I think we covered this once before but doing a search I didn't turn up anything. Everyone seemed to agree that the best way to climb a hill is with constant load. But does anyone have any data to support this? Does a hard acceleration to to top and then coast use less fuel? I'm thinking it might be like the testing done for hard accleration to cruise speed from a stop that was done resulting in better FE.
I would think that constant acceleration at the highest possible vacuum would be the best.
I try to keep a steady foot at 10 in/hg while going up the hill on my way to and from work. Most of the time that means 4th gear at about 2500RPMs. I have no idea if this is the best way though, since I don't have a way to measure my FE on the run.
I try to build as much speed up as possible before the hill and kill it off by keeping the same throttle position. It its real big I just keep climping at a slow pace with no acceleration.
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2008 EPA adjusted:
Distance traveled by bicycle in 2007= 1,830ish miles
Average commute speed=25mph (yes, that's in a car)
On light to medium grades I use fixed throttle opening , but if the climb is expected to be quite steep I will try and gain a little extra speed at the bottom.
Hopefully by the time I get to the top I may be just under the speed limit , and then I coast down the other side at quite a good speed.
The worst case is if I have underestimated the grade and it required a change down.
Bummer.
Scangauge testing would probably show the best way to tackle hills.
I have a similar dilemma -- to get on the highway, the on-ramp is a steep upward climb of acceleration. We've found the TSX likes to get up to speed instead of slowly holding constant throttle (probably the i-VTEC figuring things out). With the Integra, I don't usually have an instant tank FE reading from the ScanGauge since it gets around in rentals,and I haven't pinpointed the best rate. Tessie shows the instant FE, with a drop of about 0.2 on a half-tank while creeping up the on-ramp. There's no change when briskly getting to the point.
I'll have to reset the SG and do some tests this weekend. My new tires come-in tomorrow, so lets hope they aren't too much of a drag (Michelin Energy MXV4). I'm hoping they're lower in RR than what I have now, but we'll see.
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