[Formula413]

One of the vehicles I drive at work is a Ford Explorer. Since I'm the primary driver of this vehicle I've been keeping track of fuel economy and have been able to hit the 20% over threshold for hypermiling on a few tanks so far, and every tank I've checked has been at least 7% over EPA. Most of these tanks have been in colder weather on winter blend fuel, so I'm looking forward to see if I can push it even higher. EPA FE is 13 city, 18 highway, 15 combined. The way it is driven is fairly close to the 45% highway/55% city split the EPA uses.

The specs are: 2002 Ford Explorer, 5 speed automatic, 4 liter V6, automatic 4WD. No ecomods at all, factory recommended air pressure in tires. The techniques I've been using are pretty straightforward. On the highway I never drive faster than 55 mph. When it comes to acceleration, I ran my Scangauge on it a few times to get an idea what different loads feel like, and try to shoot for a load of about 70% when accelerating. The transmission can be coaxed into lockup in OD at about 37 mph, so I try to keep the speed around there whenever possible. One technique I have been concentrating on is braking early when necessary to avoid full stops if possible and conserve momentum. I also put it in neutral at idle and shut it off if I expect to be stopped for more than 20-30 seconds.

One thing I plan to try in the future is accelerating with lighter loads, and trying to coax the transmission into short shifting by lifting. I would like to get an idea of whether the gains to be had from accelerating with load are offset by increased slippage in the torque converter. Also, in the next few weeks it will be seeing a large amount of highway use. I'm not sure if it has summer blend in it yet, if it does I'm hoping to crack 20mpg.

These might not be huge gains here, but it is nice to see that even a not so eco friendly vehicle can at least be made somewhat less so by applying proven techniques.