[Fat Charlie]

I just finished my first full tank with the Ultra Gauge this morning. I had some towing to do and I was looking at a record tank, so I ended it early to massage the numbers. Early- at 378 miles! I never could have called it that in the old days; I'd have been bragging about how close I came to a 400 mile tank. What was odd was that none of my numbers agreed. The car read 33.6 while the Ultra Gauge read 35.7, but the pump reported 32.55.

The pump could have stopped early. The car's display could have been off- in the 30s is so far away from the car's expected mileage that a small inaccuracy would become a large gap after a few hundred miles. When the mpg is high it jumps in increments of 0.3, so it could still be within one mpg of the pump. The Ultra Gauge is underestimating fuel consumption, though. I have fuel level and distance to empty on my screen, and it said I had 6.19 gallons remaining at fill up, which was 1.1 gallons higher than the pump says I had. If the pump did stop short then it's even farther off. Looks like it's time for me to RTFM.

The 60 miles I did with the trailer were quite amusing, though. I was getting better mileage than I expected- DWLing up hills that I would have expected 20 mpg on without the trailer, I was getting 26. I think it was acting as a pathetic boat tail. Interesting...