Hi folks,
Going to see if I can turn this into a success story.
At the end of this month, I will once again be traveling to St. Louis from Central California with Helga, my Jetta TDI. I did this last year (see
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ero-21172.html) and was able to get a 68mpg tank (875 miles) with a 65mph average speed. Of course, that was helped by having an end point 5000 ft lower than the begin point, but the FE after nearly 4,500 miles of driving at mostly freeway speeds was still a pretty impressive 61mpg, without any special hypermiling other than staying in the wind shadow of larger vehicles if possible... the trip even included some AC when necessary.
In preparation for last year's trip, I added a Home Depot air dam and an axle-back belly pan. The axle-back belly pan came off the first day of driving and the air dam didn't seem to help much so I removed it after I returned. Since then, I have not added much in the way of aero mods, though when I'm the primary driver I can still get at or near 60mpg tanks. Goal for this trip is to get one tank over 70mpg. I'll be happy with that even if I get a gravity assist.
Before I go on this trip, I have planned to do the following things:
- Drop ride height of Helga by about 1" using aftermarket springs. Needed new shocks anyway, and I found a set of used springs for cheap.
- Replace thermostat with a higher-temp t'stat. I haven't been able to keep the temp above 188* summer or winter, even with the grill blocked as much as it is. I'll be putting in the 205* t'stat as described here:
Modified Thermostat for higher MPG's... - TDIClub Forums
- Cover up a few under-body gaps. Ideally, I'd do the whole underneath of the car, but I don't think I'll have time
- Remove muffler. No, I don't expect that to improve my FE.
- Make smooth wheel covers. If I have time.
- Add spats in front of the tires
- EDIT: Change to lower viscosity oil (5w-40 to 0w-30)
Things I will not do:
- Remove passenger mirror: Since my wife drives it too
- Add quickie wheel skirts: Has to pass wife approval, so they need to be relatively nice looking. Won't have time to make two nice skirts.
- Change wheels/tires. Currently I have LRRs on there and I may go for taller tires once these wear out. But that'll be after I get back.
Will try to keep you up to date on my progress.