MPG it's about how you drive

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For the record... I am not claiming to get 22 miles to a gallon. What I observed was this. I was full tank monday morning, Went to work and back and filled up and it cost around $68. Went to work tuesday came back... same trip and it cost $60 to fill up Wednesday morning, before leaving frederick. Went to work Wednesday, came back home. Went to work thursday, came back home. Went to work this morning. Drove around a little bit after work looking for cheap gas. If you dont have have the "gas buddy" android up it might be worth checking out. Filled up it was $65.
Now the trip with the wife is a little over 65 miles each way. The trip without the wife is around 55 miles each way.
What I noticed before this week is , if I start off full on monday, I will refill , like on tuesday night or sometime wednesday and then again on friday, But I go into the weekend most of the way full. The one week that I did keep track of miles driven vs number of gallons pumped into the tank... my average was around 14-15 miles per gallon. But that was also the week that I discovered what turning off the over drive and hitting the power button would do. Discovered it 2-3 times.
Also... the trip without the wife... I am crawling down I-270 averaging maybe 30 mph. The trip with the wife I am running down I-70 at 70-80 mph. All I am saying is the difference in how I drive the 2 trips seems to make a big difference in how much I spend on gas.
I must say this... today I filled up at 3.65/gal. The other 2 fill ups were at 3.72/gall
 
Muddy Bean said:
In any case, you might be interested in the hypermiling forums that discuss some of the dramatic mileage increases people have experienced from creative driving techniques.
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I think some of those hypermiling gains are from frustrated SUV drivers nudging those little hybrids away from lights. I hate getting caught behind one of those guys - as they idle their way up to 2/3 the posted speed.... spewing smug pollution as they go.

But on point.... yeah, there's no doubt our trucks likely have a 30%+ mpg swing just from driving style
 
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DuckLN said:
I drive mine as slow as possible and minimal power necessary at darn near every take off. Very few drive slower than i and my MPG's are still in the worst 2% of vehicles ever manufactured at average of 13.4 and thats with factory sized street tires. I've been honked at and yelled at consistently by road raged fools but my cars last a long time with little maintenance so Im happy.

I've found that at a constant speed of 50 I can get 17 but no better.
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You need to modify this.

When taking off from a stop, use "moderate" acceleration to get in high gear quick. As soon as you are up to speed in 4th or 5th is when you see the savings. So I use a little pedal to get up tospeed so I can back off and let it shift up quick. The longer you drive in lower gears, the worse the mileage. It's a feel thing.

Use the cruise control as much as possible. You think you are holding your foot in the same position but you are not. The cruise control gets much better mileage than I do. Spend your concentration managing the CC, not your right foot.

Keep it under 70 on CC and you'll be amazed.

You will be amazed how much head winds and tailwinds matter when driving a Box.

Also, getting good mileage has a great secondary effect. High tire mileage. My last LTX's went 90,000.

I never understood when I was younger how my Dad could get well over 120,000 miles out of a pair of Michelins.

1) He drove so slow and accelerated at the pace of a snail. Scared the hell out of us. But he was an Military Aircraft Mechanic and understood how a lot of things worked, including wear and tear on everything.

2) He drove a Volvo Wagon that didn't have enough HP to abuse the tires much.

ipso facto, QED, he gets 120K on a set of tires back in the 70's

I just did a trip and have some Ultra Gauge results with PIX, this looks like a good place to post them.
 
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I agree that über slow take offs from lights with peeps behind you or dangerous driving is silly. But coasting downhill in neutral and refraining from passing that requires you to floor the throttle and keeping your cruise set at 65 on the hwy can net you gains that are substantial enough to make you at least feel good about the MPG your truck is capable of.
 
Coasting downhill in neutral gets worse mileage than staying in high gear. Your engine cuts fuel if there's no throttle input and the RPMs are over a certain amount. Idling in neutral means you have to use fuel to keep the engine turning.
 
1loudLX said:
Coasting downhill in neutral gets worse mileage than staying in high gear. Your engine cuts fuel if there's no throttle input and the RPMs are over a certain amount. Idling in neutral means you have to use fuel to keep the engine turning.
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True to a point but not 100%. When needing to come to a stop at some point, staying in D is a better option though that is not technically considered coasting but more "engine assisted braking" by hyper milers. That being said, on downhill descents, coasting in N actually will use less fuel because the greater distance you can cover at a set speed is going to obviously increase your MPG. That's why I specifically suggested coasting downhill in N. this has all been hashed with SG results in the ecomodders forums:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...neutral-coasting-gear-save-more-gas-3800.html
 
Muddy Bean said:
True to a point but not 100%. When needing to come to a stop at some point, staying in D is a better option though that is not technically considered coasting but more "engine assisted braking" by hyper milers. That being said, on downhill descents, coasting in N actually will use less fuel because the greater distance you can cover at a set speed is going to obviously increase your MPG. That's why I specifically suggested coasting downhill in N. this has all been hashed with SG results in the ecomodders forums:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...neutral-coasting-gear-save-more-gas-3800.html
Click to expand...

Does it hurt the transmission to shift in and out of Neutral when not stopped? I thought it didn't but I'm not sure.

Does anyone "know" the answer to this?
 
DuckLN said:
:bang:

I get the feeling you're serious but can't believe that any LC driver would feel good about MPG's.
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Everything's relative...

Also, if you can modify a few things and increase MPG 20-35% or so, I would say that is significant.

For most folks on Mud, this probably won't happen. Changing to heavy wheels and tires and loading down a LC/LX with a monster Rack, and 1,000 #'s of goodies, yeah, MPG's ain't happenin'.

But for the stockers, you can make some leaps.

Relatively speaking...
 
Thank you! I drove behind wife today from church and its stands nice and tall.
 
Muddy Bean said:
True to a point but not 100%. When needing to come to a stop at some point, staying in D is a better option though that is not technically considered coasting but more "engine assisted braking" by hyper milers. That being said, on downhill descents, coasting in N actually will use less fuel because the greater distance you can cover at a set speed is going to obviously increase your MPG. That's why I specifically suggested coasting downhill in N. this has all been hashed with SG results in the ecomodders forums:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...neutral-coasting-gear-save-more-gas-3800.html
Click to expand...

In real world use in my truck, this hasn't been the case. On one of my first wheeling trips, I wheeled out then took highway back. The return went over a pass on a 2-lane 50 mph road. I had just fueled up and got the best MPG I've ever seen in the truck.

If you're coasting just to coast then I can see logic in the above. However, what I think we're all talking about here is coasting downhill (when brakes are also required) or coasting to a stop (where brakes are required). This is the vast majority of time we spend rolling at idle power. In both these scenarios you're better off in D saving the fuel. In N you'd just be braking more.

The whole hypermiler movement is silly to me. It's a hobby that doesn't result in any significant savings to either the individual or society, yet it makes you drive like an asshat and causes others to make risky driving decisions just to get around you. Just drive normal and coast in drive and you'll get 90% of the benefits without pissing everyone off. The OEM's designed this because it works.
 
lesgarten said:
You need to modify this.

When taking off from a stop, use "moderate" acceleration to get in high gear quick. As soon as you are up to speed in 4th or 5th is when you see the savings. So I use a little pedal to get up tospeed so I can back off and let it shift up quick. The longer you drive in lower gears, the worse the mileage. It's a feel thing.

Use the cruise control as much as possible. You think you are holding your foot in the same position but you are not. The cruise control gets much better mileage than I do. Spend your concentration managing the CC, not your right foot.

Keep it under 70 on CC and you'll be amazed.

You will be amazed how much head winds and tailwinds matter when driving a Box.

Also, getting good mileage has a great secondary effect. High tire mileage. My last LTX's went 90,000.

I never understood when I was younger how my Dad could get well over 120,000 miles out of a pair of Michelins.

1) He drove so slow and accelerated at the pace of a snail. Scared the hell out of us. But he was an Military Aircraft Mechanic and understood how a lot of things worked, including wear and tear on everything.

2) He drove a Volvo Wagon that didn't have enough HP to abuse the tires much.

ipso facto, QED, he gets 120K on a set of tires back in the 70's

I just did a trip and have some Ultra Gauge results with PIX, this looks like a good place to post them.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. Just returned from Monterey, CA today. After refueling, I averaged 17.6 mpg over 111 miles with the cruise control set at 65 mph (and the AC set at 68 degrees). After some quick calculations, I averaged 17.4 mpg over the entire 188 mile trip. I find that 65 mph sufficiently fast and probably safer given the weight of the vehicle and the distance needed to come to a controlled stop. It was very comfortable trip and the slower speed only added 30 minutes.

MPG Pic.webp
 
Dont forget the Micheal Phelps sharkskin vehicle cover, when driving over 55mph you cut through the air like a hot knife through butter 22-30 mpgs are not uncommon.
 
FMKV said:
Dont forget the Micheal Phelps sharkskin vehicle cover, when driving over 55mph you cut through the air like a hot knife through butter 22-30 mpgs are not uncommon.
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You got something there for sure!

I removed the front air deflector, the spoiler, and the OEM roof Rack and grabbed 2 mpg.
 
Is there any way to filter mpg threads so they only show up in the "nonsense" section on Mud...? Trunk Monkey, please work on this...thanks!
 
I cant believe the way some of you respond to a conversation about MPG. If you're not into it, don't read and don't post. The thread is clearly labeled. I've been a longtime member of a plethora of online automotive enthusiast forums as well as a private coach forum and this one contains some of the rudest members. I frequently read a thread where someone poses a question or an idea, and they are belittled or treated in a condescending manner. I've always enjoyed learning from many of you more experienced than I but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with some of the retorts you guys throw around. Some of us are driving stock cruisers and enjoy the banter on MPGs and it's only fair to allow us this simple conversation. Now, back to the subject of the thread....I'm thinking of hitching some horses to the recovery points on the front of my cruiser to see if it helps my MPGs just a little. Leave it in N and just idle the engine for accessories and to keep the battery charged. Like a real comfy Amish buggy. Just a thought.
 
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