best technique in hilly terrain, and HP vs SFC for long climbs

[stillsearching]

Most people i've seen talk about P&G as a strategy, but recently I stumbled across someone else's term of constant load, where i guess you just hold the throttle in the same position to ride out the hills?

Whats the best way to go through the hills, this way? Or 'pulse' up the hill to climb it and glide all the way to the next hill? Or a combination of limited throttle uphill but coasting?

Or light throttle assisted coasting (making it last longer/slowing the rate of deceleration but still below the level to sustain speed) or engine off coasting even if you have to start and accel before the bottom of the hill etc...


And i assume if you have a long uphill climb like into the mountains maintaining some steady load, perhaps at the upper end of a given SFC is probably the way to go irrespective of climbing speed if you can manage it? If you have to go through the mountains regularily is there any way to spec out a truck to improve your hill-climbing MPG with load, favoring either some driving technique or whatever? (assuming i'm in the pre-buying phase where looking for some criteria over others is on equal ground/I doubt it would make sense to spend thousands just to change over afterwards) I'm guessing any engine having to have the throttle floored 100% is overworked and not climbing efficiently...

[PressEnter[]]

Constant load is great for smallish rolling hills (most of my driving). I usually gain a little speed on the downhills and lose it going uphills, while watching instant mpg on a gauge to avoid overdoing the throttle. For long climbs, I'm not sure there's much you can do. Once I reach my "minimum" speed, I often set the cruise control and wait it out.

[JRMichler]

Here is a good discussion of gears and hills: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ear-23957.html