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Old 03-11-2013, 04:46 AM   #16 (permalink)
wmjinman
Master EcoModder
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Carson City, Nevada
Posts: 612

Jimmy - '00 GMC Jimmy SLT
90 day: 21.18 mpg (US)

The White Gnat - '99 Suzuki Swift
Team Suzuki
90 day: 51.87 mpg (US)
Thanks: 240
Thanked 114 Times in 90 Posts
When I took the roof rack off my Jimmy, I just did the whole thing in one whack, so I don't know how much the cross bars were vs. the longitudinal ones. But from reading the various posts on here, I'm guessing the cross bars are where most of it is - so the gains from doing the rest of it might be minimal.

I'd say experiment with folding the mirrors in. Just 'cuz I didn't see a great improvement doesn't mean it won't be in the van you get. But when you approach congestion, be prepared to either pop them back out, or for it to get "hairy"!!!

On the tires, I guess the "prudent" thing would be to put them to max sidewall & then make sure the tire pressure sensor alarm doesn't go off. If it does, adjust until it goes back off, right?

I didn't look too closely at my Jimmy's percentages vs. what your goal was, so sorry about that. I guess the point I was trying to make was just that EXTREME improvements can be had, but it may take EXTREME efforts to do it! - like driving everywhere at 40 mph!!! But yeah, if my gas logs are showing 40% over EPA, and you wanna get 30% over, then I guess the "shot in the dark guess" would be you could probably do it while being LESS extreme than I was. - and my tanks did include at least 2 or 3 cold starts per day, and probably at least 30% "city" driving with stoplights, etc.

Belly pan - yeah, probably a huge effort for a rental car. I plan to do one for my own car, but due to the huge effort, I haven't done it yet! LOL!!! And I've read a couple reports on here where guys went to all that trouble and then were very dissappointed by seeing much smaller gains than they expected. - That would kinda suck!!

Windshield wipers - don't be surprised if you don't see any improvement. From what I hear, it's miniscule, at best. It's pretty dry where I live, so we can go a week or more without rain. So I thought I'd do an A-B-A test with the blades off vs. on in the Jimmy. - Didn't see any difference at all .... exact same averages both ways. I haven't tried the test on my Swift yet. The way it's hood/windshield interface is shaped, I think there might be more of a chance to see a difference there, so gotta test that.

Air dam - I'd say it depends on what your van looks like when you get it. If you can squat down a few dozen feet in front of it & see all kinds of lumpy machinery hanging down below the line of whatever smooth front end it has - AND - you can figure out a way to attach it without going into "major engineering/manufacturing mode", then yeah - it'll probably help you. If not, then it might not. Hard to say. One of those "play it by ear" things.

You know, if your co-horts are all into the hypermiling thing, you guys could have a really fun game by competing against each other to see who's tank "wins" with the highest MPG. That would tend to keep you all on your toes.
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