont want to run into an issue like many have on samurai's with damaging the tailgate hinges due to a tire being too large on the back.

IDK what kind of mileage improvements you are looking for, but I would guess you are not gonna see much over 3 or 4 MPG improvement, if even that, if you remove the bumpers and sliders.
My guess would be the biggest MPG killers are....the bigger/heavier tires, the increased wind resistance (with the lift), running it at 3800RPMs (my stock sidekick MPG will drop 2-3MPG, if I run it 3800RPMs), and the extra weight (lift, tires, wheels, bumpers, sliders, etc.).

Also, do you have an auto or 5 speed?  An auto will not get the MPG that a manual will (mine's a 5 speed).

got a 5 speed. maybe I might be better off just selling my sidekick and buying 2 more, one for wheeling and one for a daily driver.

got a 5 speed. maybe I might be better off just selling my sidekick and buying 2 more, one for wheeling and one for a daily driver.

Honestly, that is probably a good idea.  You really can't have a rig like you have and expect to get stockish MPG numbers out of it. 
Well, I guess you can expect it, but it ain't gonna happen.

With 5.63's and 32's you are only slightly undergeared, not enough to really worry much, engine mods? 8V?

Alot of armor weight, go back to stock on the bumpers(I would leave the sliders on)

Liberate a road sign and make a underbody skid, it will help.

Run enough air to greatly reduce the tread contact patch, the center of the tire will wear far quicker, but the drop in rolling resistance is very noticible.

There are no mods in the engine compartment besides headers at the moment. Its a 16V motor. Where did you get your bull bar Talon? I have horrible luck with hitting large animals with my vehicles and when I find stock bumpers to put on I want to atleast have alittle heavy duty added to it. Sorry but I dont uderstand this "Run enough air to greatly reduce the tread contact patch, the center of the tire will wear far quicker, but the drop in rolling resistance is very noticible", can you dumb it down even more please?

The (bull) light bar is made by Westin, they can be found and ordered at NAPA and other big name auto parts stores. 137$ or so. It isnt a heavyweight piece, lightweight tubing, but it will provide some protection. You could have a heavier weight one bent rather easily. 


The kicks are light weight, and in order to get the correct contact patch a tire like a 31-10.5 usually is run at lower air pressures in order for the sidewalls to flex enough for the tread to wear evenly. This makes for a large contact patch with the pavement for each tire. Running them at a higher air pressure(what a normal weight truck intended to run 31's would run) causes the sidewalls to barely flex from the vehicle weight and the tread is pushed outwards by the air pressure assuming a rounder shape(and also a larger dia). On my procomps and on the GrabberAT2's running the higher pressure causes the heavy edge mud bars from contacting the pavement and it rides on only the center blocks, ie reducing the contact patch's length and width from approx 8-9" down to 4-5 inches.  

if it's a automatic, you can take off 5 to 10 MPG...especally with oversize tires(reguardless of gearing).

if it's a automatic, you can take off 5 to 10 MPG...especally with oversize tires(reguardless of gearing).

 My commuter is an auto and I'm getting 27mpg +/- 1mpg every tank. Wait... is this helping?

-Eric

Quote from: locjaw on July 02, 2012, 06:47:23 AM

if it's a automatic, you can take off 5 to 10 MPG...especally with oversize tires(reguardless of gearing).

 My commuter is an auto and I'm getting 27mpg +/- 1mpg every tank. Wait... is this helping?

-Eric

salt in the wound               

I added a  2 in exhaust and  pick up 1 to 2 mpg.Also when mine was get 18 to 19 mpg I found the crank bolt loose!I,m now getting 23 to 24 mpg.

well apparently my egr isnt hooked up so a friend of mine is going to help me hook that all back up as well as adjust the valves and a few other little things that in combination might get me 5mpg back.

I added a  2 in exhaust and  pick up 1 to 2 mpg.Also when mine was get 18 to 19 mpg I found the crank bolt loose!I,m now getting 23 to 24 mpg.

I know how much it helps these suzukis to have the 2" exhaust so when I bought this from etdavenport I made sure it had a new 2" exhaust on.