Thread: Lugging
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Old 03-01-2012, 08:49 AM   #1 (permalink)
pete c
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Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: ellington, ct
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Lugging

I have a question regarding lugging while P&Ging.

Most of my commute is on roads with speed limits in the 30-40 mph range.

When there is no traffic behind me, I will generally glide down to close to 30 mph, which is about my minimum 5th gear speed (V-6 ranger, 5 speed stick).

If I extend my glide a little to long or have some sort of uphill, I sometimes get into the lug zone a bit. I can stay in 5th, with very light throttle and accelerate very slowly, smoothly, or I can momentarily drop to 4th or sometimes 3rd, accelerate hard and be back into 5th fairly quickly.

Which is better?

Do I burn more fuel putting up with a few seconds of very light throttle to nurse it out of the lug zone or should I go to a lower gear where I can go to a more efficient 80% throttle.

I do not have a scan guage, unfortunately.

Does anyone have a BSFC graph for the vulcan 3.slow V-6?

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