Highway Driving Tips

[Three6Eight]

Whoa I didnt notice your moving to fairfield ca

My roadtrips are from San Diego to Fairfield

[Danronian]

Sounds like a good road-trip!

I would try some FE driving for a while, stop when you get sick of it, and start again when you get bored. Anything to keep you alert and awake!

[trebuchet03]

As rh77 said, it takes quite a bit of will power to drive for FE on long distance trips....

Other than the obvious....

I agree to pace semi's -- long haul semi trucks will drive much slower - in the 55-65mph range.

Get an early start in the morning - this will give you more daylight to drive by. Speed can be substituted by time. The difference between 55 and 65 over 500 miles is less than an hour and a half. The difference between 70 and 55 is less than two hours.

Try to pace yourself such that you don't hit major rush hour traffic in the larger cities

Eat light - you won't be doing too much, so you shouldn't need as much food. Over eating on the road just means more unnecessary stops

------
It sounds like you're taking a similar route to my trip from Orlando, FL to San Francisco, CA.

Going up mountains is going to suck - SUCK! On the steeper grades, there's typically a truck lane to accommodate the semi's that will be bogging up hill at 55mph.... Take advantage of that while going uphill

------
When you're in Podunk nowhere, you may come across these tiny cities where the speed limit goes from 70/75 down to 45/35....

-------
If you have AAA - get a trip tik AND get the tourist guide books for every state you pass through. You'll find hotels, restaurants etc. that you can call ahead and such If you don't have AAA - get it I saved more than my membership on my summer road trip by having a AAA card

[lovemysan]

Originally Posted by 1993CivicVX

Get behind a semi.
Swap out your engine for a D15z1

There's not really a lot you can do as far as I know. Drive in packs of cars as opposed to driving solo. I believe that driving in a pack at 75 is just as good FE as driving solo by yourself at 65. So make sure you're behind someone! And it's even better to be stuck between two cars as that further cuts down on your drag as the turbulence created behind you gets cut somewhat by the car behind you. So, yeah, that'd be my advice. Stay in packs.

"swap your engine for a d15Z1" I'm putting this in my sig.

I would draft. Find a good draft. You'll want someone who DWL"s. Generally the government trucks (the ones with the big airforce star on the side) drive about 62mph and DWL. More great drafts are flatbeds with something big on the very end, Or low furniture vans. The scangauge will tell you if its good. If your looking for a wake draft 150' or more, get behind 3-4 semi's in line. If your van will be loaded and your driving at night I suggest you aim the headlights down a little so you want be blinding people for 2300 miles. Good luck!

[popimp]

I started my trip yesterday. The MPG isn't great but it's ok. My average speed has been between 67 and 70 mph. I'm gonna try 80mph on cruise control from Ozona to Las Cruces, NM and see what my results are. Thanks for the help.

[GasSavers_rGS]

Originally Posted by popimp

I started my trip yesterday. The MPG isn't great but it's ok. My average speed has been between 67 and 70 mph. I'm gonna try 80mph on cruise control from Ozona to Las Cruces, NM and see what my results are. Thanks for the help.

popimp,

Based on my 1997 Plymouth Grand Voyager SE that I cruise controlled @ 85 mph starting with a full tank of gas travelling from Las Vegas, NV to San Diego, CA. I eventually got to critical gas levels in the North County area of San Diego County. Doing some hindsight math, overall I was getting like low teens fuel economy or maybe even single digits. Even based on my city fuel economy of 18 mpg and a 20 gal tank, the theoretical "distance to empty" should have been 360 miles. The distance from Las Vegas to San Diego was like 333 miles. So to almost run out of gas somewhere in the middle means a fuel economy worse than 18 mpg.

Also, I recall comparing the fuel economies of 75 mph vs. 70 mph. I took a trip from San Diego, CA to Lompoc, CA @ 75 mph. On the return trip, I did it at 70 mph and there was a noticeable difference in fuel economies.

I would like to recommend AGAINST cruise control @ 80 mph.

Thanks for keeping us posted that you're safe along your trip.

[slurp812]

I know cruise control isn't the best for FE, but its better that varying speed with traffic. I use cruise to work everyday. Yea, its laziness. But I only set it at 60 mph in a 65 mph zone. The best thing for highway FE is to go slower. Of course I wouldnt want to go that slow on such a long trip either...

[1993CivicVX]

Is cruise control bad because it doesn't handle hills well? I know in the Prius it is absolutely abhorrent. It starts to climb a hill and drops a couple mph, then realizes, and floors it until it goes over cruising speed by a couple mph by the top of the hill, then it resumes normal throttle. IT doesn't seem like it was tuned at all to work with a CVT. I always wished cruise would allow the car to lose a few mph going up a hill and then slowly work its way back up to cruising speed.

[slurp812]

Originally Posted by 1993CivicVX

Is cruise control bad because it doesn't handle hills well? I know in the Prius it is absolutely abhorrent. It starts to climb a hill and drops a couple mph, then realizes, and floors it until it goes over cruising speed by a couple mph by the top of the hill, then it resumes normal throttle. IT doesn't seem like it was tuned at all to work with a CVT. I always wished cruise would allow the car to lose a few mph going up a hill and then slowly work its way back up to cruising speed.

Yea, its better to do hills with constant throttle. My drive is only like 15 miles, and fairly flat. And I am lazy!

[2TonJellyBean]

1993, not all cruise controls are alike.

Many people complain if a cruise control allows speed to drop while climbing hills, so the auto manufacturers are damned if they do and damned if they don't and most likely damned if they allow us to be able to tune the desired response.

We have a new Santa Fe and a 2001 Accord and the difference is using the cruise is night and day. With the Accord, my foot is so much better but with the Santa Fe, the cruise is that much smoother and isn't as aggressive in maintaining speed uphills. It's like the Accord adjusts in 15% increments while the SF does 3% increments.

On Rostra cruise controls (probably one of the best of the aftermarket models) they have adjustments for gain and sensitivity.