How do you get the most from your Ultragauge
 

So, my wife bought me an UltraGauge for my birthday a couple weeks ago. I was wondering if anyone had any methods for using it to maximize fuel economy.

I'm typically watching Instant MPG and Engine Load %, but I'm not sure what rate of acceleration is best. Do I keep Engine Load low and spend more time at lower MPG, or accelerate briskly so I can spend more time at higher MPGs?

First tank, I kept the engine load below 25% and my mileage didn't really change a noticeable amount.

What gauges do you guys typically use most?

Thanks,
Mike

Check around for the threads where people discuss how they use their scangauges. Basically identical :p

Hypermiling technique will vary with your engine, transmission, and vehicle. Since your truck is an automatic transmission, I'd monitor instant mpg, trip mpg, load, instant G/H consumption, ignition timing, and rpm. You want to accelerate gently enough to keep your torque converter from slipping, so you watch the rpms to make sure they don't jump from 1800 rpm to 2200 rpm or (horrors) 2500 or 2800 rpm. Similarly, you watch your load to see when it triggers the transmission kickdown. If it happens at 45 load, you want to keep your acceleration below that level. Under that level, keeping your load higher allows you to get better brake specific fuel consumption. Manual transmission owners have major advantages here. They can accelerate for maximum BSFC with no torque converter to worry about.

Instant G/H allows you to see the difference in fuel consumption between coasting in gear and coasting in neutral (engine on, of course). It's logical to think you'll consume less gas at 750 rpm idling in neutral than at 1800 rpm in gear, but your truck may have deceleration fuel cutoff. IG/H lets you see the difference. It also helps you visualize how much fuel you're throwing away idling at a 3 or 4 minute stoplight. If you're using .35 gallons/hour, and do that for 1/15 of an hour at a 4 minute light, you'll waste .35 gal X .067 or .023 gal just idling at that stoplight. For a 10 mile drive where you might average 17 mpg, you'd use .588 gal. That 4 minutes of unnecessary idling adds .023 gal of fuel consumed, which increases your gas consumption to .611 gal, and drops your avg mpg down to 16.36 mpg compared to the same drive with the engine off at the stoplight. So you're going to learn quickly that you should shut off your engine at most stoplights.

It's up to you whether you'll try driving with load or pulse and glide. Many AT drivers find DWL (while trying to maximize ignition timing) the most effective hypermiling technique. I've had good success doing high speed P&G. I got 43.7 mpg out of a rental Kia Rio on a 3600 mile trip with 3 adults and all our luggage this Spring, P&Ging between 55 and 65 mph most of the way.

I'm a big fan of % Absolute Throttle. I think relative throttle would be even better, but my vehicle doesn't offer it. It really helps me improve on sustained climbs.

I keep page 1 set on:

instant MPG
% engine load
instant MPH
% absolute throttle
engine coolant temperature (I'm working on a lower grille block)
RPM

SentraSE-R, is there an easy way to know how to achieve maximum BSFC (Brake Specific Fuel Consumption) or is this best done with trail and error or a few acceleration tests.

Thanks for the helpful post!

I currently coast in neutral whenever possible (no decl. fuel cutoff). And while I hadn't heard of DWL (I had to look it up) I'm already doing that. Generally on flat highway cruising I stick with cruise control. I'll keep playing with it and watching my gauges and see where I end up.

I searched for months trying to find the truck I wanted with a manual. Rare as hen's teeth... So rare was that option that they eliminated them completely in new Chevy 1/2 ton trucks (I think Ford and Dodge too).

Mike

saand, if you're lucky, you might find a BSFC graph for your engine on the internet. Otherwise, you'll have to do like I did, and experiment. Most 2 liter engines get best BSFC between about 1500 and 2200 rpm, at about 85% load, but YMMV. My SE-R and xB both like 85% load, but 85% on the xB is slow-moderate acceleration. 85% on the SE-R is brisk acceleration. I tested P&G on both my cars in different gears, different speeds, and different loads on the same 10 mile loop to learn what worked best.

darcane,

You're welcome. What speed do you set your cruise control at on the highway? Slower is always better for FE. My SE-R got 26 mpg at 72 mph on cruise control on the 400 mile drive down to my mom's. I slowed it down to 62 mph with CC and got 33-34 mpg for the 400 miles. Dropping the CC to 55 mph got me 38 mpg and allowed me to skip the gas stop I used to have to make. I just leave an hour earlier now.

...inversely proportional factors: TIME and VELOCITY

...now, if I could only convince my wife that 65 mph is better than 75 mph (ha,ha).

Start competing. That's the number one thing that's improved my fuel economy. I'm obsessed with breaking down my commute into critical stretches and figuring out what technique works best in each section by watching my realtime mpg. Some sections, it's pulse and glide, some sections it's DWL, other sections it's cutting 3-4mph off my speed, and others it's shutting my car off at stop lights. It's little things that when everybody asks me how I'm actually improving my economy, I'm at a loss for words. It's everything. I'm doing almost nothing the same as I used to, but it's not techniques I can just say, "do this and you'll gain 3mpg". There's no single silver bullet. There's an arsenal of tools in the 100+ hypermiling tips that you should read every week, try a few, incorporate them where effective, then try a few more the next week.