Hypermiling in the moutains with my Honda Fit

[Fit Freak]

Greetings from Asheboro!


My recent 11 day excursion to the mountains of NC yielded some excellent mpgs. It was also a crash (pardon the pun) course on how to handle hills.

My best runs were Asheville to Cherokee (46 mpg), and Asheville to Asheboro (46.4 mpg).
I wonder if Wayne could show me how to DWB going down a mountain? He probably pushes his car up and coasts down!

My total trip was 42.1 mpg, which included plenty of in city driving in an unfamiliar place. This was my average on approximately 3 tanks.

One thing I learned fairly quickly is that too little acceleration up hills is a definite mileage killer. My Fit seems to prefer a LOD reading of 60-70, and definitely no more than 80. However, some of the grades made this impossible, and I had to go for and LOD of 90 or more to maintain my speed.

Since my hometown of Asheboro, NC is quite hilly, the experience I gained in the mountains has helped me tick my miles up a bit.

I've keep seeing small gains in MPG with each tank. I'm averaging about 42 with a lot of city driving. I'm in search of at least one tank with 50 mpg. My best Hwy trips are still just 47-48 mpg. It's hard to hit that 50 mpg mark!


Sincerely,


Tom "Fit Freak" in Asheboro.

[Ophbalance]

Alright, we'll fill this place up with people from NC yet . I only really traverse I40 for the better part of my trips, and that's relatively flat as compared towards to going out towards Asheboro.

[WhatIsChazaq]

Y'all have "mountains" out there?

[Ophbalance]

Compared to Colorado, no. But western NC, West Virginia, PA are all home to the Appalachians. I would think they are classified as mountains .

[WhatIsChazaq]

Just being a Colorado Rocky Mountain Snob...sorry about that.

[applemac*fit]

Originally Posted by WhatIsChazaq

Just being a Colorado Rocky Mountain Snob...sorry about that.

I miss Colorado. I'm from there. I hear a lot about people going hiking around here. I'm like, "Where? There are no mountains here!"

I'm certain I'd be getting worse FE if I had to drive the I-70 corridor often - like Denver to Vail or something. Ouch

[A024523]

Tom, those are some great numbers! I have relatives out there, so I know what you mean about the hills. I have found DWL effective going up, and staying in the highest gear if possible. That 50 MPG target is possible because there are other FITs that have achieved that, but will be especially challenging on hilly terrain. Good luck!

[litesong]

We bought my wife's manual 2008 Hyundai Accent early December 2007. My wife's tough commute got 30 to 32MPG, rising a bit as the weather warmed in the spring 2008. Finally, I got to take her Accent on 3 day trips over 1400, 3000, 4000, & 5500 foot mountain passes, to 101 degree E. Washington, & Mt. Rainier. Three tanks were 41.5, 42.6, & 45.1 MPG.

The Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, & Accent have similar gearing in both manual & automatic versions.

Try as best you can without over accelerating, to get speeds up BEFORE starting up a hill...even a bit MORE than your usual pace. As the hill begins to lift, keep your speed. Losing speed at the bottom of the hill is worse than beginning the hill with low speed(you are yo yoing your speed--very bad). As you reach the steepest part of the hill let your speed very evenly reduce till at the very top of the hill you are going a bit BELOW your usual pace. Only on the very flat of the hilltop, bring your velocity back to your normal pace very easily. If the hill immediately descends, don't use your motor to bring your speed up again, but let the hill give your speed back to you.

You are trying to exchange some of your extra kinetic energy at the bottom of the hill(motion energy), for potential energy(energy at the top of the hill). This energy exchange allows the engine NOT to operate at a high level(takes MPG away), which the engine has to do if you have to accelerate up a hill.

This procedure is called flattening out the hill & does NOT save MPG. But it keeps you from losing lots of MPG, while the engine operates at a high level.

[litesong]

We bought my wife's manual 2008 Hyundai Accent early December 2007. My wife's tough commute got 30 to 32MPG, rising a bit as the weather warmed in the spring 2008. Finally, I got to take her Accent on 3 day trips over 1400, 3000, 4000, & 5500 foot mountain passes, to 101 degree E. Washington, & Mt. Rainier. Three tanks were 41.5, 42.6, & 45.1 MPG.

The Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris, & Accent have similar gearing in both manual & automatic versions.

Try as best you can, to easily get speeds up BEFORE starting up a hill...even a bit MORE than your usual pace. As the hill begins to lift, keep your speed. Losing speed at the bottom of the hill is as bad as beginning the hill with low speed. As you reach the steepest part of the hill let your speed very evenly reduce till at the very top of the hill you are going a bit BELOW your usual pace. Only on the very flat of the hilltop, bring your velocity back to your normal pace very easily. If the hill immediately descends, don't use your motor to bring your speed up again, but let the hill give your speed back to you.

You are trying to exchange some of your extra kinetic energy at the bottom of the hill(motion energy), for potential energy(energy at the top of the hill). This energy exchange allows the engine NOT to operate at a high level, which the engine has to do if you have to accelerate up a hill.

This procedure is called flattening out the hill & does NOT save MPG. But it keeps you from losing lots of MPG, while the engine operates at a high level.

[johnwolak]

The best I can do so far is 40.2mpg. That is city and I only have about 1000miles on the Blue Meanie so far. The last time I was at the gas station I only put $15.00 of gas in it and that was on the 9/15/09