Hypermiling helped me make it home! - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

wagonman76 · 08-21-2009, 12:59 PM

Yesterday the wife called and the van was overheating on the way back from downstate. About 70 miles away. So I headed out with 6 jugs of water. Found out the lower radiator hose had a steady drip even when not under pressure. Local Autozone didn't carry the hose. So I figured might as well do my best to get it home. Filled it up, left the radiator cap loose, heater full blast, and hypermiled the thing. Since less fuel burned for the same distance (and no lean burn mods) means less heat, it helped out a lot. Only had to stop once from the temp gauge rising because it ran low on water, then let it cool a bit, refilled, and headed home. Got 31 mpg first half of the trip, 33 mpg 2nd half.

Should be able to do even better than that once I fix it and don't have to worry about watching the temp gauge constantly.

bluetwo · 08-21-2009, 07:02 PM

Lol, great story. Something similar actually save my butt once too.

I was driving a 6 wheeled delivery truck and half way home I realized I wasn't going to make it to the gas station at the rate I was going, (there was only one place I could fill up) so I turned off the AC and kind of baked the rest of the way. I literally rolled that big truck into the gas station JUST close enough to get the hose in the tank at the fully stretched position. I thought I was the luckiest driver on the road that day!

SentraSE-R · 08-25-2009, 10:36 AM

Thanks for the great story. Glad you made it back okay.

wagonman76 · 08-25-2009, 12:19 PM

Thanks. I got the van fixed. Got new hoses, even though the old ones still looked fine. Turned out they were fine, except whoever installed the last set of hoses didn't put the clamp all the way on the hose before tightening it. Geez, how hard can that be? So the clamp cut through the little bit it was on the hose and the hose finally started leaking. If I had tools and daylight I could have just moved the clamp that night. I replaced the hoses anyway and now it runs good. 273k on it. Doesn't appear to be losing any water now so before winter I'll drain and replace with antifreeze mix.