Back-to-back 3000 mile trips, hypermiling & not

[SentraSE-R]

In mid-April, I drove to the Texas Star Party (a week-long amateur astronomers' get-together) with a non-hypermiler, in my boxy Scion xB. It's ~1300 miles each way from the Bay Area to Fort Davis, TX where TSP is held. Since Dave is a non-hypermiler, my only request for him was that we set the cruise control to no faster than 60 mph.

On the way back, we spent 4 days birding SE AZ. Totals, ~2900 miles, and 41.1 mpg. It's far better than the 2008 EPA combined estimated 28 mpg fuel economy.

Three days after returning home, I left for a month-long astronomy volunteer gig in Chaco Culture National Historical Park, NM. The nearest city is Farmington, 70 miles away. Chaco is reachable via 20 miles of washboard dirt road from Gallup or Grants from the south, or via 13.5 miles of washboard dirt road from Farmington or Cuba from the north. It's also about 1300 miles from the Bay Area.

But I was able to hypermile most of this second trip, except for the last 500 miles, when I needed a clutch adjustment, and couldn't get the transmission into 5th gear consistently without grinding. I simply set the cruise control to 50 mph for those last 500 miles. Overall, I totaled 3472 miles on my Chaco trip, at 50.28 mpg, ~9 mpg more for hypermiling.

[frv]

Great post Darrell - thats a lotta miles! 22+% more for hypermiling sounds good to me!

[herm]

Congratulations.. I'm sure there was a lot of complaining about that 60mph cruise, you would have saved 4 hours at 75mph!

[ALS]

Herm, there really isn't that much difference between posted and running a few miles per hour slower. I run from Pittsburgh to Naples and set my cruise control to a maximum of 65 mph. Pretty much run the speed limit but never over 65 even on the interstates posted at 70 mph. 1170 miles and the difference between a maximum speed of 65 mph and running the posted speed of 70 mph is a whole 45 minutes.

There are a lot more factors you have to figure in other than just the speed over long distances. Fuel stops are one, at 70 mph I have to make two fuel stops while running 65 or less I only have to stop once on the trip. Faster you run the harder your mind has to work to compensate for visual input of the higher speeds. I use to make this run and would run 70 plus and would have to stop after 15 hours due to being dead tired for a three to four hour nap. Today I can easily make the run straight through as long as I keep the speeds between 60-65 mph.

[SentraSE-R]

Dave was very cooperative. He drives a Subaru Outback, so our 40+ mpg tanks impressed him as much as they disappointed me. I never saw him exceeding our mutually agreed upon 60 mph top speed.

This is how we were loaded for our week of astronomy in TX, & our 2 weeks of birding in TX and SE AZ. We kept the load below the rear window so my outside side mirror delete was legal.



This is the Longhorn Grill in Amado, S of Tucson


I've driven many 100+ mile drives in my xB with cruise control, and come out with the following data:
70 mph = 32 mpg
60 mph = 41 mpg
50 mph = 49 mpg

For comparison, the '08 EPA estimated fuel economy on my '06 xB is 26 mpg city/30 mpg highway, & 28 mpg combined.

[lxmike]

Originally Posted by SentraSE-R

Dave was very cooperative. He drives a Subaru Outback, so our 40+ mpg tanks impressed him as much as they disappointed me. I never saw him exceeding our mutually agreed upon 60 mph top speed.

My brother is kinda like this. he think i should loosen up when on vacation. I tell him this is when i can show a nice difference. I will compromise and he does also, so I can't complain too much.

[all_about_the_glide]

What about the birds? Did you spot any endemics, rare, extra cool or close?

[SentraSE-R]

I added three life birds on the TSP trip. They were Rosy-faced Lovebird in PHX, Lucifer Hummingbird in Sierra Vista AZ, and Violet-Crowned Hummingbird in Patagonia AZ. The lovebird is under review by the ABA for addition to the North American list, and has been accepted by the AZ bird record keepers.




I'm up to something like 655 North American birds now, so it's very rare for me to even add one new species in a year. This year, I've got 6. I added the Falcated Duck in Colusa CA in January, and Brown-capped and Black Rosy-Finches at Sandia Crest NM in February.

[all_about_the_glide]

That's quite a list and I like the hummers...making food right now for our only species: ruby throat. Woke up to one at the kitchen window feeder at 5:30 this am...perfect start to the day, right before I posted a 69 mpg am trip to work (the rest of the day was a mess, for the third day in a row ).

Have not started listing, yet, have a couple of family members that have complied long lists. Will be at a spot in the Andes in late July about 9,000 feet above sea level, damn near the equator where they've spotted over 25 species of hummers, might be the right place to start.

Just watched an Oriole look at an empty feeder then fly away (real time)...too bad, have not had many this year.

[SentraSE-R]

Lucifer & Violet-crowned don't look anything like Ruby-throated, do they? Will you be near Quito? Ecuador has >120 species of hummingbirds, IIRC.