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Finished off last week with a solo drive up to NH and finished off another 450+ mile tank at 39.2 MPG. Lots of climbing going up, lots of coasting on the way back...I had a few glides lasting well over a mile.

Segments of 30/35/49 MPG this morning for a total of 40.5 MPG for 15.4 miles at 35°F. Heavy traffic on the middle segment, so I didn't lock up the TCC; followed a semi on the last segment.

This weekend switched to 0w20 synthetic - Pennzoil - noticeable difference. Car seems to want to go faster and coast for longer distances. It could also be warmer temps?

46.9 - 2 miles
40.3 - 4.4
47.2 - 2
44 - 2.1
41.3 - 13.4
42.9 - 4.8
39.2 - 5

Very happy

Now with more instrumentation! Scangauge equipped! :)

47.9 over 12.7 miles this morning. Temps mid-60s.

Interesting to note, it went into closed loop 50 feet out from my driveway. And stayed there.

61.7 MPG at 46ºF this morning. I hit heavier traffic than normal and have only my upper grill blocked, so it took longer to warm up the ICE. Not bad for a Monday.

It was 60 degrees this morning in Madison. Unheard of fo this time of yesr.
Got a healthy 95.3 mpg this morning.

Going to have a carpooler tonight. That means taking a different route and a little less FAS. Not sure if I'll break 90 mpg on the way home. But the upside is she pays me enough money for 70-80 miles worth of driving.

This moenings drive into work was good for 48 mpg.

psy

After going 193 miles at 60+mpg getting 86.2mpg on the interstate, I do 73.5mpg coming in to work this morning. Getting off the freeway to avoid an accident gridlock is only a partial alibi.

Great day in Southern Illinois!

to work:48.3 miles @ 79.6mpg

to home:48.3 miles @ 91.4mpg

Round trip:96.6 miles @ 85.0mpg

No wind either way, but road construction made me alter my route near home. .5 miles closer but instead of gaining about .4mpg in the evening, I lost .2.

It was 60 degrees this morning in Madison. Unheard of fo this time of yesr.
Got a healthy 95.3 mpg this morning.

Going to have a carpooler tonight. That means taking a different route and a little less FAS. Not sure if I'll break 90 mpg on the way home. But the upside is she pays me enough money for 70-80 miles worth of driving.

86.1 coming home with the carpooler. Slight side wind as well.

I ran the whole 30 mile trip with zero bars showing on the gas gauge. I'll have to get gas before tomorrow's trip to work.

Tanking sitting at 72.4 / 165 miles / 9 pips. Will be down to roughly 71+ / 177 miles by the time I get home tonight. I've got a nice little 70-72 range going. Let's hope I can sustain it.

Got to meet Chuck on Saturday, and enjoyed driving the Insight and showing off my Prius. I particularly like his "modified" demonstration of Wayne's 180 mpg Hybridfest run, complete with scaled back "death turn". Woohoo!

On our way to a rural driving area, one of these appeared in Chuck's rear view:

http://www.imagerentacar.com/images/vehicles/hummer-pass-view.jpg

Nice timing...........

My tank improved on the way to meet Chuck. I'm convinced it is because my baby knew she was about to rendevous with an Insight, and did the mpg equivalent of "sucking in the gut".

Hi All:

___Great to see the non-hybrids closing in on 50 mpg! Insight drivers, good god!

___A lousy 47.6 in this morning w/ 20 + mph headwinds to the Park and Ride in 63 - 64 degree temps. I received some of that back with 15 - 20 mph + tail wind and 74 - 79 degree temps on the way home. A bit after O’Hare, the winds died off a touch and started coming in from a more westerly direction. The real negative is she was sitting at 49.2 just 11 miles out while coming into my longest FAS point. Crested the peak at Lemont Road and I-55 at 58 mph only to see a sea of brake lights absolutely ruining that opportunity as I had to ride the binders down to 0 over the next 3 to 4 blocks and then start the abysmal “Pulse and Crawl” over the next 2 miles. That FAS point is good for a 2 + mile free ride in summer time temps :( She still allowed 56.1 into the drive but I was hoping for a little bit more :)

___Marc, Chuck told us you had more then a little fun in the Insight last weekend :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne

My drives both to and from work today totally sucked. This morning it was below freezing above 7,000ft. and a bit windy, and on my way home the winds were up to 90 MPH. Every day I make it down the backside of the mountain either without touching the throttle, or sometimes touching it just once, but today I had to use it 5 times because my 2,300 pound Yaris with my skinny 140 pound butt in the driver's seat couldn't keep its downhill inertia in the winds.

Didn't do so hot today. The morning segment went OK despite some frost, but the afternoon segment just wasn't working for some reason. Inverse stars and planets effect, maybe? Things were a little hectic on the highway and after that I couldn't get any 5-minute bars to break 55mpg or so until the very end. Oh well. Should be nice and warm in the morning, and close to 70 in the afternoon.

This weekend switched to 0w20 synthetic - Pennzoil - noticeable difference. Car seems to want to go faster and coast for longer distances. It could also be warmer temps?

46.9 - 2 miles
40.3 - 4.4
47.2 - 2
44 - 2.1
41.3 - 13.4
42.9 - 4.8
39.2 - 5

Very happy

Hey coastertoaster,
let me know how that 0w20 turns out working in the xb. I've been considering my oil options once I get my final free dealership oil change.

After far as my day went today, 40mpg on the way to work (8 miles) and 43mpg on the way home (12 miles) :Banane04:

I probably won't post any updates until Wednesday evening. I had my intake air temp sensor fooled into thinking that the car was breathing air at ~200F and I returned it to stock over the weekend. It looks as though the only thing it was doing was fooling the SG. Since I'm in the mileage competition over at GS, I have to wait until I can get a minimum of 3 gallons into my tank or face a penalty. According to the guage, I'm doing slightly better than my 58+ tank awhile back.

Finally used the automatic for the reason I bought it last night...solo recon. About 100 miles of jotting down mileages while driving on mostly twisty, hilly, narrow, two-lane roads with short sight distances. However, I've biked it all before, so I knew the terrain well. The hypermiling was secondary to taking notes -- at a lot of stops, I'd just leave the engine idling -- but managed around 37 MPG anyway.

This morning's ride: 41.5 MPG for 15.4 miles at 45°F, 100% humidity. I was following a truck uphill with the TCC unlocked on a two-lane highway this morning, so all I could do was DWL and let the gap grow...until a couple of deer dashed across the road in front of him. :eek:

Inverse stars and planets effect, maybe?
Same thing here yesterday. It must have been an East Coast thing. Lousy traffic in the morning commute + running some short (necessary) errands at lunch + a short commute in the evening from the full time site to a part time site = daily MPG barely over 60. It was as good as it was thanks to the commute home after 10:00 pm when traffic was light.

Today's starting much better: morning commute @ 73.2 MPG, 61F. Near-record highs forecast for today, so the evening ride should be good too.

Hi All:

___5 - 10 mph headwind and temps from 64 - 67 degrees F with a 49.7 showing. Temps are going to fall through the floor and the winds will swap 180 degrees later this afternoon :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Washed the Insight for the first time in 6 weeks this weekend - it's really silver! - not brown.
Going to work last night - 84.3 MPG
Coming home this morning - 85.5 MPG

Morning commute back to normal, including the tailgaters but I was able to ignore them. (38 in a 35 through patchy dense fog...what do they expect?) I made an adjustment to my strategy, which is to ignite the ICE earlier so as to let it warm up a little during the second half of my down-hill glide. The reason is that I often get down there, ignite the ICE, and find that the system doesn't want to use it and so runs the bejezus out of the battery instead. So it's a compromise between a little bit of fuel and overall stress on the hybrid system. And some of that fuel probably balances out since the battery doesn't have to be charged back from three bars. Problem is, it turns into a big waste if I get down to the bottom with the engine running and find that there's traffic and a red light, which would have meant a little puttering around at 15mph for a couple minutes rather than a straight 0-40mph acceleration. This morning I hit traffic. Oh well!

This tank is pretty stable at 55mpg @ 225 miles and 30% fuel remaining (in theory) just flowing with traffic and catching a P&G opportunity now and then.

I was a little pressed for time yesterday afternoon, so I forgot to look at my afternoon commute mileage. I had to meet up with the wife to carpool for our errands, so I had a 5 mile trek one way, cool off for 4 hours, and a 5 mile trek back home. (We took her car for our errands because she wanted to get there faster.) 56.7 MPG at the end of the day.

This morning was a personal best for my morning commute. 67.7 MPG at 63ºF. Now if I could just find a way to make all of the lights green for me...

Errands yesterday at lunch.
47.4 home last night.
47.2 to work this morning.
43.1 Tank.
I'm liking the scangauge already! It's really helping me see what's happening and what to do.

The morning commutes are looking real good this week so far; yesterday 74.8MPG and today 76.2 by the SG-II. Tank is up to 68.4MPG on the MFD. Got to find a little better route home since all this I-90/94 reconstruction traffic is starting to spill over to my side streets.

Wayne

Whoo hoo!
Broke 100 mpg!
101.7 mpg this morning on the way in to work.
Temps still balmy and in the 50s in the morning. That's very warm for Wisconsin in March.

Whoo hoo!
Broke 100 mpg!
101.7 mpg this morning on the way in to work.
Temps still balmy and in the 50s in the morning. That's very warm for Wisconsin in March.

You beat me hands down! Got 81.5mpg in a rainy 60F with one slight slowdown - also a 5-speed Insight.

You beat me hands down! Got 81.5mpg in a rainy 60F with one slight slowdown - also a 5-speed Insight.
I think the 101.7 mpg must be a record for me. (I haven't had time to check my old stats.)
The factors that helped today were
- a drafting opportunity for a portion of the ride
- a big truck that had slow start at some stoplights
- good timing of some stoplights

Was running late this am. Rain and stuck in traffic due to a wreck. Only got 42 mpg this am.

psy

Nice temps recently

34.9 - 2.1
45.4 - 2
40.2 - 5
41.4 - 4.6

I saved the best for last. Best trip down the parkway at 47.4 MPG - 45 miles!
I deserve a banana:Banane03:

Car really wants to take off on me. Has to be the weather + the oil change

This is a little more like it:
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/504/032707-1_422_x_338_.jpg

It was nice and warm this afternoon and it was as if I could do no wrong, unlike yesterday's funk. I cruised the whole way home at 65mph on the highway and then 38-40mph while some girl in a Hyundai rode my bumper. (She must have wanted my number. Riiiiight.) I did catch one major break by making it through the first mile and a half of lights after getting off the highway. I usually get caught at least twice for one reason or another.

That low bar in the middle is a couple of miles worth of ups and downs with stop signs in all the wrong places. There's not much to be done about it.

As I reported earlier this morning, I returned my IAT back to stock over the weekend and I could tell right away that the SG was off. I couldn't stand the suspense of waiting until my normal fill day of Wednesday so I filled up tonight. I drove 220.5 miles and used 3.82 gallons for 57.7 mpg. SG was reporting 54.3 with 4.1 gallons used. With the recalibrated SG, I got 77.5 on the 6.1 mile trip home from the station.:woot:

Whoo hoo!
Broke 100 mpg!
101.7 mpg this morning on the way in to work.
Temps still balmy and in the 50s in the morning. That's very warm for Wisconsin in March.
Not as good on the drive home.
"Only" managed 90.4 mpg, which put me at 95.8 mpg for the day.

I fueled up my Yaris for the 5th time today and had my best tank yet at 46.4 MPG.

I was actually surprised by this. After that morning where I burned extra fuel on the not-so-beneficial close-in draft and then the 90 MPH winds on my way down the mountain yesterday I figured this tank would actually come in lower than the previous one.

I guess pumping up my RE92 tires from 32 PSI to 60 early in this tank made quite an impact! I'm just afraid I'll get used to it like this but then won't be able to keep them at this pressure during the peak winter months as I'll need greater traction on snowy mountain roads.

Almost my 1st day of a round trip at 80mpg plus:


This morning to work: 81.5mpg
Returning from work: 79.9mpg

46 mpg for the drive home.

psy

I forgot to mention that I had a great distant draft on a 2002/2003 Cadillac Eldorado ESC for about 10 miles this afternoon. I picked him up southbound on highway 395 just south of I-80 and hung about 3-4 car lengths back until he left the highway just one exit before my own. That car is so un-aerodynamic that to maintain 55 MPH in 5th gear behind him I had to stay ultra feather light on the throttle and actually got taken along in DFCO for a short ways a few times as the air cushions from the vehicles on our left kept pushing me closer to the Caddy.

This isn't a scenario I find myself in very often as I normally have a 6% grade commute on a 2-lane highway which makes for a lot of solo hypermiling, so I was tickled. :cool:

I still haven't received my SG II from the PriusChat group buy and I was cussing that today. I know that was one of my best DWL segments yet but I have no way of knowing just how good it was.

Two trips tonight - more bike commuting otherwise.

85.4 / 11.5 miles / 55F
74.1 / 22.6 miles / 50F

I had a passenger on the way back (high school age) who was just fascinated by everything, which I was happy to explain. :D He was blown away by my somewhat unimpressive lmpg and the Prius costing about as much as a "normal" new car. A future hybrid owner? :Banane06:

Tank average is now 73.1 / 256 miles / 6 pips. This tank is insane. It's not going to stay that way if I decide to drive home for Easter though. Getting 60+ on the highway is still a mystery to me. :confused:

I ran into an unusual problem this morning. It seems that I picked up too much charge while descending to one of the worst placed stop signs in the state, and the engine refused to shut down for about a mile after that. It's a paradoxical problem because shutting down the ICE is what I need to do to bleed off the charge, yet there's no way to do it when this happens. Only after I powered up a short hill did it drop down enough that I could glide for the last ~1/3 mile or so.

Didn't matter, though, as it was a great run. The highway damage was mitigated in part by a red Chevy Impala in front of me that executed a perfect 65-->55-->65 DWL up and down the one hill. (I usually hold above 60mph because traffic gets pretty heavy.) That left me enough charge for a crazy long warp stealth run down the back side. Somehow I picked up 7/10ths on the way in, which works out to a 68.5mpg run. That number is dubious given that it's based on the delta, so let's call it a very solid 60mpg+.

70.6 MPG at 63ºF this morning!

81.5mpg at 65F this morning.

52.1 home last night! :woot:
48 to work this morning. I saw 50+ just a couple blocks out, but the parking garage... :mad:
44.8 tank

48 mpg for the drive in this morning.

psy

I took the day off today so I could do some more solo recon during the wee hours...it was great. Left around 9PM, got back around 4:30. No cars on the roads, so I could coast my glides out to 15 MPH if I wanted. :D

MS Streets and Trips worked great for finding a good hypermiling route up to New Hampshire. I just typed in the speeds which were indicative of the speeds I'd prefer to use on different road types (as opposed to the speed limits) and it found the quickest route there using the different speeds. My FE is about the same for the three different preferred average speeds/road types (28 MPH typ average on slow roads, 42 MPH on state highways and 52 MPH on limited access) and the shorter the trip, the less the engine is running...I easily saved a gallon over the same trip on Saturday, which had the same destination but used expressways instead. Not to mention that the hills on state highways work a lot better for hill-assisted P&G in my car than expressways because the grades are much steeper. Bottom line: 44 MPG for about 202 miles. Tank's at 41 MPG for 325 miles.

I went out with the intent of finding 24-hour support. The only I found was a Dunkin Donuts near an expressway, and three cops were hanging out inside while their cars were parked outside with headlights on and engines idling. I sat in my car for half an hour working on directions and having a snack while listening to three Crown Vics gulping down fuel...and our state has a law against leaving unattended vehicles idling.

The first to come up with a hybrid cop car will make a mint. It's a perfect application for a hybrid drivetrain; I can't believe it's taken this long.

The only problem I could foresee would be limited range for a high-speed pursuit, but many jurisdictions are starting to limit them anyway.

I tried starting an acceleration test on a local road on the way back, but I was too tired to work out the details of a controlled experiment.

...The first to come up with a hybrid cop car will make a mint. It's a perfect application for a hybrid drivetrain; I can't believe it's taken this long.

The only problem I could foresee would be limited range for a high-speed pursuit, but many jurisdictions are starting to limit them anyway.

Bruce, you make an excellent point - why hasn't Detroit tried?

In an alternative history, I see Detroit in the early 90s lobbying to get Federal, State, and local governments to buy fleets of flex-fuel, hybrid, and other alternative-fuel vehicles. Even ruling out pursuit cars and fire trucks, all the vehicles these groups use would have been a lucurative test bed to introduce hybrids to the public.

83.9 MPG to the part time site today, using the new route segment I first tried Saturday. I think I'll stick with it.

Note: For previous weeks, look here, and for later weeks, look here.

Week started out good. Fair weather and moderate temperatures. Hoping to break 66.7 for this week.

# Notes Start End mpg_ Trip T 50W Er±
== ========= trip mpg_SoC trip mpg_SoC avg mi °F car_mpg
01:Other Driver (trip to Bryan) 130.9 64.9 5 281.9 51.8 5 44.09 151. 73.0 ? 0.1
02:Drive in Tue 3/27 281.9 51.8 5 296.2 52.5 4 71.56 14.3 72.5 3.5 3.6
03:Drive home Tue 296.2 52.5 4 311.1 53.0 5 65.38 14.9 79.0 5.0 3.0
04:Drive in Wed 311.1 53.0 5 325.5 53.6 5 70.95 14.4 73.0 5.5 3.8
05:Drive home Wed 325.5 53.6 5 339.8 54.1 4 68.68 14.3 80.5 ? 3.7
06:Drive in Thurs 339.8 54.1 4 354.2 54.6 4 69.83 14.4 80.5 2.5 3.8
07:Drive home Thurs (took frontage) 354.2 54.6 4 368.5 55.2 4 75.84 14.3 75.0 0.5 4.6
08:Drive in Fri 368.5 55.2 3 382.9 55.6 3 68.26 14.4 75.0 2.5 3.9
09:Drive home Fri 382.9 55.6 3 398.3 56.0 5 68.20 15.4 78.0 ? 3.7
10:Other Driver 382.9 55.6 3 469.2 55.0 6 52.49 86.3 77.0 ? 0.4
11:Trip to gas station 469.2 55.0 6 487.7 55.3 4 64.18 18.5 70.0 5.5 3.5
12:Trip from gas station 0.0 81.4 4 4.6 81.4 4 81.40 4.6 70.0 0.0 0.1
13:Trip to church 4.6 81.4 3 16.2 63.8 5 58.76 11.6 70.5 0.5 0.2
14:Trip home from church 16.2 63.8 5 28.1 63.7 4 63.56 11.9 72.5 ? 0.2

Weeks stats *:
Current city 78.65% Goal EPA_mpg for current city/hwy split = 58.08_mpg
Current hwy 21.35% Current_mpg for current city/hwy split = 67.92_mpg

Difference = 116.94%Key:
Start_Trip = The trip/tank mileage when I started the drive.
Start_mpg = The tanks mpg via the FCD at the start of the drive.
Start_SoC = The number of bars on the battery icon at the start of the drive.
End_Trip = The trip/tank mileage when I finished the drive.
End_mpg = The tanks mpg via the FCD at the end of the drive.
End_SoC = The number of bars on the battery icon at the end of the drive.
mpg_avg = The calculated mpg for this drive.
Trip_mi = The length of this drive.
T_°F = The average temperature for this drive
50W_car = The number of green regen cars that show on my consumption screen
Er±mpg = The range of error associated with mpg_avg

* Other drivers omitted from statistics

11011011

Some mornings just don't go right...
It's supposed to warm up this week however I woke up today to 5 degrees. Then on my way to work I usually take a frontage road along the side of the hwywy since it's less traveled and often times quicker and I can maintain a steady uninterupted 40mpg, today the entrance was completely blocked by the police, so I ended up having to double my commute distance and had about 6 extra traffic lights to contend with. Can't wait to try and make up for it on the way home. I got 37mpg this morning.

9 degree C weather when started, I had it plugged into the wall socket with an electric timer for 3 hours. (6.1 cents a kilowatt/hr) Coolant temp was 49 degrees C, I let it idle, giving the battery a break while it refreshes the electrons. At the same time I went to unplug my block heater and took a look at my front grille partially blocked at the bottom but fully blocked up top. The engine shut down, must be my cue to go.

99.9L/100 km the screen displayed as I reset it at the start of my day, I had another odometer counting my mileage numbers as I last filled the gas tank. And off I went, through the city for 15 km, then another 15 km on the highway. Highway was where the fun was , since I was drafting behind a truck pulling his mini trailer. Remembering from reading Hobbit's guide about the NWH20 sweet spot I used that as my guide for pulse acceleration. Since I have CAN-VIEW, the graph shows my throttle position in three colors... green for high mpg cruising.... yellow for the pulse in the high gear (the last color red... well that's pretty explanatory), or in layman terms, "acceleration with minor dent in mpg, and this can range from 40-50 mpg pulses depending on how close i'm approaching the trailer" when I get to a comfortable spot I EV warp stealth it until my draft target gets a little too far and then rise and repeat with the yellow throttle position to get closer to my target. My draft distance is very reasonable in terms of safety and still being able to let the trailer person know that, "hey I'm behind you, but no worries I won't hit you."

After drafting 12 out of those 15 km my draft target took an exit and it was just steady state green high mpg crusing from there on, then 3 km's in the city and I was at work.

3.5L/100km over 34 KM or in USMPG terms that's 67.2 MPG US! if my eyes aren't lying to me I'll be gladly to take a photo and upload it if someone would hook me up with some PEBL drivers.

But yeah, needless to say, block heater rocks... oh and my coolant temp was 87 degrees C while setting the climate control (with no ac) to 22 degrees C, so no overheating! climate control showed 10 degrees C when I arrived.

I'd convert those to F, but I'm at work so yeah, hope this inspires other NWH20 to beat my score!

Tank sitting at 70.6 / 227 miles. Got it up to 72+ a few days ago, but man on man does she just wanna creep on down to the 60s. Everyday it seems like it is down 0.3 or so. Traffic, rain, lights, anything not just right and pfffft.......down she goes. I don't think she can hold out much longer, Captain!

Hey Wayne, I think I'm gonna make me an ice vest. How hard can it be? Buy 3 or 4 ice packs, then go shopping for an athletic vest with pockets. It will probably be good enough until I get something more substantial.

I think I can whip one up that won't make me look like too much of a dork. I'm all for doing my part to save the planet, provided I don't look like a dufus. ;)

I used AC today for the first time. It was 85F. Man, it felt GOOOOOD. I had forgotten how awesome AC is :)

The good news is that I tried a different gas station and found that their pumps work better with the tank bladder, giving me almost 7 gallons at two pips. I also finished up a great tank (56.2mpg on the MFD). The bad news is that the working pump nozzle skewed my result so that great tank looks very poor on paper. Oh well! I'll stick with that Sunoco station for a while and see what happens. Maybe I'll finally get some decent range out of this thing.

oh went out for lunch, brings the odo from 34 to 40 km, but dropped to 3.7 (63 mpgUS), darn cold trips! Can't wait for them PHEV add-ons yum.

Hey guys... I've been slackin' on my Daily Grind post, but I did put a nice summary of my mileage logs on my vbGarage (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/vbgarage.php?do=view&id=492).

Loaned out my Prius again this week to reduce our nations gas consumption, but boy did it give me a hit on MPG. Left me at 64.9, came back at 51.8 :(

Factoring out others, my week is at 69.1* presently

I used AC today for the first time. It was 85F. Man, it felt GOOOOOD. I had forgotten how awesome AC is :)I hear ya' there. I don't know how much longer I can hold out either. And through it all, I'm still showing up at the parking garage in S3 instead of S4.

Since I ordered the SGII, I'm probably gonna block a few slits of my front grill till I can get the block heater in. Don't want to over do it though.

11011011

The fun continues. The commute home was nearly identical to this morning's: 83.8 MPG. 50 miles round trip.

I filled up today with my best tank ever: 65.2 MPG, 632 miles.

EDIT/CORRECTION: I couldn't figure out why with the morning and evening commutes nearly identical at 83+, the ScanGauge showed only 80.1 for the day. Well, duhhh ... that 83.8 was AFTER the fillup, about 5 miles into the ride. I think that first 5 mile segment was about 60. I'll take 80 for the day.

Hi All:

___Missed yesterday … Had a wonderful 81 degrees and a slight 5 – 10 mph tail wind as I left the parking lot yesterday afternoon. Hit 55.4 mpg after my first 5 stop signs (so I rolled 3 of them inside the plants confines :angel:). After 2 miles, I was sitting at a rather healthy 61.4 when I filled up with fuel. Since I had my car pooler, I couldn’t take my Warm-up P&G route so I had to settle for just 54.3 by the time I hit the Park and Ride. The problem? That 80 degree temp had fallen 20 degrees within 20 miles, the wind had shifted the expected 180 degrees, and it started to rain as well :( Ok, it is 60 degrees and I have a light head wind and rain. I have done ok in that before??? By the time I passed O’Hare it was down to just 51 degrees and still falling with the winds picking up and raining even harder :angry: Down she goes. I arrived home sitting at a paltry 48.2 in 42 degree temps :( Anyone else ever lose 38 degrees in < 2 hours? The drive in this morning with rain and 52 - 55 degree temps almost the whole way + a nice 10 - 15 mph tail wind … 48.0 to show. Drive home with the head wind, temps from 55 down to 43 and rain yet again. 47.0. Sure was nice to see the huge numbers within blocks of a dead cold start for a change even if it was for only 15 minutes :)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

41 MPG for 18.9 miles at 34°F from dead cold this morning.

I must've had a tailwind on the expressway; I was hitting 65 MPH in spots with my normal throttle position for DWL.

A school bus passed me about that point, and it's a 55 limit.

All I can really say about this morning's commute is "wow." There must be some kind of mind control beam that switches on overnight to make us all act like idiots at exactly the same time. Things got started off just fine, with temps at 32F. I tried to engage EV but it didn't take (didn't beep...I think I just didn't hold it long enough.) So I did things backwards by letting the engine warm up to Stage 2 and then engaging EV about half way down the hill. Worked OK. Then I got passed illegally not once, but twice. The first time I was doing 35 or 36 in a 30 (it probably *should* be a 35) when someone started riding my bumper and honking. I did nothing, and he went around. The second time was not notable because it was just my "little ricer buddy" in the white RSX. At least he's so used to seeing me that he isn't rude about it anymore.

Things were going fine after that. I was doing my usal +3 with an Explorer following at a generous distance until we hit the highway. Where I get on, there are 3 lanes plus my on-ramp which turns into the new right lane. Well, I merged right next to two trucks that were occupying both adjacent lanes at 55-60mph, leaving only my lane and the far left lane for passing. Naturally, the name of the game was for this huge slug of traffic to ride right up behind the trucks to scramble all over each other for either the left or right lane to pass. I had a clear lane in front of me and I just wanted out of that disaster, so I just put it down and got out of the way. I severely underestimated acceleration. I figured I was up to 70, but when I looked I was on my way past 80. Must have had a full battery. ;) After getting beyond the mess I dropped from Warp 6 to Warp Stealth and continued on. 56.8mpg on the new tank to show for it, and a bit more certainty that the Prius does have more than enough power for any semi-reasonable person. Just more good times in Connecticut!

This is going to suprise many of you - 58.2mpg averaging 70mph this morning. :confused:

Par would be about 75mpg, but I had run a errand before dawn - basically driving like when I first got the car.

70.6 MPG at 63ºF this morning!
Good stuff, Michael!

61.6 MPG this morning at 53ºF. It was just one of those commutes that didn't feel right. I had a couple mistimed lights at the beginning, so that put me on tilt the rest of the way. Almost getting run over by a school bus for the second day in a row wasn't a lot of fun either.

EDIT: Thanks, Jim.

Had a fun commute in this morning. There is a good stretch of 2 lane roads that I have to travel (no passing). I've actually modified my route so that I'm on as few 2 lane roads as possible, but I couldn't eliminate them all together.

Well anyway, as luck would have it, as soon as I got on to the stretch of two lane road, a wide load semi hauling lumber turns in behind me. This guy was going maybe twenty and he literally followed me on my full 2-lane stretch. So most of the commute the only thing in my rear view was this semi about a quarter mile back.

Since I changed my route I've been trying to be tolerant of people in a hurry. If I get a tailgater while gliding, I will at least do and EV assisted glide to help move things along.

Guess all that work on my driving Karma paid off.

Full commute... NO TAILGATERS!

Numbers were good too. 14.4 mi at 69.8 (±3.8).

I did some testing too. Really didn't hit S4 (Prius stuff) today till I was in the parking garage. Since there was a guy parking I slammed on the breaks so that I could have a full stop (to trigger S3->S4). Worked.

11011011

Tank down to 69.4 / 290 miles because of AC use. To make matters worse, I unfortunately had the temp set to LO yesterday, which meant I was telling my AC to work "extra hard" to make it "extra chilly". No wonder it felt so good. :)

But help is on the way! I made a super duper ice vest last night. OK, it's not so much an ice vest as a god awful ice "outdated 1989 short sleeve oxford shirt with sleeves cut off". Yes, I DOOO look good as a matter of fact!

Dan, since you are interested, I went to Academy and bought this:

http://www.shop.com/op/~Igloo_Natural_Ice_2_lb_-prod-30242494?prod=15

They are bubble ice packs, which means you can cut them to fit. I bought two, took one and duck taped it to the back inside of the shirt, then cut the second lengthwise to create two pieces for the front left & front right. Then I put the whole monstrosity in a tupperware tray and stuck it in the office freezer with a "Marc's frozen spinach" label to deter snoopers. OK, no label yet, but not a bad idea.

We'll see how it works today! I will probably still look for a more durable, appealing vest that I can duck tape the bubbles too. But my homemade version is such a blight that I may just have to change my avatar to it. Such an eyesore must be displayed for comedic purposes.

Summer is temporarily on hiatus until May!

4L mark with two passengers... prius sure doesn't like extra weight, but wow 80 mpg on a few segments, you guys must have ghost roads or something.

Until my doggone SG II gets here I'm relegated to working with the highly unreliable pips on the Yari's fuel gage. Pip #1 disappeared this morning at 91 miles on the tank. If I take that at face value then my MPG is around 66, but if I subtract, say, 30 miles from it as it was the first pip and we all know the fuel gage doesn't fall for the first little ways, then it's 44 MPG.

So I guess I can safely say that, as of this morning, I'm somewhere between 44 and 66 MPG. :p

4L mark with two passengers... prius sure doesn't like extra weight, but wow 80 mpg on a few segments, you guys must have ghost roads or something.
If by "ghost road" you mean isolated untraveled ones -- not for me. Mine yesterday began in the suburbs, went through the middle of the city of Richmond, and finished in the suburbs on the other side. I've just found and learned routes favorable for P&G, and I use it as much as I can.

I'm not 100% sure that my SG is properly recalibrated after returning my IAT mod to stock but here are today's numbers:
1)49.8-5.8 miles
2)50.8-9.6
3)51.1-9.6
4)60.1-6.3
5)50.8-3.8
6)57.2-4.3
Average for today was 52.2 and tank is showing 52.2
The reason I'm not sure about SG calibration is that the gas guage seems to be indicating mileage that is closer to 55+. I guess, even if it's accurate, I'm still doing quite well.:) I can't wait for summer fuel to come back.:D I think it comes back April 1 doesn't it?

I think it comes back April 1 doesn't it?

I can't find anything in the EPA oxygenates program that shows Indiana uses a Winter RFG.

Are you sure your area has "winter gas"?

I can't find anything in the EPA oxygenates program that shows Indiana uses a Winter RFG.

Are you sure your area has "winter gas"?

I don't think it's actually an RFG. I think it's more of a winter blend that ignites easier in the colder temps?

I don't think it's actually an RFG. I think it's more of a winter blend that ignites easier in the colder temps?
That's not what Winter blends are for. They contain oxygenates that drop caloric content a bit but burn a little cleaner in order to reduce all emissions, but especially sulfurs. This is done to combat the inversion layer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inversion_layer) phenomenon that occurs in many places around North America which traps emissions close to the ground in unstable temperatures for extended periods of time. It also helps combat the extra idling that uneducated folks do for warming up their engine and the extra emissions that are produced by cold engines.

With that said, Winter gas is definitely a reformulation, or RFG. You take every day E10 fuel (every Winter RFG in the U.S. is currently Ethanol-based) and run it through one whole extra refining process to oxygenate the Ethanol at 1.7, 2.7 or 3.5%, depending on which "boutique" fuel type your area subscribes to (for example my area is 2.7%, California is 3.5).

Again, though, the EPA has documents which show the duration, type and oxygenate content of all Winter gas in use throughout the country, and nothing at all is listed for Indiana. This leads me to believe you've been on the regular fuel for your area all along.

Lots of tooling around today. The insanity continues. :D

53.9 / 2.6 miles / 46F (warmup ;))
84.0 / 8.7 miles / 46F
80.0 / 13.4 miles / 48F
72.3 / 14.8 miles / 54F
64.0 / 6.6 miles / 54F
93.1 / 11.6 miles / 54F
72.3 / 11.6 miles / 54F

Here's a pic after the 93.1 segment.

http://tripprofile.com/images/070329-totkd.jpg

Today's average was 76.5 over 69.3 miles.

Tank average is now 73.8 over 325 miles, 5 pips remaining.

Hi Jared:

___Warmup at just 54 mpg and a 93 mpg segment? If only we all had it so bad :D

___I have no idea what was going on this morning but pulled a 50.8 into the training parking lot this morning in 49 - 53 degree temps and a 10 mph side wind. Drove from the training facility to the plant at lunch time and pulled a decent 44.3 over 4 miles distance. On the way home, full blown P&G in 58 - 62 degree temps. 57 when I hit the highway and held on all the way until two traffic accidents within a mile of each other at the North Bound Tri-states choke point between Lake Cook and Half Day. 7 miles of absolute pulse and crawl hell. Pulled into the drive at 53.7 :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Made the nightly commute to/from work.

Going to work hit a bit of traffic, started as high as 88.3 MPG, but I lost some staying with the flow of traffic, pulled into work with a 81.1 MPG

Coming home the roads were deserted again - much better!
FCD shot at: http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/500/medium/fcd3-30-07_night_commute.jpg (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/../photos/data/500/medium/fcd3-30-07_night_commute.jpg)

That's not what Winter blends are for. They contain oxygenates that drop caloric content a bit but burn a little cleaner in order to reduce all emissions, but especially sulfurs. This is done to combat the inversion layer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inversion_layer) phenomenon that occurs in many places around North America which traps emissions close to the ground in unstable temperatures for extended periods of time. It also helps combat the extra idling that uneducated folks do for warming up their engine and the extra emissions that are produced by cold engines.

With that said, Winter gas is definitely a reformulation, or RFG. You take every day E10 fuel (every Winter RFG in the U.S. is currently Ethanol-based) and run it through one whole extra refining process to oxygenate the Ethanol at 1.7, 2.7 or 3.5%, depending on which "boutique" fuel type your area subscribes to (for example my area is 2.7%, California is 3.5).

Again, though, the EPA has documents which show the duration, type and oxygenate content of all Winter gas in use throughout the country, and nothing at all is listed for Indiana. This leads me to believe you've been on the regular fuel for your area all along.

Hmm, interesting. I know a guy in my area that is a fuel distributor. I'll have to ask him about that. Thanks for the info.

Nothing too interesting this morning. It's cold, but just barely warm enough for all of the hybrid electric bits to work their magic. Brought the average up to 57.4mpg at 59 miles. I'm headed east this afternoon via those hilly New England back roads, hoping all that climbing won't do too much damage.

A reality check today. With temps in the 80s earlier this week I removed the foam in the lower-most slit of my lower grill. It really helped keep temps from spiking above 200F. That little bit of air flow makes a huge difference.

It also caused me to curse my car this morning as the temp dropped below freezing again. Between the complete grill block and the block heater, I've gotten spoiled by being able to start P&G just a mile or two into the morning commute, and repeat it on demand throughout. Not today. And the other motorists weren't terribly cooperative either. This was my first sub-60 MPG commute in several weeks: 58.9.

Cruddy ride home last night...I kept having to throw it all away for people pulling out right in front of me. I'd leave a nice huge gap for people to pull into, but they wouldn't pull out until I was right on top of them. One guy made a left turn into me, forcing me onto the shoulder, then just flipped the bird when I laid on the horn. Uphill and upwind to the car wash, with 36 MPG showing when I got there, but a lot of hill-assisted P&G on the way home so I had 38 MPG by the end.

41.6 MPG for 15.4 miles at 32°F this morning. Tank's at 40.7 MPG for 431 miles, 2.4 gallons remaining. I'm supporting a 100km bike ride on Saturday, so I'll fill up then.

Apparently the drivers that Jim had to deal with stayed on the roads for me too. 58.0 MPG this morning.

So close.

Filled up yesterday hoping for my first "hypermile" -- or at least EPA -- tank. Ended up at 49.704. So close. Another 4/10s of a mile per gallon and I'd have done it. I need to get some more air in those tires. Nice spike as the temps and my abilities increased:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/garage/images/cha277.png

As an aside, I'm going to postulate that December is the ideal time to start learning how to drive for FE. I've worked so hard for the past few months to keep above 40mpg, and now that it's warmer (and my car's broken in) I can hit mid-50s without even trying very hard.

--RN

Strange morning. Great start and was over 80mpg the first 2/3 of the trip, then slipped down to 78.2mpg at the end. It's usually the other way around.

48.6 mpg for 10 miles this morning
Tank at 44.8 mpg over 78 miles.

49 mpg for the drive this am.

I had a chnce to follow a PII this morning for a few miles. The driver looked to have a target speed of 50 mph. Looked as if they might had been load driving or on cruise control. They were also riding ridge when traffic would bunch up behind us. I had to really stay back from from them. My Civic was wanting to pass them when I hit my fas points. :) When I did make a pass and move on it was a lady driving the car. She was working it. :)

psy

wow you guys are rocking me, i'm struggling to meet a 60 mpg tank and you guys are well over 70! maybe i'm too nice speeding up for those who trail behind me ;)

You hybrid boys and girls,,,, If Honda would just do a HCHII with a MT and rear disc brakes.... grrrrrrrrrr. Theres hope for Accord,,, not much tho. Or my R-18 was the lean burn it was to be. :( Proud of your efforts,,, dig dig. :)

I yanked a 48 mpg drive home out of my Civic this evening.

psy

Drove into work today because of an errand I needed to run later. A windy, cloudy day...

73.6 / 7.1 miles / 50F
63.5 / 8.9 miles / 50F
74.5 / 3.6 miles / 48F

Tank is now 73.6 / 345 miles / 5 pips.

Way too much driving yesterday, but better results than expected. Started off with 65 miles of those crazy New England hills at 40-55mph and the Prius ate them up. All I really did was take the hills with a DWL cycle and warp-stealth or light regen down the back side to control the speed. Not the 70mpg+ segments some are seeing, but the tank rose to 58.4mpg at the end even though that tachometer visited 3,000RPM over and over and over again.. Another 60-80 miles on the highway at 50-65mph weren't all that bad. The tank dropped into the 57.x range at about 230mi, and I'm still above half tank! More driving and general insanity today.

You hybrid boys and girls,,,, If Honda would just do a HCHII with a MT and rear disc brakes.... grrrrrrrrrr. Theres hope for Accord,,, not much tho. Or my R-18 was the lean burn it was to be. :( Proud of your efforts,,, dig dig. :)

I yanked a 48 mpg drive home out of my Civic this evening.

psy
Psy (and others): I have incredible respect for what you guys do with the non-hybrids. It seems like a lot to learn and apply. For me it's nothing more than paying attention to my environment and working my right foot. I'm not sure I'd have the patience to do what you do.

Well I held the tank above 68MPG despite the rollercoaster temps and rain. But next week I have to fill up early since I'm going to the Long Island Prius meet-up on the 4th and to New Hampshire for an engine block heater install on the 5th. That's OK since they are forecasting snow on the 4th in Chicago, that doesn't help MPG at all.

Wayne

Hi All:

___Ride in yesterday morning was exactly like the day before with the same 50.8 result. Coming home was a bit different. Hit the Interstate at 55 + and watch her fall bit by excruciating bit the whole way home :( A little rain in 42 to 60 degree F temps, 10 - 15 mph head/side winds and horrendous Friday afternoon Chicago traffic was my demise. 52.9 shown for a 55 + actual :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Ended the week today with my tank average so far at 40mpg. I filled up earlier this week just to top it off since I'm borrowing my friends sg2 and wanted to start with a fresh tank while my sg1 gets sent in to Ron at linear logic. I'm at over 80miles and my fuel gage still shows full! :) Things are getting interesting with the weather. In the morning it is as slick as it's ever been! Ice rink roads on side streets. By afternoon it's warmed up above freezing but the increase in temp is off set by the deep puddles that you have to slow down for or slow you down.

I'll have to start calibrating fuel gage pips to the SG as a backup to the SG. Unfortunately, I think my gage only shows 1/4-tank marks.

About 99 miles of supporting a 100km bike ride today, filling up along the way. My first 500-mile tank :woot: and my second over 40 MPG, by a good margin. However, the pump may have shut off early -- the SG cal came in at -5% for the tank. :( I guess it all averages out in the long run.

I'll be supporting a ride twice as long next weekend, but the distance covered should be comparable -- the far end is designed to be supported by bike instead of by car. I can drag a friend and his bike along for support and it'll be much more efficient than a second car, but I'll have to take the FE hit from hanging a bike on the outside. At least I have the option of using a trunk rack instead of the roof rack, which should yield better FE. Keeping the speed down in the lower sweet spot should help as well.

A decent day today. Two trips across town: one to the part time job and the other with my fiancee to my parents' house for dinner. 75.8 MPG for the day, about 90 miles. I'm aiming for a 70 MPG tank, and off to a good start. It's sitting at 71.4 with ~150 miles.

The block heater is in! I have the arm scrapes to prove it :)

It took most of the evening Friday, but it wasn't too difficult thanks to Evan's and Hobbit's great posts on the installation. I just went meticulously slow to ensure I didn't screw it up. The only real struggle was getting that infamous cord inserted into the core blindly. That cord was mocking me ;)

But it is in, and it works. The engine was nice and toasty this morning when I took her out for a test spin. I immediately noticed the absence of stage 1 characteristics, and a flip of the SGII to coolant temperature showed 120F+ and rising going down the street. My first warmup bar towards work jumped from roughly 40-45 to 60-65. Woohoo!

I'm pumped about my commute on Monday. My best trip in to work STARTING COLD is 88mpg, and the block heater might be just what I needed to make a run at 100. We'll see. Time for 100 mpg to fall!

Dan, now that I have one under my belt, #2 would be a snap. Let me know if and how I can help with yours. I'm in College Station to see family from time to time, and could probably hop down pretty easily. Just offerin'. You'll be lovin' life when it's in there.

Oh yeah, after falling from 72+ to 68.8, the block heater has stopped the bleeding. I'm back up to 69.6, and locked on to a 70 mpg tank. 382 miles.

Whoo! Filled up and now I'm sitting pretty at 35+ MPGs. Let's hope we continue to get decent weather. A far cry from the recent crappy tanks due to cold and winds.

But it is in, and it works. The engine was nice and toasty this morning when I took her out for a test spin. I immediately noticed the absence of stage 1 characteristics, and a flip of the SGII to coolant temperature showed 120F+ and rising going down the street. My first warmup bar towards work jumped from roughly 40-45 to 60-65. Woohoo!

Yeah! You will notice both that first bar not sucking so much and being out of S1 sooner, both of which are great for any trip but even better for your permanent glide of a downhill commute. :D You'll get 70 back for sure.

Short trips and rain today for me. :(

61.9 / 4.7 miles / 50F
48.9 / 1.9 miles / 54F - this was my first <50MPG segment since 3/6! For 1.9 miles I'm not complaining.
56.0 / 4.3 miles / 50F in heavy rain.

Pushed the tank down to 72.9 / 356 miles / 4 pips.

I haven't reported for a few days becuase I suspected my SG was still off. Here's how it went: The tank had 203.1 miles and I used 3.90 gallons for 52.08 mpg. The SG was pretty accurate after all as it reported 52.3 mpg and 3.9 gallons used. Three possible causes for the decrease: 1) Me(most likely) 2) Weather/slight drop in temps 3) A few more shorter trips than usual.
Today went a bit better so far. Segment 1) 49.0-5.2 miles 2) 61.2-5.2 miles and today's average was 54.4. I may need to go visit my mom later so I may have the opportunity to raise today's average up a bit more. The trip to mom's is basically the same as the 5.2 mile route/segments above but just slightly longer. Wayne, does summer fuel go on sale today; does IN have summer fuel?

Hi Larry:

___Another 2 weeks unfortunately and even then, it takes about 2 weeks after that to flush the winter RFG garbage out of the distribution channel all the way down to the station level. Hopefully in your neighbor’s tank given he throws it away anyways instead of yours ;) I will have to look up the non-attainment areas to see if you are included. Since Gary, IN. is, I bet you are as well :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Update: I went to my mom's and the results are as follows: 1) 46.5-5.1 miles 2)61.9-5.1 miles. The reason I went so early was that I got a call from a friend that lives near my mom in the mobile home park about some drunk lady that took out a light pole a few houses away from mom's, hit her neighbor's Cavalier in the left rear and turned it sideways in the drive, slid across mom's driveway and into the neighbor's Ford Exploder-Tboned it between the driver's and passenger's door- and pushed the Ford into thier 2-week old Chevy pickup.:eek::Banane45: We let my mom drive our '92 Gran Prix but it wasn't there since my mom is still recovering from her knee replacement surgery. If it was there, it would have ended up like the Ford.:eek: :angry:


xcel Hi Larry:

___Another 2 weeks unfortunately and even then, it takes about 2 weeks after that to flush the winter RFG garbage out of the distribution channel all the way down to the station level
Bummer!:(

Since Gary, IN. is, I bet you are as well

Gary is a huge refinery town, so if you can find out who owns the refineries you may be able to get summer gas a bit quicker from their retailers because of the shorter distribution chain. Just a thought, anyway.

It was a nice day and I felt up to it, so I got my groceries by bike and trailer instead of by car this afternoon. 0L/100km, and I avoided the FE warm-up hit as well. :) Also, my car was parked in the driveway from unloading yesterday and I managed to push it up the slight incline into the garage, so no gas consumed there for a bit better FE (less warm-up hit) tomorrow morning. Getting it through the door was a bit tricky, because it's not possible to push it with the driver's door open while backing through the garage door...I chocked a wheel with a brick, closed the door and backed it in with the wheels straight.

I've been doing lunchtime rides at work for the last week. I'm thinking the next intermediate step back to bike commuting (16 miles each way) may be a bimodal commute -- drive to a park-n-ride, then ride from there to work and back. I'd get worse FE in the car from constant warmup hits, but use less gas overall. I'll need to check out the lot locations this week.

I may need to use a roof rack to support our endurance ride next weekend so I'll have good access to the trunk.

The last time we supported next weekend's ride, we heated beans in a crock pot for the riders. There was no local power source, so we just left the car idling for several hours while running the crock pot off an inverter. We've since acquired a propane camping stove, and I expect it'd be a far better solution in terms of FE, cost and CO2 emissions.

This tank is shaping up to be my best tank!

MPG Miles
48.4 3.5
41.1 1.8
41.3 4.5
38.2 4.5
41.2 4.4
39.7 4.5
37.4 3.1
54.5 2.4
50.9 3.6

Didn't get to this Sunday, but here goes.

The week turned out great. Made my goal of getting past the 66.7 barrier I keep hitting. This weeks average was a new high of 67.9. Also had a fill up this week. Although the number looks low, most of the gas was burned by Other Driver. Factoring out the 5 gallons burned by OD, my MFD tank average would have been 66.9*. Both week and tank* numbers came out above my goal, so I'm on the right track.

Engine Block heater, ScanGuage II, and EV button are all en-route.

Once I get the SGII installed and can monitor temps, I'll go ahead and start blocking front grill vents to keep my commute temp between 75c and 95c for as long as possible.

11011011

PS. I'm putting my Daily Grind weekly averages in my vBGarage as links to my stat page. Should have all the gorry details there. Catch a link by clicking my MPG banner in my sig.