I've ready many posts on this forum about th ebeauty of using 3rd for around town driving as long as you're staying under 50mph in order to improve mileage. I am curious if this is only applicable to the 4.0 and not the 4.6. . .
I did a tank vs tank comparison and implemented the same driving techniques (no jack rabbit starts, smooth acceleration, no load in truck, moderate speed, etc). In 3rd gear I averaged 11.8 mpg while in D I averaged 13.8 mpg.
Justcurious to see if anyone else with an '03 or '04 has tried the same experiment with the same results.

Thanks,
Robert

 

You are probably the first that I have heard from how got a lower mileage. In your case, 13.8 MPG in town is great so don't mess with it.