FeedBack is what I seek (driving tips for long trip)
 

I made mention earlier this week of a trip Barb & I will be taking shortly.
I ask you, My fellow Gas Saving Friends for tips, tricks, & advice for the trip.
I will do all the driving.
The first portion will be on secondary highways. Because, my wife does not like Interstates, so I found a route that allows us to get where we need to be without using the Highways. Time will be expanded about one hour. Six & half hours from here to Bristol on I 64 & I 81 as opposed to seven & half on US 58.
US 58 will be a more relaxed drive and have better scenery.
Then a quick overnight in a hotel somewhere.
And to the highways.
I 81 to I 40 to I 24 to a whole lotta back roads to Sis' house.
So any body want to speak up and throw in your 11.5 cents (adjusted for recession)?
All comments and replies welcome.
Thanks for all your help, (both now and in the past)
Schultz.

Obviously you already know about keeping the speeds reasonable.

If you're cruising the highways, "target driving" or "driving with load" is your best bet. Fire up the ScanGauge, decide on an MPG figure that you want to attain (within reason), and play, play, play that throttle to achieve it.

Ideally you'll have the add-a-gauge feature set up so you'll be able to watch both instant & averaged MPG on the same screen.

Long trips are hard on the hypermiler, in my opinion. The around town short trips and medium stuff is a snap.

I'm of the same opinion.

My Attitude (on a long road trip) vs. Time

Hour 1 -- 5-10 below the speed limit (you too honey!)

Hour 2 -- Seriously, not 4 below, 5.

Hour 3 -- Maybe just a few MPH more. 2 below isn't gonna kill me.

Hour 4 -- 5 below is for chumps, speed limit it is.

Hour 5+ -- Aw *#($& it. Just get me there already!


So in short.

Avoid that kind of thing. It helps to have a spouse who will voluntarily obey the self-imposed speed limit when they take their turn driving.

I won't go on any trip without my pocket GPS. It has saved me time and gas, nearly every time.

Speeds reasonable have largest effect. Being a retired aviator, I like to play the game of hitting my checkpoints on time using a proposed average mph. Setting the ScanGuage up w/instant & averaged MPG and Fuel Flow is really easy to drive.

I had trip yesterday back from Orlando (157 miles all Turnpike/Interstate). I set my checkpoint times (+/-5 min.), the set my "requested" mpg as frequently as I could to met my time requirements. I use maps.google.com to estimate route mileage, pre-trip. I chose 60mph as my proposed avg speed, and ended up averaging 58mph. I shot for 42.5mpg, and exceeded that with about 45% trip remaining. My Max Speed was 77mph, going downhill at .35gph behind a semi who I caught at the crest of the previous uphill. I tried to hang in the 1.5gpm range on flats which usally had me around 65mph. Ultimately, I arrived "around 3 minutes late" and at a SuperCool 45mpg FE averaging 1.268gph.

Is it better to pulse and glide on the freeway or drive a constant speed?
Also, does anyone have a link to the add-a-gauge coding to have AVG and instant be displayed?

http://www.scangauge.com/support/pdfs/SGMan5_0.pdf

Page 30.

I think both for different conditions.

Better for what?

Better for fuel economy? P&G (depending on the car & driver)
For mechanical longevity? Probably constant speed.
For driver sanity? Depends on the trip length. :)
For sanity of other road users? Depends on the drivers.

:)

On long trips I usually pick a relatively good constant speed for FE (60 mph), set the CC and enjoy the ride listening to music and thinking about FE...lol.

However, past 4 hours in the car I have a tendency to start going around 75 mph and draft pretty much anything I can, else I get depressed by the SG.

Well I am going to Vegas this weekend, I am used to long trips but I think P&G might make my passenger go insane (I'm hoping he sleeps most of the trip since we are leaving in the morning.)

Anyway, here's the map

I had two plans of attack, pulsing to 70mph and eocing back down to 55 (rinse and repeat) or a constant 55 mph.

At the moment, only foreseeable issues are:
1) Passenger.
2) Heat (No A/C) planning to stock up on bottled water.

So yeah, tips would be great.
I guess I could try 55 there and P&G back, or better yet just use Scangauge to determine which is better based on 10 minute rounds?

ScanGauge use is the best bet. Too many other variables to contend with comparing one technique on one leg, and another technique on the return.

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You
 

Our trip begins next Friday, ~ 10 am.
After breakfast,
After traffic has thinned,
After I convince my wife to take her anti-anxiety drugs.
For that last reason we will NOT use P&G.
My ultimate consideration is for her peace of mind.
Hence the two leg trip for "only" 12 hours on the road.
The first leg being easy country roads.
I use P&G here in the city whenever I can and it drives her nuts.
O.K. for 15 or 20 minutes, not for 6 to 7 hours.
I shut the car down at lights, same result, same reasoning.
So I thank You all for the help and advice.
Now I must go to her place of employment and take the car so I can work on the under-body smoothing.
See you at Barbs Aero Makeover tomorrow.
S.

my last computer contact for 8 days
 

This will be the last time I sit in front of my 'puter for a while.
I may get to use one at the library or whatever but that will be a maybe only,
so,
These are my goals for the trip.
At least one tank over 30 mpg.(last trip I got avg 25mpg @ 85 mph)
no rolling over the posted limit, at all.(I'm a reformed speed freak)
Keep Barbara from going nuts with my "new" driving style.
Arrive safe. (goes without saying but I said it anyway)
All are Attainable, I think,
Schultz out.

Good luck & have a safe journey!

Looking forward to the results.

Well reviewing some of the data from the Vegas trip, I am somewhat surprised.
P&G with EOC at freeway speeds (55-70) did not net any significant returns (48.1 mpg), this could be due to the fact of wind resistance and the engine revving to 2500-2700. On the return trip I tried to keep a constant 60-65 mph with only two memorable EOCs through the Cajon pass and netted (54.2 mpg). While this isn't entirely conclusive because both tanks had a week of my school route on them so there could have been a number of mitigating factors at play. But it would seem if driving on the freeway you're far better off just going a constant 55.

However, to be fair when I first got the car I did a couple of trips from Northern CA (San Mateo) to Southern CA (Temecula) and netted something like 39-41mpg going a constant 70 with 40psi in the tires.

How does it do that?

We're Baaaaaaack
 

http://ecomodder.com/forum/fe-graphs/graph55.gif
so here you see the fuel log for the Avalon, you can read the details in the log entries.
The last 4 entries are for the trip (they took me from 10% below to 3% below so thats a bonus)
All are above EPA combined, but none hit the magic 30 mpg I was hoping for,
I wonder if there is something I need to do to the engine controls or hard parts? I have had this car for two years now and the only thing I have done is put in new plugs.
This vehicle has 135 K on the clock and to the best of my knowledge nothing major has ever been changed.
Being the cheap b@$$t@rd I am, I do not want to spend any money on things like O2 sensors and the like.
I did do some under-body paneling before the trip
I will post those pics in Barbs Aero Makeover soon.
now I must get ready for the old grindstone.
C Ya
S.

Welcome back. Looks like Barb got the best fuel economy. (She was doing some of the driving on that 04-24-08 tank, according to your log.) ;)