Archives

In March ( I know, its months away) I am going to be driving from Kitchener to Sault Ste Marie in Ontario. The trip is about 8 hours. I will be driving with my girlfriend and her two girlfriends there and back. If I were driving by my self or just my girlfriend then I could probably hypermile all the way there with easy, but considering Ill have two extra bodies and more luggage, ill have a hard enough time with just my little 1.5L engine.

My question is this: Has anyone had any experience hypermiling with more weight and (im sure this will come up too) three people telling me I drive like a grandpa or speed up this will take forever?

I will try my best to get the best mileage I can with what I can do, but any helpfull hints would be appreciated, or am I screwed!

At this point, cut your losses. You wont be able to pulse and glide all the way there, but you should be able to hypermile nonetheless. with the extra weight, your car will behave differently, so just keep in mind that for accelerating, you'll be running higher rpms, you'll be able to coast longer too. For the highway stretches, dwl, dwl, dwl.

Here is what I have been trying in situations like that.
Pick an instant MPG range to stay in, drive by that range and not the speedometer.

Example: Just yesterday had a similar situation.
Car so loaded only room for 3 of us. (Largest/heaviest load I have ever had in the car)
Heavy traffic, speed limit 70mph.
130 miles each way, with a time line to keep.

I tried to keep my instant MPG in a range 41mpg + or – only 1mpg. Paying only minimal attention to my speed.
If instant FE went over 42mpg I would push it a little harder picking up speed. I would also give up speed on the hills. It became a fun game to see how much speed I could pick up without dropping my FE below 40mpg.
My average speed range was 60-68mph. speed would sometimes drop to 55mph and sometimes go over 70mph.

I picked 41mpg instant FE (+-1) knowing it would give me the speed range I wanted. Find the number that fits the speed you want to keep.

Note: it takes a lot of attention to everything to keep FE in a range that small. So hopefully the 3 girls will keep them selves entertained leaving you to concentrate on keeping the FE #’s up.



Or more simply put:
At this point, cut your losses. You wont be able to pulse and glide all the way there, .....
..... ..... . For the highway stretches, dwl, dwl, dwl.

Hmmm... 3 girls? Perhaps you can make the trip more worthwhile... hehe...

Hmmm... 3 girls? Perhaps you can make the trip more worthwhile... hehe...

Personally the hell with gas mileage drive the speed limit with the cruise control on and just try to have some patience dealing with the three of them in the car. :rolleyes:

Don't forget that the 48 state world record was done with a total of 3 people in the car. Try to go for a route with few stops since extra weight matters most with stop-and-go driving.

Personally the hell with gas mileage drive the speed limit with the cruise control on and just try to have some patience dealing with the three of them in the car. :rolleyes:

No kidding, you'll probably be stopping once per hour cause one of them will need to go to the bathroom. Anyways on an 8 hour drive, hypermiling on that distance really can add an hour to the trip, plus with the added stops you'd be turning it into a 10 hour trip.

I'd just go the speedlimit and try not to accelerate while going up hills.

You do have a captive audience. You can offer to show them how to hypermile. Let them do some of the driving. If you can get them to pitch in on the fuel you can recover your monetary losses. Tell them the better they drive the less overall fuel cost which means more money for fun. It's only 16 hours out of your life. Enjoy the ride. - Dale

My passengers have been impressed that I can calculate their exact contribution for gas with SGII.

If you want to have a little fun, do it by weight. ;)

I drove cross country this summer by myself, then picked up my wife and two 11 yr old girls and all their luggage. We drove the whole length of Florida with cruise control set at 55 mph and cycling the AC on and off. I still got the worst mileage of the whole trip (about 40 mpg for four tanks), with the extra weight, no P&G opportunities, and E10 gas. My only tank that was significantly worse, was the one where I was running late to a meeting with friends, and drove at 70 mph for 70 miles. My mileage for that tank dropped to 33 mpg.

No kidding, you'll probably be stopping once per hour cause one of them will need to go to the bathroom. Anyways on an 8 hour drive, hypermiling on that distance really can add an hour to the trip, plus with the added stops you'd be turning it into a 10 hour trip.



Thats a good point, I didnt think of that. Ill probably get hunger too. But I think that abcdpeterson had the best plan. Im not sure what kind of roads ill be driving on, I have never driven there before but my car could probably do about 40 mpg without to much trouble, might even be able to get abit better if the weather is warm when I go.

Hmmm... 3 girls? Perhaps you can make the trip more worthwhile... hehe...

You have no idea! :cool:

You have no idea! :cool:

Pics please. :D - Anonymous (darn smiley face is gonna give me away. I know it.)

I would set the cruise to whatever yields the best MPG and leave it at that. My wife tuned her car off at a red light and her girlfriend was like what the hell are you doing. I typically don’t get into that when driving other people as it will not affect your overall average by much.

I would set the cruise to whatever yields the best MPG and leave it at that. My wife tuned her car off at a red light and her girlfriend was like what the hell are you doing. I typically don’t get into that when driving other people as it will not affect your overall average by much.

When your wife's girlfriend doesn't turn her car off at the red light, or speed, your wife should then ask her "What the hell are YOU doing?"

A friend of a neighbor would come over to visit and leave the car running the ENTIRE time, (1/2 hr to 1hr or more). Could you imagine my surprise leaving to go to the store, the car is running, then coming back home and the car is still running? I've NEVER EVER seen that car off. :eek:

This is while the friend is inside the house mind you.

I just though of a parody video of this trip.

Echoman drives unfased while three girls dressed like Lady Gaga are ranting in a satire of Poker Face. :D :eek:

"He hypermiles with a Po Po Po Po Po Poker Face...."

:eek: Dude, For a well spent bucks. Rent a bigger car.
You will never fit their luggage alone.
And showing off your hypermiling skills goes much better in a comfortable car.
Better than driven slowly for 8 hrs. in the back seat of your Echo. (No hit on the Echo intended)
Carrentals.com has intermediate sized cars for less than $20 bucks a day in Kitchener.
Depending on dates and return times, There are some great bargains in rentals.
You will definitely be a happier 4some.
:Banane48:
:Banane59:
________
FOXXMATURESEXY (http://camslivesexy.com/cam/FOXXMATURESEXY)

I would set the cruise to whatever yields the best MPG and leave it at that. My wife tuned her car off at a red light and her girlfriend was like what the hell are you doing. I typically don’t get into that when driving other people as it will not affect your overall average by much.

I would but my car does not have cruise. I have shut my car off when going down hills, and my girlfriend doesnt like it at all so I wont be doing that.

I thought about renting a hybrid but will see when the time comes. I have only drivin hybrids at work for short trips and dont have much experince in hypermiling them. But I think I will be driving my Echo, unless I can get a great deal on a rental hybrid. :D

:( Sad to say. Hybrids are premium rate rentals. :(

I would love to rent to try them out.

I just did a 1000 solo mile round tripper to Maine and back in early Nov.
Rental car. Tried to get a hybrid. Wasn't worth the price difference.

Best of Luck on your trip.
________
Naughty_woman (http://www.girlcamfriend.com/cam/Naughty_woman/)

I have also found that with 4 people and loggage, my car is pretty louded. I have in the past put 91 octane in the tank, just to help out. Yes it is more expensive, but I I found that, mostly in traffic, it helps eliminate pinging and gives me boost. If I do this, cause I just might have too, will it increase or decrease the mileage on the trip? Ill have to find out what kind of roads ill be driving on too, just to help be more accurate.

What's appropriate might depend on just what the added load *is*.
If the additional load is significant, you might not want to
get into calculations based on weight, because the two other
passengers might be, uh, sensitive about it. On the other end
of the spectrum, you might face certain additional distractions,
esp. when maintaining your 360-awareness...
.
_H*

Hm, I dunno how they'd take tour normal driving style. My girlfriend is well educated, she even has an account here, she still hates when I P&G with her as a passenger on normal, level roads. She told me that it doesn't bother her what I do in town, but a 45 minute P&G trip on the freeway was too much for her. Well, sometimes even I can't stand it (but it keeps me awake back home after night shifts, plus it lets me handle the faster traffic on the freeway much better than steady slow speed so it's excellent in regards of safety then!).

As for riding with passenger - Teresa (650cc single) is still plenty strong for me 2-up, Ciliegia (250cc V-twin) feels the extra weight pretty much especially that I'm wired against high revs :o That little beast could jump if I revved her more, redline is at 12k which I never approach...

And it looks to me that the extra weight (and air drag?) takes about the same toll on the FE in absolute terms regardless of my riding style (or maybe it's even worse for P&G), so in relative terms our bikes can benefit less from P&G when riding 2-up + luggages - so I can leave most of highway P&G without moral issues then :D

I've got as high as 48 MPG in my '97 Ford Escort wagon (old EPA highway 37 MPG) driving with the c/c set at 55 MPH with three people in the car and the complete area behind the rear seat full of luggage, a 75-100 lb. tool box and anything else my wife could find to throw in the car, with approximately 50 miles of mountain driving. So I'll go along with the suggestion of finding a speed you're comfortable with and using the c/c. Try to pick a speed slow enough that everyone will be passing you instead of you catching up with others and having to turn off and reset the c/c all the time.

I went back and read some of the prevoius posts after making my post and found out you don't have c/c. If you are pretty mechanically minded you can buy a Panasonic CCS-100 cruise control for under $100. and install it yourself. I just added one to both my '88 Escort GL and my '02 Escort SE about a month ago. If you decide to go that route, I'd suggest starting the install when you have all day to do it without having to worry about being in a rush. Depending on how much disassembly and reassembling you have to do as to how long the install will take.

I went back and read some of the prevoius posts after making my post and found out you don't have c/c. If you are pretty mechanically minded you can buy a Panasonic CCS-100 cruise control for under $100. and install it yourself. I just added one to both my '88 Escort GL and my '02 Escort SE about a month ago. If you decide to go that route, I'd suggest starting the install when you have all day to do it without having to worry about being in a rush. Depending on how much disassembly and reassembling you have to do as to how long the install will take.

I thought about installing CC but I desided against it. Iv read lots on this website that, while it can come in handy and can help with mileage, it might be better just to not have it or if you already do, not to use it to much. I do like the idea of staying at a steady speed or trying to keep certain mileage as I go. Like I said in an earlier post ill have to do some research to see what kinds of roads im up against before im really sure.

For what it's worth, I don't really miss cruise control in my Insight. After beginning to hypermile I stopped using that feature on my Elantra, though it was nice to set it every once in a while to rest/stretch my shin/ankle for a few seconds on a long drive. Long distance P&G gives you quite a workout... last time I did it for 330mi straight. :p

It isn't quite so bad if you just do steady state and the seating position is comfortable. I did use the cruise control in Laurie's HCH when I drove it but in that car I had to drive without my shoes because the seat wouldn't go back far enough for me to have my knee get around the steering wheel properly with them on. It wasn't a comfortable position at all.

Iv never owned a car with it so I really dont know what im missing. My parents have it in there cars but when I am driving there cars I dont really use it anyway. I do drive alot on the highway, so it might be nice to have once in awhile, but I still dont think I will use it to much.

Cruise Control> Driving to/from NC/PA using it rocks in the Sedona. It's a 460 mile drive. The failing of my Elantra is that cruise is vacuum based... and there's a leak somewhere, pretty much making it useless. So I've gotten used to not having it in my car(s).