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This is my first post and my first tank that I've tried to implement coasting, cruising, low to no idle, and avoiding stop and go traffic. I've had to leave an extra 10-15 minutes early but that's okay. My wife supports me but thinks I'm crazy a bit. She's got a 2007 Civic EX rated at like 30/40 and i've been trying to get her to hypermile a bit but "lead-foot lucy's" not biting.

Just filled up the Expedition's tank today for the first time since July 2nd which was 11 days ago. I've never gone more than 7 or at the very most 8 without filling up. I've got a 28 gallon tank at $4.00+ per gallon before subtracting GetGo discounts. This tank cost me $101.08 - the most I've ever spent, but it was on 27.3 gallons. I've never taken my truck that close to the brink before. I did get an extra 175 - 200 miles out of the last tank. I averaged about 16-17 mpg overall (about a 22% increase on my first try - pretty good). My manuf. promise is 12/16 (14mpg overall) I believe. This makes me only marginally happy.

I'll try to push it even further next. Perhaps using some indirect drafting or going from 50 to 45 on the highway. But boy do they want to kill me at 50 already. On a 4 lane I drive in the lane two over from the passing lane. This way I don't block those trying to merge on or those trying to get off.

I notice of course that I eat up massive amounts of gas in the city. My guage barely even moves when I just hit the freeway over a couple of days with 45 mile round trips. But just going 4 miles away in the city to pick up some groceries or ice cream is brutal on my tank - even with minimal stop and go's and light accelerating. I did notice on this particularly secluded 30MPH stretch I reached about 38MPG. That was exciting. Sometimes my coasts can get that high too. A few times I had a coast get above 50mpg for extended periods when leaving the freeway and making it on the marginal to the light. THAT was sweet.

I hope to get closer to 18 miles per gallon with this next tank. Everything is becoming second nature now and I'm moving more fluently between strategies. My ultimate goal is 20 mpg. That would be like 560 miles per tank. I'd be able to make it a full 3 weeks to a month with that. I'm gonna change my air filter tomorrow. I don't think it's been changed in a couple of years. Perhaps I'll take off my luggage rack...perhaps. We'll see. Any more helpful suggestions would be great.

Nailzz Out

With a vehicle like this I suggest making sure your tires are pressed up to the max sidewall. Surely with the vehicle being as heavy as it is and with minimized rolling resistance that car could coast for quite a while? I'm not so sure about a Fas (check to see if it can be flat towed, especially of concern since you say it's a 4x4) but certainly coasting in neutral is a decent option.

Where are you located, geographically, I am curious?

Welcome to the forum! My brother-in-law has the exact same SUV, but a 4x2, to haul his family around, but I have not been able to turn him into a hypermilier yet. You are off to a good start and there's a wealth of knowledge here to tap into to get you to that 20 MPG target. Your continued success should eventually rub off on your wife, mine finally conceded that it is less stressful to "go with the flow", and no longer speeds, but she came to that conclusion herself after I stopped harassing her. Keep in mind that every 1 MPG you improve saves twice the gas as 1 MPG improved on the Civic, so you have great potential to save $$ and reduce your carbon footprint. If you haven't already check out this link done by lamebums for great info http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12761

With a vehicle like this I suggest making sure your tires are pressed up to the max sidewall. Surely with the vehicle being as heavy as it is and with minimized rolling resistance that car could coast for quite a while? I'm not so sure about a Fas (check to see if it can be flat towed, especially of concern since you say it's a 4x4) but certainly coasting in neutral is a decent option.

Where are you located, geographically, I am curious?

My coast is out of control sweet. I can begin coasting a 1/4 mile out from the off ramp and then coast the marginal all the way to the light which is about another 1/4 mile to a 1/2 mile with plenty of force to spare once I hit the corner.

I'm in Northeast Ohio...

If you haven't already check out this link done by lamebums for great info http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12761

Thanks for the welcome and yes I've read that thread...it's got great info.

Do you have any external accessories like bug shields, roof racks, etc? Those things could hurt your mpg. Empty the vehicle of unnecessary weight. If your rear seats can be removed via latches and you have a safe place to store them you should remove them to reduce vehicle weight unless they will be used regularly. With a vehicle your size, every little bit will help. I'd consider filling the gas tank 1/2 way, drive down to a little below 1/4 tank and add fuel to get it roughly to 1/2 again. This will reduce the amount of weight from the fuel. This is nearly pointless in small vehicles with small gas tanks but would be worth a tire with a gas tank as big as yours. At this point you'd lose money if you sell it to buy something smaller. If you've paid it off in full I'd say pocket your vehicle's monthly payment in a separate account to be used for a downpayment on another vehicle when you're ready. Then you can trade in your Expedition along with a downpayment which would reduce your monthly payments on a more efficient vehicle.

jeez! i wish i could get 500+ miles to a tank! that would be sweet! that would be almost 50mpg! haha sorry, just amazed me. i only see round 360 MPT. course i fill up with 11 gallons haha

tire pressure, extra weight removed, and try getting ur fuel filter changed, if it hasnt already, run a 1/4 tank or less with seafoam before u change it tho, get out some carbon deposits. that n try the HM techniques. try talking to someone on here with a car like urs to get some extra tips

sailordave is right about the amt of fuel you put in your tank. it's worth it.

Here’s the question: Is hypermiling primarily the ability to get as many miles per gallon as possible out of your vehicle OR is hypermiling primarily the ability to get as much time as you can between fill ups?

The reason I ask is because while implementing techniques I’d been able to get between 18 and 20 miles per gallon out of my 4x4 V8 5.4L Ford Expedition. For my wallet that still wasn’t good enough. I went from spending about 450.00 per month to about 250.00 per month. Respectable but again, not good enough. So I went from 250 miles per tank to about 450 miles per tank. I was still refilling every 10-14 days (up from every 6 days) though. So I decided to drive only to the train station and to take the train station the 40+ round trip to the office. Of course I get less miles per gallon because I primarily drive in the city now BUT I can go 50-75% longer on a tank of gas AND I was able to drop an extra 100.00 off of my monthly fuel costs. Here’s my breakdown over the summer when I first started Hypermiling.

July 2, 2008 – 312 miles (odometer 111923 - 11 mpg)

July 12, 2008 – 381 miles (odometer 112304 – 14 mpg)

July 24, 2008 – 458 miles (odometer 112762 – 20 mpg)

August 4, 2008 – 433 miles (odometer 113195 – 16.4 mpg)

The fluctuations are caused by getting “jammed” a few times from not thinking ahead. You know how you go to a store and then realize that you need to go to the post office too and should have done it earlier when you past it? Now you have to go all the way back across town. I kept getting hit with things like that but I’m getting better.

Since the beginning of August I’ve been taking the train into work. It’s a hassle, especially on the way home in the evening with all the crazies but you gotta do what you gotta do. Now I can go between 25 and 30 days between fillups which were about 80.00 or so before the economy went into the toilet. Now I'm looking at between 40.00-60.00 per month to fill up my tank. Add 70.00 for the monthly transit pass and I'm looking at between 110.00 and 130.00 per month. That's a far cry from the 450.00 I used to pay. That figure just sickens me even now.

Going forward I'm looking for a more fuel efficient option in the future. By the time I'm ready to buy, I should have more options available. While the newer options have competing leg and headroom, the hip room (amongst other intangibles) just isn't the same which means my knee will be banging up against the console or my foot will be completely swallowing the accelerator - dont' even get me started on the foot well issues.

A supersized EV SUV. It gets 500 miles to the charge and seats 9. That's what I wish for!

The official answer to your question:
“Hypermiling” or “to hypermile” is to attempt to maximize gas mileage by making fuel-conserving adjustments to one’s car and one’s driving techniques. Rather than aiming for good mileage or even great mileage, hypermilers seek to push their gas tanks to the limit and achieve hypermileage, exceeding EPA ratings for miles per gallon.

as taken from Oxford University Press. (http://blog.oup.com/2008/11/hypermiling/).

...and the motivation behind Hypermiling is to reduce our overall oil consumption and mitigate the consequences of oil dependency.

So trips via train are the better option.

Keith

Right. If you do something that reduces your fuel economy by a little bit but reduces miles driven by a lot, using less fuel overall, that's great.