Climbing a mountain
 

Ever since having needed to commute daily to work last month, I've been inspired to start hypermiling.

It may not be very impressive, but I took as much from the tips as I could on the recent trip from Orange County to Yosemite.

Trip: 3 days
1585km/ 985 miles and only I could drive.
Toyota Yaris auto (rental car)
Highway Rating: 36 mpg (6.53 L/100km)
Actual: 46.85 mpg (5.02 L/100km)

On the way back, I found this tour bus which was a godsend: he was doing 70 mph and extremely steady, hardly braking on the downhill sections (on the I-5 S)... I drafted 1 sec behind him for an entire 120 miles.

Some suggestions needed:
I couldn't do pulse and glide as the terrain was very uneven...and I'm loathe to turn off the engine while gliding. So the best I could do on the downhills was engine break in D...downshifting occasionally to 3 or 2 to not spin off the roads.
(anyone have suggestions for more efficient ways)?

Also, is it worth spending gas to pass a car if they are constantly braking unnecessarily and wasting momentum on the windy downhills?
On the downhill, I take 25 rated corners at 45, 30 at 50, (+20 etc)...

Thanks!

One suggestion; do not break the engine. That is costly and inconvenient.

Frank, what exactly do you mean by "break the engine"?

It had 30000 miles on it, so it had already been broken in.

From dictionary.com:

Break: to shatter, burst, or become broken; separate into parts or fragments, especially suddenly and violently: The glass broke on the floor.

Brake: to slow or stop by means of or as if by means of a brake.

No you're just wasting gas if the slope is enough to speed you up after you brake. My solution is to pull off and take a few photos. Allows plenty of space between me and my nemesis.
Yosemite is nice.

-mort

meisterjohnny, your original post raises a few red flags. One second following distance/time is ~102 ft @ 70 mph, way too close to be safe, since the 90% confidence level for reaction time is 2.5 seconds.

You shouldn't even be thinking of engine-off coasting with a Toyota automatic transmission, unless you're prepared to buy a new transmission for your rental car.

70 mph is too fast for hypermiling. 50 mph is safer and more productive.

I have read comments on here about the very many reasons to not draft so closely, reaction time, road debris, etc.

Personally, I try to stick to 55 MPH. Sometimes, it is even the speed limit!

However, with my Ultragauge, when I was accelerating on the freeway, I realized that when I accelerate to 70 MPH, my instant MPG goes from 13-19, so at the moment when I shift to neutral, I am achieving city MPG, which is lousy, but I get pretty good mileage coasting 70-50, although I would not argue that it was worth the effort over staying at a steady 55.

I highly recommend Driving with Load. Cruise control is great for level ground, but in an automatic, my transmission downshifts with the slightest incline, and higher revolutions and lower gear are a terrible combination for mileage. I accelerate just hard enough to not downshift, even though I lose some speed.

I pass people if I am stuck behind them for a while and they are driving erratically. I had a van cut me off on my last trip. They seemed to fly over hills, but they kept braking around curves, so I coasted past. I just hate being around people who do not seem to keep a constant speed or have any predictability.

One of the problems is that if you manage to rid yourself of one idiot, sooner or later you will run into another.

So 2 lane highway trips, always bugged me, then I discovered that if I travel 5mph under I don't come upon so many erratic drivers, vs driving the speed limit. The other benifit is I better economy to.