Thread: Hypomiling
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Old 08-08-2009, 09:51 AM   #9 (permalink)
wumpus
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Likely geared low

Maybe 15 years ago I was helping a friend move. I turned out he got "bait and switched" by the local U-haul and brought back a truck with a manual transmission. He doesn't drive stick and wasn't going into details on his 3 mile jaunt down route 1.

From what I remember (this is probably the empty truck on the way back): 1st gear - moves the tires, once the tire begins rotating switch to second (as in a couple of feet). You should be in third gear by the time you leave the intersection.

This doesn't leave much room for high gears, much less any overdrive. It does allow you to load up a lot of weight on a 4 cylinder engine and still get it moving (slowly). I suspect that the truck in this thread is geared a bit taller than the one I drove, I think they would have to put a limiter below 75 on mine (note that I survived the DC beltway, so I wasn't going all that slow).

PS. I have no idea if you can still get manual transmission U-hauls.
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