Quote:
Originally Posted by larrybuck
Wouldn't it be prudent on a long uphill stretch to tuck in behind a heavily loaded truck, and just putter up the hill at a relaxed constant speed?
Are the police that mean about STEEP HILLS? With the vintage of your car, wouldn't "It's a little tired, I'm trying to make it last in this economy" work IF you were stopped?
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Hiya larrybuck. Thanks for the comment, hey. I agree about drafting. But this was a test of this one technique, so I had to control for it as best as I could. Drafting is reliant on the luck of getting the right situation. But yesterday I drafted a truck across a 22 mile all-freeway route (smaller hilly % than the test route) and pulled 73.2mpg at an ave 53.5mph. Last week on that route without drafting: 63.3 @ 59.4 ave mph. BTW, I don't follow very closely. Three or four car lengths is my favorite because it discourages people getting in between and seems to be as good or better than hyper close, according to Hucho's aerodynamics book.
On the puttering up a hill at a slow constant speed question. First, yes, the police will pull you over at 40 or 45 mph, and technically could any time you fall below 55. Freeways here are six lanes across in each direction and people drive 65-85 routinely. You can get killed. The slow speed would also be a mistake, probably, from an efficiency standpoint, even while drafting. Your car will operate relatively inefficiently at low load% and burn more fuel over the same terrain. I know it sounds wrong. But if you follow your gauge to appropriate high load for your motor, you can drive a little faster (saffer and more legal) and get a lot higher FE and you don't have to EOC on the freeway. But if I were to do what you describe, I would vary my speed, seeking an average that keeps me steadily behind the truck, while allowing P&G with load ("GLEN") so I can get higher load% averages out of the engine for greater FE.
As for the vintage of my car... I hear you, but "this is the ship that made the Kessle run in 5 parsecs... she's fast enough..." I've been dodging the empire for decades.
