10 mpg improvement!

[Execut1ve]

Yesterday I drove from Springfield, OH to Providence, NC. The trip is about 440 mi. Terrain varies from the plains of Ohio through the mountains of West Virginia and the foothills of Virginia. I modified my usual driving style on the trip from simply setting the cruise control to 5 over. This time I tried giving a little extra juice on the downhills, and backing off and using a fixed throttle position on the uphills. I could have probably made the whole trip on one tank but I didn't want to press it as it was late, so I filled up when I hit the 400 mi mark on the tank. My tank mileage was 41.95 mpg (a personal best!), an improvement of almost 10 mpg over the previous tank. I had hit 40 mpg on a tank or two occasionally in the past, but never because I intentionally drove a certain way. I'm very pleased with the results I will be looking for more improvements once I get some kind of mpg gauge or vacuum gauge

[blade]

wow thats darn good

[theycallmeebryan]

Conventional cruise control systems do the opposite of what us ecomodders want. It's not speed that you want to hold, its engine load, as that will produce a near constant fuel economy throughout your trip. By holding engine load, your vehicle will use speed it gained from a downward slope to climb up a hill, and likewise regain overall speed after climbing a hill on the next downward slope.

Basically, if you can manage it, try to use a constant foot position instead of the cruise control.

Ofcourse, P&G on the highway will produce even better gains, but that's more of an advanced hypermiling technique.

[mcrews]

I do alot of road time on the Northern CA highways. I usually got to neutral and coast dowmhill. Never getting above about 82-84mph (too much speed to burn off in a moun tain curve) and coast to about 56-59 as I'm slowing before I accellerate back to 63mph.
I run my cruise at 59-64 (I don't wan't to be the slowest horse in the race!!)
I just am not a P&G guy but I do what I can do.
I used to cruise at 77mph and tried to always AVERAGE 70mph on a long trip.
Not any more. now my goal is to beat 25mpg on the round trip (my epa is 17/22).
I have actually achieved 30mpg over a 7 mile stretch (A-B-A) but not sure if 30mpg on a tank is possible. my best tank is 27.6

[aggie sig]

that my goal 40mpg on the civic, I've gotten about 36 on the first 3 tanks, I just strapped on an Ultraguage so maybe now I can find the sweet spot on my daily 80 mile commute.