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Hello everyone,
I came to your site by googling "Scangauge". I can see you are all very big supporters of the product. I drive a 2003 Toyota Tacoma. Not the most fuel efficient vehicle, I know. I bought the truck to enjoy driving to remote locations and camping.
I work for a Las Vegas based architectural firm that is very committed to sustainable, aka "Green", design. I've worked here for over a year now and the firm has shown me many ways to conserve with my daily life so I've decided it's time I start thinking outside the box and choose to build better driving habits.
What I am looking for by coming to this site are new xgauge options for my truck as the manufacturer offers very little vehicle specific information.
I am a member at another forum called www.Yotatech.com. It's mostly a 4x4 type of forum but being there I have learned how great these forums can be.
It seams there is a amazing bank of information here regarding the Scangauge so I know I'm in the right spot and I look forward to becoming a contributing member of this forum.

Thanks for your time
-Joe-

Edit: I guess I could also add I am a avid visitor to Terrapass.com and have purchased one for my truck.

Welcome to CleanMPG, Joe! It sounds like you're off to a good start, but also be sure to read the stickied posts in the Articles forum (linked on the left), even if they are for different vehicles/vehicle types as a lot of information crosses over.

Along with the SGII another low hanging fruit to pick is your tire pressure. Start by pumping them up to at least their maximum sidewall rating and go from there.

Welcome to you, Joe! I've got an sg ii on my wish list and, hopefully, will have one before too long. From EVERYone here, it'll pay for itself in short order.

As has already been said, bumping those tire pressures to the Max Rated will be a great first step in increasing your fuel economy. Beyond that, be sure to read the article on hypermiling, to get some more suggestions. Those articles are full of quite useful and practical information.

Although I'm an Anglican Priest, I also work to support my family in a profession allied to yours. I'm a civil engineer/land surveyor by trade and have also been involved in quite a few green projects. One of my favorite was a coal culm (waste) co-generation facility not too far north of here. They currently have three steam hosts, and produce a nice amount of electricity. Since limestone is injected into the fuel stream, the resultant "waste" is an alkaline powder which is taken back to the site of the previous culm banks and spread to re-claim the landscape. It surely is one of those projects of which I'm most proud.

Do post lots, Joe, and let's learn how to do this thing together. Remember that hypermiling is essentially beating the EPA mileage estimates. While it's unlikely that you'll pull 50 or 60 mpg from your vehicle, you can easily do 125% of the EPA estimate just by employing a few of the tips available here.

Have a great one, and I do hope to see lots of you!

Pax,

Fr. John

Its definetly harder to hypermile in the lower mpg vehicles.

at 15mpg 5% is not even 1 mpg at 40mpg 5% improvement gets you 2mpg, so it is much harder to see the differences when you're starting at such a low initial number.

Even though the percentages are the same I think most people find it easier to get motivated by larger numbers. Juist stick with it and watch the percentages and you should see some good improvements.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I can't wait to become a hypermiler with my truck. I was afraid it was impossible until I found this site. I'll keep track of my numbers and post them up soon.

Welcome Joe,

If there's anything from your work that could be of general interest, be sure to let us know. in fact, if there are some crazier things from your work, be sure to let us know. A lot of us are keen on new developments in that kind of stuff.

Welcome to another NV driver--
I hear you on the remote camping, so much opens up with a high clearance 4x4 in this state, and thus I had to supplement my Scion with an older but very well-kept Pathfinder. To my delight, I've been averaging 19-20mpg with it on trips, and that's with aggressive tires and driving on 4x4 roads. May be headed your direction over spring break, am currently trying to climb all 17 county highpoints of NV, right now have summited 10, but think I can get the last 7 by September at the latest.

You mentioned thinking outside the box: check out this article/pics on an aero Toyota T100 truck: http://www.evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=870
Fantastic gains but of course you'd want those aero mods to be easily removable. Maybe something for after you've plateaud using hypermiling techniques. Cheers!