Ecomodder saves my day
 

How many of you have found yourselves in a not so good situation where your in the middle of no where and have to rely on your Ecomodding/driving skills to save your self from a long walk a some major embarassment?

Well that's what happen to me a couple days ago in my wife's new Scion.

We are on vacation and I decided to not get gasoline before going over the Wallowa mountain range in Oregon. It's in the middle of no where with no service stations for miles. I just thought its 2013 and there's stations everywhere.lol

Well we made it but I was throwing every Ecomodding/driving skill I had at it. If I didn't I'm pretty sure we would have been walking still and that was Sunday! J/k

It is a nice feeling, having the range for trips that weren't possible on one tank before. :thumbup:

I've sometimes thought how interesting it would be if drivers only had a enough gas to "almost" get where they needed to go using typical driving techniques. :)

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Be warned though: having a car that gets good mileage and then getting even more from it through mods/driving can *contribute* to you running out of gas! I will admit I sometimes forget to check the gas gauge because I fill up so infrequently.

Some people make mistakes when asking me questions.

Father: How far can we go? I don't want to give them any extra fuel when we return the car.
Me: Tell me x, y, and z.
Father: x, y, z.
Me: We can make it to the fuel stop in 120 miles.
An hour and a half goes by, then 45 minutes of worrying-
2 Miles past empty, with a >half gallon left, we made it there! :)

I don't remember the exact numbers, that was the 2011 NAIAS, but I love those situations! OTHER people start to drive better, when you remind them of factors like average speed, aggressiveness of accelerating, and wasting fuel in general- which may contribute to walking/pushing.

I had a trip across the state and back a couple years ago. Not much over 400 miles round trip, but unimaginable before hypermiling. I wasn't even doing P&G, just thinking ahead, being gentle and gliding down hills and to stops- but I had more than half a tank when we left, watched the UG and did a lot of math in my head toward the end. Made it. Got gas the next morning on my way to work.

The only time I ever had a factory Nissan fan belt break at the seam was on my personal 1976 280Z. About 10 miles and no water pump, not good. Pulse and engine off coasting got me there with the fan clutch turning the pump from air flow. It was actually below normal operating temperature when I got back to the shop.

regards
Mech

doing the alcan highway in ford escort. we were driving to get there (ie not hypermiling foot down) anyway got fuel then got to the next fuel stop (closed for season sign) with a little under half a tank and farther to go to the next stop. I hypermiled hard and put 12.6 gal into the 12.7 gal tank. Average for the tank was low 40s which was pretty awesome with the higher cruse speed for the first half.

I also had a 2.5 gal fuel jug in the trunk so not much real risk in walking.

Around 12 years ago I was coming back from a trip to Florida with the family when the serpentine belt broke about 25 miles from home on the 1989 Buick Park Avenue I was driving. It was 1 a.m. Sunday morning. Not only did the water pump not turn, the alternator and power steering doesn't work either. Plus the battery was on its last leg. Not wanting to wait until morning to find a parts store or call a tow truck I decided to roll the dice and continue on. By using a pulse & glide technique and running with the headlights off when possible, we were able to make it back home safe and with no damage to the vehicle.

That was way before I even heard about hypermiling.

"Necessity is the mother of invention..." ;)


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Not yet but I have run outa gas 2x thinking I could make 20 mpg out that stupid dakota R/T always keep something in a can when I get stupid, it helps but ive still not managed to will it any higher.

I remember the situation when I was driving back home from Romania in my Previa and Two gas stations were off duty for some strange reasons so I was driving and driving watching needle coming down. Finally I found a gas station and filled her up. That was a relief. It was my second best tank :)

P.S. I should mentioned that it was in the middle of the night :)