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Old 02-19-2008, 01:43 PM   #4 (permalink)
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: San Jose
Posts: 319

Pablo - '07 Hyundai Santa Fe AWD
90 day: 23.62 mpg (US)
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This might not be the best way, but I use cruise control, the ScanGauge and the up down buttons for speed when in rolling country. For me flat and level highway cruising is done with a LOD in the mid to high 30 range.

When climbing, what I do is I press the minus button very quickly to bleed off speed in very small increments to keep my LOD fairly even to achieve some kind of minimum summit speed - kind of like what you have left over when climbing a hill with your bicycle. If there's a lot of close traffic behind you, you can't have as low of an exit speed. You can also take a note on the grades of various parts of the hill and on the steeper sections is where you'll bleed speed quicker. A moderate hill might have a target LOD of 50, steeper 60 and a long mountain pass 70 if its too long to bleed much speed.

Once summiting, I wait for the LOD to drop below 30 and then I start adding speed back - first to get back to travel speed and again like the grades going uphill, the first steeper spot will be where you can start gaining back the speed quicker. If the LOD drops below 20, I go to neutral. The only exception would be if there was another very long hill coming up and low risk of a speeding ticket, then I'd try and see what kind of speed I could build up with the LOD still well under 30.

Bleed enough speed and your fuel economy will actually go up while climbing but only for so long. It's a tough compromise but my right thumb likes this technique. BTW, in our Accord this doesn't work well at all. It seems to work well with a slushbox / DBW / very small step CC. In the Honda, each button tough is way to much, easier there to try and maintain a constant TPS on the climb that bleeds speed at the desired rate to get you to the top at your desired summit minimum speed.
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