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hey, don't know how much time I'll spend here, but thought I'd post an intro. Being a hypermiler in stark contrast to my NASCAR driving namesake. I drive a 96 Ford Ranger, 4-cyl manual 5-speed on a paper route. Daily mileage is 41-43 miles. A lot of low speed driving in 1st & 2nd while I windmill newspapers out the window onto driveways, and stopping at apartment buildings to run upstairs and deliver one or two, then drive 20 yards to the next building. I've always gotten around 16 MPG, maybe 15 in winter. Gas is 1/4th of my paycheck.

Saw a report on the news, looked up hypermilers on the web, and read the Mother Jones article, the wikipedia article. Got some expensive "real gas, no ethanol" gasoline, and tried driving less agressively, and got 17.4 MPG on that tank. Tried the pulse-and-glide technique, filled tires to 35 PSI and shutting the engine off at long stops, and got 21 MPG.

I wish everyone who does any kind of delivery would learn to do this, in fact everyone in the country should learn fuel efficient driving, and save our national gasoline usage by 25%. Would be interested in hearing from anyone who does delivery. I'm curious about use of engine heaters to pre-warm engine, and their availability and effectiveness.

Welcome - there was another fellow posting a few months back who had a paper delivery route.

Your improvement is quite impressive.

In winter, MPG is simply destroyed on short trips before the engine is fully heated - you may want to consider a engine block heater or a making a grill block (when winter comes around there will be lots of talk on this subject here.

Is there any possiblity that you can park the car at one end of the street - have a bike in the back and use it for a round the block mission ? (expecially in real stop and go areas ) ?


Wayne is the resident expert on Rangers - he'll be able to communicate his experience.

You can probably go much higher than 35psi on the tires. Check the limit stamped on the sidewall, but I noticed a big difference going up to 50psi (mine are stamped for 44).

I had a paper route once.. but I walked it. Man that sucked. Talk about a tough introduction to the working world. :D

Maybe you can do one block at a time.. park, go up one side of the street and back the other, drive to the next block and repeat. Of course, I don't know how your route is set up, you might have to get creative.

Hi Mpmartin7:

___Welcome to CleanMPG!

___A paper route … I do not think you are ready yet for a low speed P&G assault on your route but at the slow speeds you must be traveling, I know some of us are just drooling ;) If your papers are wrapped and ready to throw, you should be able to handle the stick and the key for some long FAS’ while gliding down and tossing your product. Always Clutch or Bump start to save your 12V for the actual stops.

___From the sound of it, you are on the right track with some basics. Bring up your tire pressures to maybe 44 and try and stay out of first. You can bring your Ranger up in second from 3 to 4 mph or over with a careful foot and as you need more speed, keep applying more accelerator up to the shift point. First is the killer so only use that when moving away from a dead stop. Do not idle while you run into the apt buildings as that one will kill you. Shut down but you had better be watching your 12V via ScanGauge or VOM hard wired to the terminals because with the limited ICE-On times for charging in the low speed glides, your 12V is going to take a beating :( Other than that, I think it would be a fun ride actually :) Any chance you could save time on a bike instead or is your route spread all over town?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

After 40 years in the newpaper business. I do understand the carriers problem. I don;t know what newpaper he delivers but most newpapers have gotten so large and heavy it is even difficult to do park and loop with a bicycle. The average daily paper weighs 1 pound and a sunday any where from 3 pounds to 7 pounds. If you have a 300 paper route you could have 900 to 2100 pounds on a sunday. try carrying that on a bike. Back in the 1960 most daily papers weighed 1/3 of a pound or so. This is why you don't see youth carriers much any more.

hehe, i did learn this... and i get about 28mpg on my saturday night (sunday) route over 36 miles. monday-saturday (32 miles) i get 70 mpg. hehe, i love my scoot! (http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/7249/cat/546) :D

25%. Would be interested in hearing from anyone who does delivery. I'm curious about use of engine heaters to pre-warm engine, and their availability and effectiveness.

Hi MPmartin

I am a courier and drive over 200 miles a day, city and highway.
I drive a minivan and before hypermilin' I got mabye 20 mpg.
When I started HM I was getting mid 26 mpgs, after I got a scan guage I have been getting more mpgs as I have been able to see what works for using less gas.
my last tank was 29 mpg and the best run was 80 miles and almost 32 mpg!
Pretty good for a v6 and automatic, plus sometimes I get heavy payloads too.
I am at the mercy of dispatch however, if I get nice long runs out of town, I do really good, if I have to slog through the city all day, my numbers go down. My next vehicle will probably be a small pickup with a stick. fas ice off coasting and P&G would definitely help my city mileage!

I have a engine heater on mine, I have never tried it, but am planning on it this year when it gets colder, never knew cold engines suck fuel til I found this forum!

MT