|
I too, was curious about the best way to deal with a hill. Living in Carson City, NV and having frequent (at least a couple times a month) business in Sacramento, CA has me going over the Sierras quite a few times a year, and that is a pretty serious hill!!!
So today I decided to go out and try a ScanGauge test in my Jimmy. This hill is on a section of the "old highway" between Reno and Carson City, and the posted speed limit is 50 mph. I usually used to drive the speed limit, and in "cruise control". This particular hill was on the borderline between being able to go up it in overdrive (4th) or having it downshift to 3rd. It seems wind and load were usually the determining factors... no load and/or tailwind and it'll stay in top gear. A second person (or more) and/or headwind ensures a downshift.
What I did was the "cruise control-ScanGauge trip reset" trick, but only one-way - - UP the hill - - for each test hitting the "reset" at the same spot on the bottom each time & reading the "current avg" at the same spot on the top each time. The hill is probably about a mile long, maybe 6% grade or so. Coasting down it the other direction in neutral will get up above 60 - sometimes above 70, which is pretty scary in a "50 zone":
speed - mpg - 2nd test
60 - - - 13.3 - - - 13.2
55 - - - 13.7 - - - 13.8
50 - - - 13.8
45 - - - 13.8
40 - - - 13.8
35 - - - 13.2
Unfortunately, this seemed to confirm my previous thought that "no matter what I did, it wouldn't matter". Of course, going 60 clearly hurts it, and slowing to 35 does too. Actually, that was a bit of a surprise because I thought going up it in low gear, but SLOW might be the best.
Seems I read something on here about the most efficient "throttle position", or something. Should I be looking at that instead of speed? Any of the wiser people here have any "obvious tips" for the best mpg going up a hill such as this?
Thanks,
Bill
|