Glides like a Brick Wall (Jeep Cherokee, GMC Pick-up)

[SVOboy]

Well, now that I've got 70 hp we'll see how I do up some of those bigger mountains in vermont in a week here, Think I might see some second gear action.

[DifferentPointofView]

Originally Posted by trebuchet03

Is the Caliber's aero really that bad? I was able to climb the mountains through Albuquerque in my Jetta @70mph - smallest engine available (110hp versus the Caliber's 14?) - both cars are about the same weight I believe (awd?). Don't know if I could go faster - I just had my cruise control set the whole time. When I had an HPV on my roof - those same climbs were between 55 and 60mph floored (I was also loaded with a summer's worth of gear ). I hung out in the semi-truck lane Going back down was awesome though

I had Cruise on, and to keep around 65 it went from 2000 rpm to about 3000rpm. To go 75 I'd probably have to floor it, or get close to it. The Caliber's aero isn't that bad, I think it's the CVT tranny, you can't glide in it. It's the R/T, so it's got a 2.4L that makes 176ish hp (don't remember) Had the whole car packed and had everyone in there, playing a nintendo gamecube in the back even. I think we went 300 odd miles per tank going there. It's 2wd. I was in the fastlane most of the time until a honda would come behind me at around 90-100 and I'd switch lanes.

Originally Posted by trebuchet03

I know that's a comparison between a sedan and hatch - but that makes me even that much more angry at GM

Uh... Dodge is a Chrysler vehicle..

Originally Posted by trebuchet03

In any case, I personally don't classify a car as a fuel sipper unless it gets >30mpg (my car is on the fence, morso not, without good technique ). It's almost as if the mfr's break 100hp just for the sake of breaking 100 :/

I think on that whole trip we got pretty good fuel mileage despite going that fast, I think it was the downhills that helped.

Originally Posted by trebuchet03

Gliding is very different than cruising.... But, and I should have made this more clear (my fault), my comparison was between two different engines. One that can make more power versus one that makes less

oh, I see.

[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by DifferentPointofView

Uh... Dodge is a Chrysler vehicle..

Do'H

That was pretty bad of me

[roflwaffle]

What about swapping the GM six into the pickup with a tall enough transmission? It may even be possible to do it for free since SBCs aren't exactly cheap. My pickup is probably just as bad if not worse than yours aerodynamically but I can still pull ~30mpg@55mph because it has a 2.4L engine. I've read/heard ~25mpg with the TBI six is possible if you keep your foot out of it with stock gearing.

[deadman1474]

Originally Posted by DonEaston

Sorry for the confusion, Mr. Firstlaw- not trolling at all.

I don't have too much experience with sub-compacts, but my father in law is an enthusiast of Geo and Kia, and when I drove them, I felt like I really had to push the things to get them to do what I wanted.

So, not "underpowered" in the sense of "my vehicle is more powerful than yours", simply in the sense of "is it really economical to try to push a (relatively) heavy vehicle with the smallest engine possible? Would not make more sense to give a very light vehicle an engine that could essentially 'idle' down the road?"

For example, I know a guy who put a large V6 on a small tricycle type frame, and the unit itself got extremely high mileage. I do not recall the numbers, but I remember wondering if perhaps the unit would not have gotten such good mileage had the engineer chosen a smaller engine.

Okay, all for now.

Pat

I always wanted to know the same thing. Like my pickup truck with a 5.7 Hemi gets 16-28 But if you were to put a smaller engine in it would it get worst mpg. They offer it in a 6 cylinder and its is suppost geting worst gas millage. But they say thats because the hemi has mds.

[newtonsfirstlaw]

Originally Posted by DonEaston

Congrats to you, sir. I look forward to hearing more of what you have to say.

Sorry for not replying to this earlier. I tried to find the thread, but had difficulty. I certainly hope you hadn't interpreted this the wrong way. It's extremely difficult to have a civil discussion about anything when your only tool is 26 letters of the alphabet and a few emoticons.

Thanks for the compliments, I will explain more about fuel economy as I get the time. And glad you are enjoying the site.

[Smoky]

Ways to increase efficiency:

Cheap
increase gear (change 3.73 to 3.42) or get taller tires
highway type tires vs off road, narrower is better (tires with higher inflation rates have lower rolling resistance, usually)
free-flowing air filter, exhaust
remove any extra weight
lower the truck
add front air dam
plug any holes in front end
get smaller, more aero mirrors
get under-drive pulleys for engine
tune up motor
get a truck cap or tonneau cover
upgrade to HID headlights and LED bulbs
Let vehicles warm up before driving and/or use block heater

More expensive
swap motor for a duramax w/the 6-speed allison trans and put in a 2.42 or 2.72 gear (should easily get 28mpg at 75mph and will run on bio)

reduce frontal area- narrow tires, small mirrors
reduce weight-swap spare tire for plugs and fix-a-flat, unused trailer hitch
increase gear-taller tires, change ring and pinion
driving style-use cruise control, drive speed limit or slower, try to maintain momentum, don't idle more than 45 seconds, combine errands and plan ahead (no left turns)
extras- turn off headlights in daylight, turn off any extra electronics, don't use A/C

Headlights can reduce your mileage by up to 5%

[elhigh]

DonE has left us a few questions, but has given us some important info:

You're nowhere close to a paved road: vehicle failure in the middle of your driveway leaves you walking either 1.5m to the road or 1.5m back to the house. In very inclement weather, this could be fatal.

We don't know if you ever tow anything. Referring again to the miles of unimproved road, I couldn't in good conscience recommend narrow tires.

Is yours a belt-driven fan? Swap out to an electric. If nothing else, the engine warms up faster and it actually frees up a bit of space in the engine bay.

Looking at Smoky's suggestions above, I second all of them except the tires and the final drive changes - hold off on that until the weather is nice and you've got plenty of warm weather in which to shake it down - let any stranding failures happen when you're not likely to freeze to death walking home.

Regardless of Smoky's opinion, consider adding a tonneau or a smoothie bed cap. Mine makes a big difference, and it's possible that those differences experienced are truck-dependent, so one particular conformation of vehicle may get benefits while another doesn't. Aerodynamics can be subtle.

[DifferentPointofView]

As for the Cruise control.. I get worse mileage with it because I can keep a constant throttle with my foot better than I can with cruise. Less Electrical load. But if your the type that can't seem to keep a steady highway speed, cruise would benefit. Cruise control seems to be more of a speed control, not a throttle control. Hills and cruise=bad mileage if your an ecodriver, if your a regular driver, it depends (regular as in gets on the gas up big hills to keep going 60).

[deadman1474]

Originally Posted by DifferentPointofView

As for the Cruise control.. I get worse mileage with it because I can keep a constant throttle with my foot better than I can with cruise. Less Electrical load. But if your the type that can't seem to keep a steady highway speed, cruise would benefit. Cruise control seems to be more of a speed control, not a throttle control. Hills and cruise=bad mileage if your an ecodriver, if your a regular driver, it depends (regular as in gets on the gas up big hills to keep going 60).

Very true I was in vermont going up a decent size mountin with cruise on. And all of a sudden I knocked it down a gear or two and threw it to the floor. Cruise control is speed control not throtle control. It dont care what kind of rpms your running or how it fast it gets there it just wants to get to the disired speed and stay there. I've had it A couple of times where I was going up hill and had it on and It hit the throttle so fast I started to slide. Fun times. Just for the record never use it in the rain.