Sad Effort at Hypermiling A Hummer :(

[elhigh]

Demuro's shtick is that he's a writer, and sometimes an entertaining one. He does a lot of writing for Jalopnik.

His "hypermiling" was just driving slow, his aero had to be the crappiest tape job I've ever seen, and his cardboard skirts were just embarrassing. He couldn't have done a much poorer job without actively trying to make it worse.

This is what happens when you get the wrong kind of enthusiast writing about something. If he doesn't respect it, he's not going to give it a fair shake. He doesn't, and he didn't.

[darcane]

Originally Posted by elhigh

Demuro's shtick is that he's a writer, and sometimes an entertaining one. He does a lot of writing for Jalopnik.

His "hypermiling" was just driving slow, his aero had to be the crappiest tape job I've ever seen, and his cardboard skirts were just embarrassing. He couldn't have done a much poorer job without actively trying to make it worse.

This is what happens when you get the wrong kind of enthusiast writing about something. If he doesn't respect it, he's not going to give it a fair shake. He doesn't, and he didn't.

Given his previous video with the insight:
Here’s What Happened When I Went Hypermiling In a Honda Insight
I was expecting a little more effort on his part. While his primary goal is still clearly to make an entertaining video, he seemed to take it more seriously with the Insight.

[Baltothewolf]

What is the difference in the mpg between the diesel and gas versions?

[Hersbird]

I've seen diesel guys report 15-17 mpg at 65 mph

[Baltothewolf]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

I've seen diesel guys report 15-17 mpg at 65 mph

Wow, I know my friends dad drove a H1 gas fully armored in Iraq and he said he got 8 on a good day!

[Hersbird]

The diesel was the old 6.5 which wasn't as powerful as a modern Duramax but they would do pretty well in a suburban or pickup economy wise. My aluminum, lightweight, 4 cylinder, 2wd mail truck on 14" tires gets 8 on a good day too. It's function over economy on both the mail truck and the military Hummers.

[Sven7]

I expressed disappointment in the comment section, and suggested using an air dam next time instead of just wasting tape. Unfortunately, his target audience also likes to make fun of what they think is hypermiling. It would have been really neat to see him spend a few hours aero-modding and make an effort.

[Vman455]

Well, that was an entertaining straw man.

[ThePrudentNinja]

Meh, the rolling turd (a big van) I have got 12 MPG average. Old V8 with a carb, seriously needed a tuneup. Aerodynamics of a brick. Still got 12MPG. I also drove it like I stole it lol. I did attempt better driving habits with it and squeezed out another 2MPG (for 14MPG average for a few trips). However due to bad aerodynamics, rough mechanical shape, bad rolling resistance, and automatic trans, wasn't much I could do. The car I borrowed after the rolling turd broke down (transmission went out) is so much more aerodynamically decent that it felt more like slicing through the air instead of pushing through the air like the rolling turd.

This guy could have squeezed out a few more MPGs with a hummer but it's sort of a losing battle. With the van I realized that even on my top game (driving), the best I could see was 2-3 MPG above average (which also used some hypermiling techniques, but not many). The true average MPG was like 8MPG. Sucked hard dumping in $60 a week to go to and from work lol (mostly city driving). In the borrowed car I'm averaging 26-30MPG (EPA estimated 24MPG). The new car (the red bean) seems to have an EPA estimated around 30MPG so I expect to be able to get about 35-38MPG without any mods to the car.

This guy didn't even try. I can tell by his results lol.

[oldtamiyaphile]

Originally Posted by ThePrudentNinja

This guy didn't even try. I can tell by his results lol.

I think you're under estimating just how bad a H1 really is. Aero is many times worse than any van, amazingly tortured underbody aero...
(vans are actually pretty good aerodynamically - a Ram Promaster has a 0.31cd - even old 70's vans were around 0.45 roughly the same as a current Jeep Wrangler), super wide (frontal area), off road tyres, constant AWD, portal axles (basically a gearbox on each wheel, auto (probably without lock up?).

Although my TJ Wrangler can beat EPA, it's not by much.