Hypermiling conditioning
 

Well I'm on vacation and about 400 miles from home, testing my H skills... and well... they still suck.LOL

We took my wife's 100% stock Toyota Corolla to see if I can better my mileage(Coeur d' Alene ID to Port Townsend WA. Last time on the same route I averaged 39MPG Today my best again was 39.99 mpg (65mph average speed). I even drafted (to a point not to upset the cargo van's driver in front of me) for 200 miles. I thought for sure I would have my first 40mpg with this car. But no.:confused: I still need to put some more miles on tomorrow and see where I'm at but it will probably be not good. I had to go over two passes, one that's 4000'. But I'm still happy with the mileage considering I haven't messed with this car. Its a good thing because there's always a chance something could go wrong and leave us stranded.

All you have to do is slow down 5 mph.

took the words right out of my mouth..er...keyboard

39MPG is nothing to sneeze at.

What techniques were you using besides drafting? There's not a lot of useful techniques for highway driving. Reducing speed is an obvious one, but unlike other types of driving it actually adds up to your trip taking longer. On hills you can do some P&G...or if you're really patient and there's not a lot of other traffic you can do it on level land. Other than that it's tire pressure and aerodynamic modifications.

Yeah I know but we were like everone else late:o . It will get about 41 mpg at 60mph. But the trafic around us is all doing around 80mph on the freeway so I try to stay close to the 70mph posted to not get ran over.

Totally true. There is not to much you can do.
I did use a lot of P&G when I could going through the small towns and on the hills. Plus I found out it gets great mileage when aboard a ferry.LOL
The Seattle area has a ton of bike people and people that walk, its very pleasing to know that people still walk and bike to get around in the great USA.

Update:

On my second stage we got 36.50 this was about 30% city and 70% freeway.
So I need some more improvements on Hypermiling.

I'm curious to know more details as to the kind of elevation changes you're dealing with. Are we talking long amounts of time into the wind and/or up varying grades of incline?

Just got back Home:)

996.7 miles total

1st stage 39.99 mpg
2nd stage 36.50 mpg
3rd stage 40.6 mpg
4th stage 39.12 mpg

We went over two major passes, Stevens Pass 4061 feet, and Snoqualmie pass 3022 feet.

But the whole time it is up and down in elevation with lots of large hills.

The route taken

https://www.mapquest.com/mq/2-RpkGr3G*

EDIT:

One thing that I find very interesting is how much ambient temperature can affect your fuel mileage.

On my last stages (98*F) I had my AC on with windows up and thought that my mileage would suffer a lot. To my surprise it turned out to be the two best legs of this adventure. There has to be a way to harness this when temps are on the cool side???

It seems that this is caused by a rather large variety of factors. The only factor that I think can be duplicated is intake air temperature; that's what a WAI (Warm Air Intake) is for.

It is generally agreed that A/C is less loss than open windows at highway speed.

Re: Hypermiling conditioning
 

The idea behind hypermiling is constantly pushing the limits of energy efficiency. If you think it is more or less just slow down and drive less aggressively, they are wrong. bitter hypermilers employ various techniques and measures to carry out dangerous or illegal in their quest for ultimate energy savings.

Re: Hypermiling conditioning
 

Happy hypermilers generally limit themselves to safe practices.

Re: Hypermiling conditioning
 

Somebody must have skipped breakfast huh Mr. crankypants?:)
I do agree on the highway speed thing though, I'll put the cruise on 70 here (flat FL) and I'll have people blow by me. Sixty on any major highway with a seventy limit can be dangerous.
Then again I've been going about ninety plus on an open stretch of I-75 and had an Audi R8 blast by at what I would guess to be one-fifty or so! I might have caught him if not for the darn rev-limiter in the Mazda.
Not!:(

Jim

Re: Hypermiling conditioning
 

@Kristinthomas21 - hypermiling does not automatically involve anything illegal. Here at GasSavers we do NOT encourage ANYTHING illegal or dangerous.

We do encourage better driving techniques, slowing down, and modifications to one's vehicle, including but not limited to fluid, lubrication, aerodynamics, and mechanical changes to help.

Most changes help monetarily as well, some do not. I don't know why anyone would want to be a bitter hypermiler, but I personally am a very happy hypermiler. I drive a Honda CRX and consistently get over 50% better mileage than the EPA estimates for the vehicle without doing a single thing that is illegal.

In nearly all freeway situations it is illegal to go lower than 20 miles per hour under the posted speed limit. In a few locations, notably Virginia, it's illegal to put your vehicle into neutral to coast, or turn off the engine of your vehicle while driving.

GasSavers' goal is to educate and help people achieve better fuel economy and to use less gas, with added goals of getting off foreign oil dependency.

Re: Hypermiling conditioning
 

I believe that law is quite common, and is usually limited to downhill...nothing about level land or uphill (not that I do much uphill coasting).

As for minimum speeds...legal or not, 19mph below the speed limit on freeways around here is quite dangerous. All I'm willing to risk is 5mph below the limit, and only at the bottom of a P&G cycle. Perhaps speed limits are more generous or drivers are more obedient elsewhere.

Re: Hypermiling conditioning
 

Watching traffic closely, and coasting ( I have a stick-shift) as much as possible helps. It does sometimes piss off the car behind you, when he is in a hurry to get to the red light. The real idea is drive to minimize brake usage. The laws here about driving slow say something about impeding traffic, but give no hard numbers. So I do this less on single lane roads. I get away with -5 here no problems, even during rush hour. Our max here in northwest Ohio is 65.

Re: Hypermiling conditioning
 

Well said! Every time you brake, you discard energy that you already spent fuel to make; and then you'll need to spend fuel making that energy again.

Re: Hypermiling conditioning
 

memorize traffic signal durations and traffic patterns. time of day dictates what route i take as well.