Fuel economy when idling 3.5 Tacoma

I looked everywhere for fuel consumption numbers while idling a 3rd gen Tacoma. Was on a road trip and wanted to keep my 110v plug running because I had frozen goods in my camping fridge. I top off the tank with double click method, pulled to corner of parking lot to sleep. Truck was idling with no a/c on and factory 400w inverter on. I got up 6 hours later. Refilled with the same method. I used 1.464 gallons in 6 hours for an average of 0.244 gallons per hour. So the engine burns 1/4 gallon an hour or .004 gallon per minute.

 

Thanks. Good to know.

 

So are you asking if your numbers are reasonable? If so, I guess?

PS: How the hell does one sleep for 6 hours in a vehicle? I would be lucky if I got 2 hours of actual sleep!

 

Wtf is double click method.

Hopefully you have a better / stronger alternator than stock...

 

The double click method when filling the tank with gas is not advised on our Tacomas, not sure why people still do it.

This fits with my experiences as well. I left mine idling for 4 hours and got similar results.

 

Not the best idea to “top off the tank with double click method”.

 

the exhaust gasses help with that

 

Thank God. Now I can rest easy tonight.

 

Seems like a bag of ice would be safer but hell, who knows.

 

How can we trust that the offgassing-pressure valve that works while filling (or after you shut off the car that balances fuel system pressures) is doing the right thing? We humans certainly know better.

 

you'd think, but apparently we can't do that anymore, we have to have our mini fridges.
I have good roto mold coolers I use for hunting, and they're amazing,,,, add dry ice? even better. Oh and, I use a regular cooler day to day, I am not the dbag that has to show off his fancy 2 day coolers at the 1 hour BBQ

 

If I understand this correctly, you are saying that we should “top up” our fuel tanks?

 

Idling for that long with no air moving over the radiator?

 

No. I mean that when it clicks I hang up the hose. Even my 2007 Corolla had a habit of balancing fuel system pressures in the middle of the night as part of design.

At 20-ish MPG an extra 3 teaspoons of gas is not going to save me.

 

Exactly!

 

At work, when we go to peoples homes we run a machine that’s powered by an engine. Vans are Chevy express and are all converted to propane. We run the engines at 1500 RPMs or so for 4-5-6 hours sometimes, summer/winter doesn’t matter. I do try to open the hood in warmer months.

Company has been doing that for 40+ years, no major issues.

 

so over the course of a camping season, based on $4.00 a gallon and 8 hours a night, you could buy a portable power pack and it would pay for itself in a season... Just charge it while driving from destination to destination... or buy ice? Using the motor to power the inverter to power a device is highly inefficient but I rely in it at times as well

 

This is the only thing I can comprehend out of the thread. 6 hours straight in bed hasn’t happened for 20 years. Sheesh. Good for OP. All that sleep is how he came up with this brilliant idea of running his truck for 6 hours to save those popsicles.

 

that's just asking for problems with all the issues people have had with the EVAP system from overfilling.

 

that's what the fan is for