97 Yukon performance

Hello.. I just purchased a 97 Yukon with 228,000 miles. The rig was meticulously maintained by the original owner and was only used on vacations so mostly highway miles. This rig has a 1.5" lift with 16 inch BF Goodrich Mud terrain tires. The only mods in the engine compartment that I know of is a helix throttle body spacer. Since this is a family vehicle, I am looking for a good balance between performance and fuel efficiency. I love the tires because we live in the mountains on gravel where it snows a lot but the vehicle seems to be underpowered and is only getting about 11 MPG. I am looking for some advise on where to start (chips, exhaust, intake) to make this rig run well and increase my mileage. I am a working father of 5 and do not have a lot of money, so I need to do this in stages as my budget allows. The rig needs catalytic converters currently. I would appreciate someone giving me a link to information or order of steps on where to start. Thank you, EDS

If you live somewhere where they do emissions tests you will need to keep the cats but if not, I'd remove them and get a non restrictive exhaust.
Upgrade to a better intake, even a K&N drop in filter would help you out some.
And rather than just a chip, I've been hearing a lot about BBT, everyone here says they are MUCH better than just a chip.

My Two Cents as your looking to do pretty much exactly what I am looking to do.

You may also wish if you want a bit better economy and a bit more power to look at these.
Electric Fans
Replace Your Ignition System (spark plugs, spark wires, dist rotor, dist cap, pcv valve)
And a few more things like this.

just installed electric fans today on my hoe, i dont care about the mileage increase as it says, but damn i can feel the power and i can officially burnout at dead stop, not to bad for a 5thous lb beast hun??

Where do you live? If they do not require Inspections (Like SC) then remove the Cats, and buy you a set of magnaflow mufflers and have a good exhaust shop weld you some dual exhaust up. This will help the Hoe breath better.

Best place for exhaust parts is here- www.performanceexhaustplus.com

Next, Check your Air Filter, Oil, Oil Filter, Gas Filter, ECT...For how clean or dirty they are. Replace as needed to make sure everything is in good shape. Don't forget about the plugs and wires. I would go ahead and replace those as well if it hasn't been done in a while. Also like mentioned above, Rotor, Cap, Dist, ECT...

Last I would talk to Black Bear Performance. They should be able to hook you up with a good tune that allows you to get a MPG increase as well add some power to your ride as well. Things like, CAI, and free flowing exhaust will add to the power a MPG increase with the tune.