Perfect roads

[theholycow]

Yesterday I drove on the perfect hypermiling roads. They were empty country highways with rolling hills that were just right - steep enough to maintain speed during EOC, usually no more and no less.

My ScanGauge has been showing trip averages of 33-34mpg lately, and it showed 45mpg for that 60 mile trip, including going through a town with backed up traffic.

I went to pick up some tires for my gearing experiment...I brought them home but I think they're too tall.

[GasSavers_maximilian]

Where were you?

[Jay2TheRescue]

My scangauge usually reports the best mileage on back country roads. Rolling hills, and the cruise set at 50 or 55 allows the truck to DFCO down hills in overdrive.

-Jay

[theholycow]

Western MA, roads like Route 31 and such. One portion was named "Podunk Road" or "Podunk Highway", I can't remember.

[Ford Man]

An 11-12 MPG increase over your usual mileage is great. Don't you just wish all roads were like that? When I am on roads with rolling hills I also just let completely off the gas and let DFCO do it's job. The area where I live nearly all the roads have rolling hills, but I always manage to get behind someone that wants to brake going down every hill or around every little curve. It makes me so MAD I'm trying get 50 MPG and someone in front of me riding their brakes so I can't take full advantage of coasting. My wife has heard me talk so much about FE that she will even sit in the passengers seat and tell the other drivers to go on. I am going to be teaching her how to drive in the near future, so I'll be adding in the FE tips, but her car is an '87 Celebrity w/automatic transmission so it doesn't do great. I ussually get about 28-29 MPG when I drive it. We are going to look around and see if we can find her an Escort w/automatic at a good price which would be good for another 2-5 MPG maybe even a little more. After she get some driving experience maybe I'll be able to muster up enough nerve to try to teach her to drive a straight shift, but notice I did say MAYBE.

[theholycow]

LOL, yeah, it can be frustrating teaching the wife to drive stick.

[GasSavers_maximilian]

My ex simply refused to drive stick, even when that was the only car we owned. Made me drive everywhere.

[vxdude]

It took my wife like 3 months to finally learn, with all the crying and getting mad i didnt think she would ever learn, but she did and will never drive an automatic again, My poor clutch though...lol

[Improbcat]

I love backcountry roads like that. I did a run out route 44 in CT &NY last summer to pick up some tires & rims for Box and averaged 46mpg for the trip. Just last weekend I did a run down route 20 in MA and averaged around 45mpg.

My GF only likes driving manuals. In fact she was given a '92 Toyota MR2 by a relative and thinks it is the perfect car *except* for the automatic. She's already talking about maybe swapping in a manual drivetrain a few years down the line.

[R.I.D.E.]

Originally Posted by theholycow

Yesterday I drove on the perfect hypermiling roads. They were empty country highways with rolling hills that were just right - steep enough to maintain speed during EOC, usually no more and no less.

My ScanGauge has been showing trip averages of 33-34mpg lately, and it showed 45mpg for that 60 mile trip, including going through a town with backed up traffic.

I went to pick up some tires for my gearing experiment...I brought them home but I think they're too tall.

When the hills are as you describe HC, I can average over 80 MPG while averaging 40-50 MPH. It's even better when the roads are 4 lane so other traffic can avoid me.

My last trip to Tech, I used the old state routes, all 4 lanes with speed limits of 55 to 65 MPH. Practically deserted with very few trucks. There were some areas where I had to deal with congestion in several small cities.

655.5 miles on 9.268 gallons for 70.2 MPG. I drove 577 miles in one day on that trip, averaging about 55-58 MPH.

Went through Richmond, Appomattox, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Blacksburg, Roankoke again, Leesburg, Manassas, and several other smaller towns.

regards
gary