Quote:
Originally Posted by GoodOak
I'm really gland I found this thread.
I only recently joined Ecomodders after purchasing a gas guzzling small truck for my small business. I bought a ScanGauge and installed it this past Monday. I was surprised to see that my MPG is so low for so long when I accelerate very slowly, and when I accellerate at a more moderate pace my MPG increase much faster.
I am attributing this to the very low gearing a truck has in 1st and 2nd gear which gives you lots of power but not much efficiency. AFAICT from ~100 miles of driving, I seem to get 1-3mpg in 1st and then when it gets into second I get 6-8 mpg. Third gear brings the MPGs into the double digest. The increase in speed probably has something to do with this as well since it increase the miles in "miles per gallon".
I'm glad to see others are having similar results and that I am not crazy. My new strategy will be to accelerate more briskly to get out of 1st and 2nd quickly up to more efficient gears.
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I don't have a Scanguage (though I'm considering a Kiwi soon), but I agree with this. It seems that the sooner you get out of the lower gears, the better, because you travel farther at a given rpm in a higher gear than you do at the same rpm in a lower gear. It's the same on a bicycle. In addition to trying to drive with my foot off the pedal as much as possible, my new city strategy will also be to try to get up to 30 ASAP (because that's where my Taurus kicks into 3rd gear) and maintain that. It's just challenging due to the stop-and-go nature of city driving.