Hi! Great to be apart of the community!
 

Hello everyone! I, like so many others, have been a lurker for some time now and finally decided to sign up.
I own two vehicles and both are registered on fuelly. I mostly use my 2010 kawasaki vulcan 900 classic as the primary vehicle. I purchased this bike brand new in May 2012. it has just over 12,000 miles on it now. I built a trailer that I tow with the bike to make it even more versatile year round. Before Going and messing with the exhaust and adding the fuel processor, I was about to get 50 mpg regularly, while riding all over various elevation changes. I live in the pocono mountains, and there are tons of hills in ever direction you take. Just yesterday, I swapped the cobra exhaust off for the stock pipes, really only because they started to rust (cobra has a lifetime warranty on their chrome) just a week after having them installed. But, ill enjoy gaining back the 5-10 mpg I lost from them, and will probably keep the stock pipes.

And the DD when it's raining or snowing, or when I'm late for work (lol), is a 2011 Hyundai Sonata 2.0T SE. Car comes with sporty suspension, and has a pushbutton starter. It's a 6-speed automatic with the shiftronic, which can come in handy(sometimes). I normally only use the shiftronic feature to downshift, because shifting as soon as possible to get I to the highest gear doesn't seem worthwhile when I have a turbo that starts to spool really early in the RPMs. I have to admit, I love the turbo throwing back j to the seat waaaay too much, and that is cause for my relatively poor mileage (average is about 24-25mpg). The best tanks/mileage I have gotten from her is from a trip to Wilmington, NC, which netted me 594 miles down (35.8 mpg) and 587 miles back home (34.9) (both on a single tank (18.5 gallon tank)). This was the only time I have traveled conservatively and being 100% highway. Most of my driving is local and speeds range between 40 and 55, with all sorts of elevation changes. The only modification to the car is a K&N drop-in air filter. Car uses full synthetic (not sure the specs), tires set at 38 psi (35 recommended), and it 95% of the time empty (no junk in her trunk). I obviously have a long way to go to get better economy. With winter just around the corner, I know all I can do is practice before the crappy gas mix is out.

Thanks and sorry for the loooong intro.

It's great to finally be apart of this awesome community!

Welcome! Buy yourself a Scan Gage or an Ultra Guage for the Hyundai, and you'll rediscover the mag potential of the shift tonic and a turbo that spools-up in a low rim band. With those capabilities I would not be surprised if the "DWL" (driving with load) technique yields you bigger number driving around town. Also, shifting that car into the highest gear possible around town, cruising those flats in fifth gear, will pay too. The low price s are amazing. I rented a non-turbo edition of this car a couple years ago for a week. liked it a lot.

Won't be able to get a scan gauge for some time, but I'll definitely get one eventually. You mention DWL, how would I go about trying that? I try to stay away from loading the engine to prevent the turbo from spooling, with the exception of steeper hills, where I use some boost to get me to the peak quicker to coast back down the other side.
Today I filled the car up with 87 octane, which for me is rare, and drove over 100 miles where 60% were back roads with hills and the remaining 40% was highway traveling at 65 indicated. The MPG display showed a highest of 40.7 mpg and at the end of my journey 36.7mpg (I know the computer display is always over by atleast 1 mpg), but that was a really good run. I'm well on my way to a 450-500 mile tank (which is hard for me with the lead foot)

Without gauges, DWL is almost impossible to do well. The gage will show you when you have the engine in the best efficiency range for load, usually 70-80%. Using the shiftronic, I think you can keep the auto transport from shifting gears until you want to at about 2200 or 2500 rpms or so, which will complete the technical needs of the DWL technique. The ultra gage is cheaper than the scangauge, and it'll pay for itself in a few tanks. It really is a great techer.

A 2011 car will likely have an mpg indicator.

DWL according to the 100+ Hypermiling / ecodriving tips & tactics for better mpg - EcoModder.com #56 is driving to a constant fuel consumption (target driving) , not to constant engine load .

To get there, ever so slightly release the throttle until you get to the desired MPG.


When not using CC, something I do to keep the optimum throttle position (which is pretty hard to pinpoint on my car) is to engage CC on an incline that'd reduce the already slow speed too much, or for too long a distance.
While engaging CC, I do keep my foot exactly where it was - which doesn't bother the CC as it adds more gas.

Then as I'm about to crest the incline, I disengage CC again, and due to the throttle setting, fly down the descent picking up some speed that'll slowly blow off again when on level ground.

When I leave the car in "D" the car will shift around 22-2300RPMs on its own, with careful driving. Only problem then would be hills/mountains, where the car needs to be at about 3k RPMs to stay out of boost (for steeper inclines). If I manually shift it and not let it get above 2-3k, the car will slow down well below the speed limit, which isn't what I want it to do. Also forgot to mention that the car has an ECO mode that I can manually turn on/off, which defines the gas pedals responsiveness.

I usually put CC on for highway driving, but if I'm not traveling at a fast enough speed for the right grade hill, the car will downshift and add boost...kind of a funny feeling when it does that too...because if I drop 1-2mph below set speed, the car will jerk under boost and set my speed over by a few mph, then slow back down...but it pulls so hard, and as I mentioned above, I'm trying to stay out of boost.

Pocono mountains eh. I might see you on the highway. I commute from Scranton to Bethlehem every day. I run 33 to 80 to 380.

Welcome and happy motoring!!

True, but you can learn a lot more using a OBD2 device.
My Insight has an instantaneous FE display that shows bars. It is quite crude and rather slow.
Comparing with the readings of my UltraGauge I see the bars stay up at say 4 l/100 km for ages while the UG reads 3.3 or less, and vice versa.
Hitting a light ascend with CC on I see the consumption creep up on the UG. Only 10 seconds later or so does the MID (OEM display in the car) respond.

The readings of the UG move up and down according to the seat of the pants-o-meter, unlike the MID.
Previously I felt economy and acceeleration were more or less detached for small variations, now I know better.
The UG restored my faith in the SOTP-o-M. A smart-ass after all ;)

I travel between tobyhanna and honesdale for the most part anymore, but I go to Dickson city Hyundai for my services.


I found that by using the "ECO" mode the car will shift to the highest available gear as soon as possible (seems to be around 1500 RPM)...which definitely helps, however, once I hit a hill, boost kicks in and gulps the gas. Interestingly enough though, there was one particular hill/mountain that I ended up staying in boost to climb (not by choice), which ended up being about 3 miles of incline, the MPG gauge only dropped by .3....which is pretty good. As I said though, I want to avoid boost whenever possible for maximum mileage.

Also, would it be ok to shift into neutral on declines? Would that have a negative effect on the car? Only reason I ask is because my car can end up going 70 down a few local hills, and I notice that the engine RPMs climb with the speed...so if I can keep the engine at idle speed and just rev-match veg ore shifting back into "D", would I be ok?

Also, it's a shame I can't EOC easily, since the car is equipped with a push button start, which requires the brake pedal to be pressed to start.

Cool I only live about 10 min from Dickson city hyundai

In regards to the neutral down hills it might be counter productive. Do you know if your Hyundai has DFCO? If so your mpg
Gauge would read 99.9 mpg
When you let off the gas down hills.

If it does that the injectors shut off when the ecu senses the closed throttle position. That is more efficient than idling in neutral

I'm due for service soon on the sonata, maybe we could meet up sometime?

Not sure if my car has DFCO. I have an instant MPG meter, but it tops out at 50 MPG..and so long as I'm traveling faster than idle speed, that always reads 50 when i let off the gas pedal.

Eventually, I will get a scangauge/ultragauge, but until then, I'll just have to practice as best as I can.

I would like to get the bike to around 55 mpg, but I can't change too much in the engine, since I still need to be able to tow around 250-300lbs with the bike. The trailer weighs 160 lbs itself, where the rest of the weight would be from cargo.

I usually average 42-44 MPG pulling the trailer with around 100 pounds of cargo (all highway).

I've considered getting a front sprocket to help with lowering RPMs at highway speeds, but no funds right now.

If you let up on the gas and it jumps right up to 50 and stays there it sounds like it has dfco. Most cars should have it nowadays. Easier to tell with a scan gauge.

Scranton ecomodder meetup!! Haha

Oh ok, thank guys!

Another question...can someone point me in the right direction for a video of how to properly execute the pulse and glide technique? I understand going slightly about speed, then coasting down to it or just below it, but how "fast" should I be trying to get to the peak speed of the pulse part? And again, take in consideration I may either be getting there faster, or trying to go slower due to my low RPM, low load turbo spooling.


Thanks in advance!!

Use this site's search function. I believe there is a thread of videos for pulse and glide technique...

Like this (search youtube pulse glide)....

Well, due to financial difficulties, I have to sell the car and bike. I am now looking at getting a 2003-05 honda civic hybrid, a 2003 or older vw jetta tdi, an older regular civic, or something else similar...(the vw and hybrid will be manual trans, since I read that the autos had too many problems)
My budget is $5k....
Any other suggestions? Looking for reliability (at least 2 years) and good economy right from the get-go....
Also, if there are know problems with a particular part, I'd like to know...I've searched mostly on these few cars, and as I stated, the trans were the biggest issues...next being that the hybrid battery is $$$$ if it goes...and that the vw is $$$ in general for anything....

Thanks in advance!

A

Sorry to hear that. Hope you find something good. 1st gen insights are very popular on here and the 5 speed ones still yield above 50mpg even if the battery goes. Downside is they are 2 seaters.

After doing some digging around this forum, I noticed thise insights...however, on the rare occasion that I have any passengers at all, there's usually more than one...so that's not going to be practical...

I also forgot to thank reddevil for the link. Thanks! And let me tell you, without one of the gauges, trying to p and g with the sonata is tricky....you'll lose quite a bit of gas on the hills by me...trying to somewhat gently get up to a good speed for the glide....

Having a manual will make things waaaay easier...