Archives

Hello everyone, I'm probably a bit of a misfit here, but I drive an F150, ratehr large one actually that eats way to much gas. I use it on my horse farm, hence the reason I drive a truck. My finacee has an '06 civic LX auto that we average about 38-40 MPG with.

So far I've managed to get around 19 and on some occasions up to 20 MPG with my truck. I know that's low for you guys, but most people with the same size truck get 13-14 MPG, and the EPA range is 14-18. I'm here to see if I can boost that milage a little bit more. Anybody have any good threads about driving autos? Thanks!

Welcome to CleanMPG!

You're fine with me. What a lot of people don't understand about me is I've never condemned a truck put to good use. Many a time I've gone after the "urban cowboy" that clogs the traffic and keeps gas prices high - that's not you.

I guess the first thing that might help your pickup truck is covering the back when not in use. This has been a good past topic. Letting the gate down, air gates don't help and might hurt fuel economy. I don't what it's called, but putting something caps the entire bed is better.

Hello everyone, I'm probably a bit of a misfit here, but I drive an F150, ratehr large one actually that eats way to much gas. I use it on my horse farm, hence the reason I drive a truck. My finacee has an '06 civic LX auto that we average about 38-40 MPG with.

So far I've managed to get around 19 and on some occasions up to 20 MPG with my truck. I know that's low for you guys, but most people with the same size truck get 13-14 MPG, and the EPA range is 14-18. I'm here to see if I can boost that milage a little bit more. Anybody have any good threads about driving autos? Thanks!

Unlike a lot of other places, the goal of this site is better Fuel Economy in any vehicle. Xcel drives a baby truck compared to that workhorse you drive, but if you look at the numbers he gets they are pretty impressive.

Welcome to the site and I'm sure you will get a big boost in FE when the pros here with trucks start talking with you.

I think the term Delta Flyer is looking for is tonneau cover.

Welcome! It could be argued that improving efficiency with big vehicles is even more important than doing the same with smaller vehicles that already get decent mileage. Especially if the large vehicle is driven a lot.

Welcome!!

I own a 00k Ranger. Dont drive it much anymore tho. It parks alot better than it drives. :)

All drivers and types of cars are welcome here! The goal is to improve mpg with changes in driveing style, routes and maint. on or with any car.

psy

Welcome to CleanMPG and I think you will find that we are the Friendly types here on this Forum.

Regards;

Terry

***************
Hi JRFish007:

___Welcome!

___A misfit? Not a chance … Although the F150 places you at somewhat of a disadvantage compared to some of the vehicles you see driven by other members here at CleanMPG, you actually have the most to gain in terms of raw $’s out of pocket and saving a non-renewable resource over a given amount of miles. With that, after you have spent some time reading some of the many posts about FE here, I think we can help you find the F150’s real world FE capabilities with just a little work from your side of the steering wheel ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne
***************
Actual Post was done by Xcel: Added now by Tigerhonaker: 4/25/2006 5:29 PM

Thanks everyone for the hello's.

I just realized this forum might be an appropiate place to actually say what I do, so I'll add a little bio of my self here.

I have a BS in chemical engineering, currently working on my Masters the PhD, my studies are in catalysis, two specifc areas: (1) is fuel cells, I do some with the PEM fuel cells you see in cars, but I deal mostly with high temperature solid oxide fuel cells designed for power plant use and (2) coal gasification. I can actually take coal and make it into CO and H2 and then turn that into hydrocrabons like propane, methane and even gasoline. Although this is a much better route for making smaller hydrocrabon like methane, ethane, propane and ethanol and that kind of stuff. An old project we had was devloping a new catalytic converter for Toyota (which has since built their own R&D for this), we also work on catalytic converters for diesel engines (they aren't as far away as some people may think).

So while we know burning hydrocabons are not the future, everything I do comes to making the current process of power generation more effecient. Hence the reason I'm interested in getting better MPG.

That's pretty cool stuff! I wouldn't necessarily write off hydrocarbon fuels, though. Fossil-based hydrocarbon fuels will have to become a thing of the past eventually since, at some point, we will run out. But I'm not so sure about plant-based hydrocarbons (ethanol, methanol, all forms of biodiesel, and possibly methane or other room-temp gasses). One of the biggest arguments for them is carbon neutrality since they only put back into the air the CO2 that the plants removed while they were growing. The main argument against, of course, is conversion efficiency. Maybe you or others in your field will be able to help us out with that. Who knows?

Sounds like you are in a great field. We don't stand much chance of making it to a fully sustainable energy infrastructure without stretching our fossil inventories as much as possible, cleaning them up in the process.

Well, eventually fossil fuels will run out (although we have enough coal to last something like 300 years) but the problem with bio-related stuff is that bio is just to slow. It takes months to raise a plant and seconds to burn the hydrocarbons that comes from it. We may be able to use it a suplment, but really we will have to look towards the sun in the end, probably water spliting (I have a friend over in Tiawan that has made great progress with water spliting). Thanks for the complments!

the gas guzzer status starts with you not what you drive! you can turn your truck into a green machine if your dedicated enough.

Maybe you'll be the first to beat truck mileage records, have faith and welcome!