View Single Post
Old 04-09-2008, 04:12 PM   #5 (permalink)
Harpo
EcoMudder
 
Harpo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Gainesville, FL
Posts: 79

Harpo's Honda - '05 Honda Civic VP
90 day: 42.64 mpg (US)
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroMPG View Post
Obviously you already know about keeping the speeds reasonable.

If you're cruising the highways, "target driving" or "driving with load" is your best bet. Fire up the ScanGauge, decide on an MPG figure that you want to attain (within reason), and play, play, play that throttle to achieve it.

Ideally you'll have the add-a-gauge feature set up so you'll be able to watch both instant & averaged MPG on the same screen.
Speeds reasonable have largest effect. Being a retired aviator, I like to play the game of hitting my checkpoints on time using a proposed average mph. Setting the ScanGuage up w/instant & averaged MPG and Fuel Flow is really easy to drive.

I had trip yesterday back from Orlando (157 miles all Turnpike/Interstate). I set my checkpoint times (+/-5 min.), the set my "requested" mpg as frequently as I could to met my time requirements. I use maps.google.com to estimate route mileage, pre-trip. I chose 60mph as my proposed avg speed, and ended up averaging 58mph. I shot for 42.5mpg, and exceeded that with about 45% trip remaining. My Max Speed was 77mph, going downhill at .35gph behind a semi who I caught at the crest of the previous uphill. I tried to hang in the 1.5gpm range on flats which usally had me around 65mph. Ultimately, I arrived "around 3 minutes late" and at a SuperCool 45mpg FE averaging 1.268gph.
__________________
  Reply With Quote