Downhill both ways for the win

[davelobi]

Been gone a while (life) but thought about y'all today doing a round trip to the store.
There's two ways (virtually the same distance) I can take. One has a long and quite steep stretch that is a hypermilers dream stretch. I, almost subconsciously, usually take the wheee downhill on the way to the store and avoid going back up it on the return trip by using the other road.
Today it hit me like a pie in the face that from home to the store and back home puts me right back at the same parking elevation as I started from. The two different roads have identical height changes albeit in different forms. Technically the same amount of work is being done to traverse either road, ie round trip on same road, results in the same amount of total elevation traversed.

Let's call the steep hill one road A and the more gradual one road B. Remember road A has the steep downhill on the way to the store. You could drive the round trip 4 ways, AA, AB, BB, BA. I know you can't see, or experience, the length or gradient of the inclines or declines from my description. Use any and all methods (p&g, dfco, etc, etc) to make the commute. Seat of the pants thinking here, no scangauge etc.
What route do you take and why?

[redpoint5]

I would use whatever method allows for DFCO the majority of the way there, and the shortest route back from my conception of what would be most efficient.

Actually, I'd just pick whichever is quicker both way.

[freebeard]

What percentage of the car's weight is in groceries?

[Gasoline Fumes]

Google Maps will give you a route elevation graph if you select bicycle directions. You might have to drag the route around to avoid bike paths!

[davelobi]

Originally Posted by freebeard

What percentage of the car's weight is in groceries?

Zero! 100% grocery cartage is done in wife's 15mpg Lexus lol

New tires today installed at Wallmart tire center. They'll only fill em to factory specs. I drove right across the street to a Belle Tire and added another 10psi with their free air filling Station

[davelobi]

Originally Posted by Gasoline Fumes

Google Maps will give you a route elevation graph if you select bicycle directions. You might have to drag the route around to avoid bike paths!

The Google maps pic (set on bicycle) says mostly flat lol. The circled section has the giant hill. The pic ends at the bottom left where the rest of the route is identical.
Oh, forgot to mention, new (to me) is a 2019 Corolla hatchback with three pedals and 256k miles.

[redpoint5]

Of course, MPG will take an initial hit with those new tires.

[Piwoslaw]

How to climb hills has already been discussed here:
Hill Climbing
Engine load vs rpm? (Climbing: hold top gear at very high load, or downshift?)
Hills (most efficient climbing technique for diesel / manual transmission?)

You have to see whether climbing the steep hill back, or taking more gradual route, uses less fuel. Not just better MPG, because distance also plays a role.

It might be that one of the routes forces you to go faster, so any savings from more efficient hill climbing is lost to aero drag. Or it might have more stops. If you drive this way regularly, then maybe make notes on the fuel consumption for each of the two routes and which direction (exact distance and MPG). The more numbers you get, the better idea you'll have.

You may even refine the method to take into account time of day and weather, for example one route might be more efficient when you are using A/C, the other would be better when you aren't.

[redpoint5]

Getting groceries in any of the 4 vehicles in your garage would save the most.

[davelobi]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Getting groceries in any of the 4 vehicles in your garage would save the most.

I suppose updating my garage is in order. Haven't had any of those cars listed for a long time. In fact probably have had at least a half dozen different cars since any of them. Solstice, 14 corolla, scion tC, grand prix, tacoma, mitsubishi mini-cab, 330i, maybe others, I forget, and now this '19 corolla. It's pretty decent, I'm hovering just over 40mpg and that's mostly around town.