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Is anyone else hypermiling a minivan? I have a 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan with auto-trans and am getting about 23 mpg (EPA 23/16). If you have a minivan, what are your mileage figures?

My wife has started trying a couple techniques on our 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan and increased from 19MPG from 22.5MPG. That is according to the onboard trip computer. Mainly, she has backed off from rapid accelerations and limited the use of the A/C, which for her is kinda novel, since she is asthmatic and is quite accustomed to having cooler air.

Kudos to her!

We don't (yet) have an extra SgII for the Sedona, but we do the best we can. We also tend to run the A/C non-stop in the summer in the van. We also have asthmatics in the family, and tons of allergies. Plus, it's just not fun getting to your destination all sweaty as a family ;). I travel early enough in the morning for work in the car as to make it a non-issue. Driving with the windows cracked also makes it hard to have a conversation (though, in hindsight, this may not be a bad thing). My last tank was 20.5 (at least 50% city and mostly short trips), vs my 25 MPG (90% highway, long trip). The lowest is still 3 MPG better than what we were getting, so it's working to some extent.

I was actually surprised we did as well as we did towing the pop-up camper last Thanksgiving. We were getting low-to-mid teens from Northern Illinois to Tulsa, OK and back. Not sure whether I can use these techniques as effectively while towing. But, when we go down there we need somewhere to sleep that is free, since our destination is my sister's side yard. :)

I was able to do 21MPG in my mom's Town and Country in the city.

Usually the best you can hope for with late model minivans is mid to high 20s without "throwing the book at it", as Wayne says. The wife and I have owned minivans in the past - Dodge Caravans with the Mitsu V6 and 3 speed auto. Combined MPG would be upper-20s with mostly highway driving. Like any heavy vehicle, minivans do very well with DWB and DWL, and if the transmission is friendly, NICE-on coasting.

I had a recent drive in something even thirstier than a minivan. I had to drop some relatives off last month in Stroudsburg, PA. With all the people and luggage, it was decided we'd take their Mercury Mountaineer. Until they return this weekend, the FSP is sitting in my driveway. A Mountaineer is a blinged-out Explorer. This one is a V6 with PintoGlide automatic (Yes, Ford's 5 speed autobox is the old Pinto transmission with an extra planetary gearset in it). The owner said this thing only gets 14mpg highway! After everything was unloaded, I got the keys, reset the MPG in the trip computer (it did indeed say 14.1 avg after 120 miles of highway driving), and drove it home to park it. Using some moderate hypermiling tricks, the MPG meter read 21.1 when I got home and shut it down. EPA is 15/19 (pre-08), but I think the transfer case is dying, as the tires chirp and hop when you turn the wheel hard and accelerate from a stop. And coasting is awful - it feels like the e-brake is on. But even in this lowly state, I saw 10% over EPA, and a hard-earned 50% over the owner's everyday MPG.

Why share this SUV story in a minvan thread? Well, it shows that you can hypermile anything, and get at least 10% over EPA. This unique circumstance has an AWD 7 passenger SUV that probably has a chewed-up transfer case pulling 21mpg highway. A minivan in good condition, EPA rated somewhere around 21-24 highway (as most are) should hit 25-29 (20% improvement) or more on long stretches.

Remember that if you don't achieve this on your first shot, don't give up! Continue to experiment and refine your new driving techniques and see what works best for your vehicle and your route. Even 1mpg better is still an improvement. Going from 20 to 21mpg reduces your fuel cost by 4.8%, or $123 a year (12k miles/yr, $4.25/gal). Go from 20 to 24, and you're saving $425 a year using the same formula.

I have a windstar and when I first joined I went on a 250 mile run and got 26.2 mpg, (best so far) shortly after (next tank) an O2 sensor went out and I dropped to 13.2 that was devestating. I got that problem fixed and took the family on a trip to San Diego there was 5 of us and all of our "stuff" so lots of weight and AC of course got an average of 20 MPG. This was all done with the tires @ 44PSI roof racks removed. Since I don't have a soccer team to haul around I'm going to remove the rear bench seat. Have a scan gage on the way so we'll see what develops

I drive an older model: 1994 Dodge Caravan and got it up to 29mpg average over the last two fill ups. Vacuum gauge did wonders for me. Its mixed highway and city driving.

I don't know about later model minivans, but my car coasts great. 40psi, good wheel alignment and good tires.

I'll tell you what, speed makes a helluva difference in our van. We went to Wrightsville Beach in Wilmington, NC tonight. I went the speed limit due to time constraints for almost the whole trip. The trip down averaged 21.9 MPG. The trip back averaged about the same, but we had some major idle time that ate into the average. On the way back, half the trip was done at 57-62 MPH. Average was 23-26 MPG. The rest of the trip was spent at 69 MPH and the average dropped to 19-21 MPG. Oy, the Sedona is a brick ;). If I'd have spent the trip at 55 or under, it would have done 30 MPG.

Vacuum gauge did wonders for me.
Can you elaborate?

I'm gonna try it, wish me luck!:rolleyes:

Manifold pressure guage...

The best spot for the wife's Chrysler T&C 2001 is around 45mph - top gear and locked. It shows 34 mpg steady on the instantaneous. Once you get the mass rolling, it doesn't want to stop. I can do 27 mpg trips, but we're still only doing 23 per tank. It's not my car... I bet I can get 27-28 w/o too much work.

Even that lowly score is as good or better than most of what is out there now. It's not worth the purchase cost if I can only match or slightly better what a new (utility) vehicle can do. I'd like to stretch it 2-3 more years...

Another data point. Our '02 Honda Odyssey has repeated 28+ mpg on highway trips under 65mph, and averages just over 21 in mixed wifey errand driving. Just wish the trans would disengage and coast on downhills over 50mph.

Oh yeah, love the 250hp and great handling too!

Another data point. Our '02 Honda Odyssey has repeated 28+ mpg on highway trips under 65mph, and averages just over 21 in mixed wifey errand driving. Just wish the trans would disengage and coast on downhills over 50mph.

Oh yeah, love the 250hp and great handling too!
Similar results here, both for highway trips and daily errand driving. I usually only get to drive it on trips.

About the disengage issue: try giving it a little blip on the throttle. Mine will rev up a touch, drop back to wherever it was for a second or two, then drop down to idle. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, I just go Neutral.

I'm still working with the Windstar, my scan gage is great, I can see now that what I thought I was doing really wasn't very effective. The Windstar is really heavy and it takes alot of "JUICE" to get it goin'. When in town if you are creeping along to make a light you may be coasting at 35 MPG plus but when the trans is engaged in 1st or 2nd gear mpg goes down to <1 to 3 first gear, and 3 to 9 for second. Third gear gets you to 12 to 19 and after that it starts to come around to 20 plus. Pulse and glide seems to be the most effective technique. The longer the glide the better, the plus really sucks up the fuel.

After 3 weeks with my scangauge in my van, I am now able to pull low to mid 30s on my highway trips.
But since my average speed for my tanks is only around 28 mph, i cannot seem to get out of the upper 20s for tank averages. Anytime I have to stop and go, i lose alot of my fuel, that thing is such a beast to get it up to speed! :(

Ever think of a harpoon and a winch for that problem? ;)

Ever think of a harpoon and a winch for that problem? ;)

Not yet!:p

When it is time, I think I might take a poll here about how I should end its life!:D

I think the beast got a stay of execution today. Got Someone to actually fix my rear door.
it is almost a worthless thing without that back door!

I finished my worst tank since I got my sg, 26.8 mpg:mad: Way to much slow driving 28 mph average, plus not paying as much attention to the sg, hurt my FE this tank, kind of got discouraged, but then I go out and pull this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/mt%20pilgrims%20pics/35mpg-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/mt%20pilgrims%20pics/miles-2.jpg

My best run yet! from Chaska to fridley, almost double the new EPA!

Here is the key:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/Cyberfish8/mt%20pilgrims%20pics/avmph.jpg

Yep, higher average speed, with only a few stoplights makes all the difference, once up and running the beast is pretty tame, it is just taking off from stops , etc that kills my mpgs.
If I just had a normal job with a 30 mile mostly highways commute, I could really make a mockery of the epa in the d-van!;)

Way to go, Michael! I like the new avatar, too. :) :thumbs_up:

Thanks Sean! thats my Ovation accoustic electric. I got it 7 years ago from a friend. it is kind of cheap , but it looks and works pretty good!

I finished my worst tank since I got my sg, 26.8 mpg
MT,

My 2000 Grand Caravan has EPA mileage numbers (16/23) similar to your van's, but the best tank I've had is only 25.0 mpg. My driving is roughly half city, half highway, so I'm beating the EPA by about 20 percent.

How are you able to get such high FE numbers? Is your driving mainly on the highway, or on roads with few stop lights? Do you do FAS? Can you share some tips?

I finished my worst tank since I got my sg, 26.8 mpg
MT,
My 2000 Grand Caravan has similar EPA mileage numbers (16/23) to your van, but the best tank I've had is only 25.0 mpg. My driving is roughly half city, half highway, so I'm beating the EPA by only about 20 percent, compared to your 30 to 40%.

How are you able to get such high FE numbers? Is your driving mainly on the highway, or on roads with few stop lights? Do you do FAS? Can you share some tips?

MT,
My 2000 Grand Caravan has similar EPA mileage numbers (16/23) to your van, but the best tank I've had is only 25.0 mpg. My driving is roughly half city, half highway, so I'm beating the EPA by only about 20 percent, compared to your 30 to 40%.

How are you able to get such high FE numbers? Is your driving mainly on the highway, or on roads with few stop lights? Do you do FAS? Can you share some tips?

Hi Brett

I am new at this too,so the best thing would be to read the hows and whys of hypermiling and practice, that said, can tell you a few things I have learned with my van.
I am not sure what my % city driving is, probably similiar. my average speed per day is in the upper twenties. I am around 50 avg, on the highways.

Damage control
1.One thing that I learned from my scan gauge, (do you have one? they really help tell you what is going on!) Is my van, and probably all vans really take lots of gas to get going, so they are fsp s in the city!! I mainly try to ramp up great numbers on the highway and hope that together with the bad city numbers, i still get a pretty good average over all.

2.The main thing that kills my van FE is stopping, well, not actually the stop itself, but the getting going from the stop, but anyways, if you can plan your commute to avoid as much stoplights, signs, etc, that would help alot ! being a courier, I have no such option, so I take a hit when sent into the concrete jungle ;) So avoid stopping whenever possible, and legal. :)

3. Don't accelerate on a hill if you can possibly avoid it! All that weight takes lots of fuel to get moving! What I try to do is get any speed up before the hill and then try to keep my throttle at where I will keep my numbers on my mpg gauge at my target for the day (upper20s or lower 30s for us van drivers) Try to make it up holding those numbers, if you do, then you won't take a hit, but doing this you do lose speed, if the hill is too long or there is traffic concerns, then go up as far as you can doing this til you dont want to slow anymore, then hold that speed the rest of the way. yeah you will take a hit, but you at least did some damage control.
The worst is if you have to stop at the bottom of a hill, then climb, I don't know what to do, other than say goodbye to lots of gas! :( If you can plan a route around it, do it!

4. Parking. If you can find a place to park on a downgrade with nothing blocking you, that always helps. Sometimes If I am parked in the right spot I can just get in, put it in neutral and coast for a couple of blocks before I even have to start the pig! :)

5. Heavy stop and go on the highway. This used to be a real gas sucker for me, but since I learned about driving with buffers, leaving a large space in front of me for coasting in gear and avoiding braking as much as possible, I do not dread this scenario any longer! I rarely take much of a hit in my numbers doing this unless it is long and uphill. in fact I have seen small gains in my average if it is on a slight downgrade!

I hope this helps!
Get your numbers up on the highway, do some damage control in the city, get a scangauge to monitor your fuel usage, and your numbers should go up!

If any of the pros here see anything wrong with what I wrote here, please post corrections!
I am just learning and very likely could be wrong about something! thanks

MT

I don't see anything wrong with Michael's suggestions at all -- in fact, they are spot on!

Good job with the descriptions. :)

Brett, read what Michael wrote carefully -- he's got a firm grasp on how to get the most out of a van and he has to drive through all sorts of situations. The life of a courier is not easy! :eek:

The best way to hypermile with a minivan is not use it! Get a fuel efficient beater car like I did! At $2.65 / gal, gas was costing me $45 weekly tanks and I knew if gas went way higher I'd be killed! So I got lucky getting my 99 Civic HX M/T for $3500. So I only use my 1999 Grand Caravan Sport 3.3L for backup and hauling stuff. It rarely gets driven!

You just can't hypermile into 30 mpg city drving with any minivan because stop n go just kills your mpg. And my minivan got better mpg at 65 mph than 60. I'm never gonna drive 55 mph just for fuel economy.

The best way to hypermile with a minivan is not use it! Get a fuel efficient beater car like I did! At $2.65 / gal, gas was costing me $45 weekly tanks and I knew if gas went way higher I'd be killed! So I got lucky getting my 99 Civic HX M/T for $3500. So I only use my 1999 Grand Caravan Sport 3.3L for backup and hauling stuff. It rarely gets driven!



Well, yeah , that would save the most gas for sure, but some people may need to use a van.
I bought a $900 usede subcompact for my personal use that can get over 50 mpg. So I only use the van for work or hauling things. I tried using the car for my courier job but it really doesn't have enough cargo space.
I would really like to find a small pickup with a 4 cylinder and 5 speed. That would be a good compromise. I could pick up good loads, and get better FE too.
I got the van for free, so I want to milk it as much as possible!

A tough day for the D-van today, only 116 miles but all city slogging, a whopping 23 mph average speed!
I had to really use all the skills I have been learning to salvage a average mpg. of 27.7.
Below average, but still better than most cars are getting for city mpgs :D:rolleyes:

I hypermile a Compact SUV Honda CR-V 4WD the max I got out of it was 37.6 MPG

On an hour long road trip I was able to get 30 mpg out of our 97 Town and Country.
Without a wind blocker my van normally gets 22-23 mpg on the highway. With strategic use of rolling hills and a semi's slipstream (safe following distance of course) you can do a lot. I pick the slow ones around 62-64 mph. Traffic is light where I live and it generally doesn't cause any problems.

I have a roof rack that has two cross bars. I moved them as far aft as I could. I can't say for sure but it may cause a mild VG effect.

Had my best run yet today. 11 miles from Bloomington to downtown minneapolis

37.8 MPG!:eek::eek::eek: getting oh so close to 40! can it be possible? :p:p

Michael, you are really fun to read -- you know that? :D

Congrats! Go get 'em, guy!! :woot:

Hey, cool! I am glad you are enjoying my posts! :)I appreciate all your encouraging compliments!

Thanks!

MT

I did 32 mpg on a run today from minneapolis to coon rapids with 1000 pounds of cargo! :)

Wife went on business trip and I've got a van full of kids!

I put the scII in the '01 Chrysler T&C and getting 22mpg city (short trips) and almost 28 mpg highway - tank is 24 mpg. This is straight DWL with long rollouts in N when I can. It can do better, but I can't... Have not mastered P&G. Can't take any seats out since they're all used.

Indicating 34+ mpg on the highway (DWL) at indicated 56mph. Nice sweet spot there between 56-59 mph with the gearing. It gets decent mileage at enough speed to avoid being a rolling roadblock.

Top gear hits at ~45mph and I troll at that speed on local roads. Acceleration is at steady 1750-1900 RPM from a stop. The thing rolls like a demon.

Would love to bust 30 mpg tank with it, but it's gonna take some work...

We recently purchased an O4 Honda Odyssey, and though I haven't driven it much, it seems like it would be a friendly hypermiler. Let off the gas and the RPMs drop down to idle, and it coasts. Got 5speeds in the auto tranny too. It replaced an 00 Mazda MPV that was a total bastard of a vehicle and not friendly for increasing mpg. stupid 4spd tranny that held on to rpms no matter what. I can't wait to take the oddy on a long trip and see what I can do with it.

I actually like the Mazda trans that holds in top gear while decellerating to stops. Allows nice DFCO. If I want to coast I pop it in neutral.

Wife filled up the T&C for a 25mpg tank. Better.

I got another highway run to the airport yesterday and hit exactly 30.0 for the trip (2/3 highway - 40 miles). 59mph DWL kept us up with traffic. Very happy with that.

Got out of the van, pecked the wife on the cheek, and said, "Beat that!". She's very competitive.

Wife filled up the T&C for a 25mpg tank. Better.

I got another highway run to the airport yesterday and hit exactly 30.0 for the trip (2/3 highway - 40 miles). 59mph DWL kept us up with traffic. Very happy with that.

Got out of the van, pecked the wife on the cheek, and said, "Beat that!". She's very competitive.

Great run! :) it is cool you both are doing it!

Got out of the van, pecked the wife on the cheek, and said, "Beat that!". She's very competitive.

Very COOL!

Just finished another sub par tank 27.3 mpg holy moly does this thing go through tanks! I never was conscious of it til I started logging this summer! what a fsp!:mad: