[Ecky]

This morning I decided to check the the lug nuts, as the ones I had checked before were all so tight I couldn't get them off with the tire iron in the car, which would be bad if I had a flat. I found one of the wheels had two non-matching lug nuts that didn't fit the tire iron (I think they were 21mm), and picked up replacements.

The wife wasn't feeling well and had me drop her off at work. Generally I return significantly better city numbers than she does, but she has always beat me overall on her commute. Her best trip was 59mpg there and 64mpg on the return, happened since installing the block heater and battery charger, but before the tires and belly pan additions. In the summer she's been as low as upper 40's when running the A/C and before mods.

On her return in the afternoon it's always warmer, and I suspect there's either a net elevation change and possibly more favorable lights/traffic, but we both consistently get better numbers coming back. It's around 7 miles, 50-50 city and highway, with a lot of steep hills requiring using assist in 3rd to get up on the highway, and 2nd + assist in town. I didn't use any fancy driving techniques like EoC or my calpod switch, and tried to beat her numbers.

Today, here's what I got:

8AM
To work: 59.4mpg
Back: 72.8mpg

5PM
To work: 63.9mpg
Back: 72.8mpg

It was relatively warm today, in the 60's. The block heater and 12v tender had been on overnight. On the first trip the car was trying to bring the HV battery up to full, and I let it. By the time I got home with 72.8mpg it had gone from ~1/3 charge to full.

For the afternoon trips it was raining fairly hard, which usually reduces mileage. I had put it back on the block heater and 12v tender around 2 hours before leaving.

I had the advantage of having a warm car on both return trips so it's not apples to apples, but I still beat her best "to work" trip by about 5mpg in pouring rain. Tomorrow she'll probably drive herself, so I'll have some more numbers, but so far the belly pan + tire change is working out.