Long trip ahead, little prep time - best aero mod?

[dupree]

some good info shared here

[larrybuck]

What is your comfort level concerning bumping tire psi's?

Do you have cruise?

Have you read Hot Weather: Dirt cheap cooling help? Many ways to stay away from that AC.

Is your accelerator pedal linkage light enough that you could consider driving in your socks? Your sensitivity will increase, and you will think wearing shoes to be barbarian;
picturing them as oversized awkward rain boots!

If you don't have cruise, or are in those circumstances where you wouldn't; a very small
pillow will give you much comfort under your right heel. Its my hot tip of the day for prolonged right foot resting.

[jtbo]

Driving with socks, how about emergency situation, will it be possible to hit brakes hard enough? Brake pedal needs, especially in older cars, something around 50kg to make car stop in shortest possible distance, that pedal might feel such on feet that one can't make stopping in quite as fast as with shoes.

[larrybuck]

I have never had any strength pedal issues. I know it sound scary, but think outside the box!

Crew type socks have slightly more padding, and will give a more aggressive grip than
dress socks.

Tough guys w bunions, and calloused feet might want to go bare, unless they have sweaty feet that will slide off!

I AM as serious as a heart attack about positively using socks.

The bare foot talk was just meant to be funny!

[cleanspeed1]

Nothing to worry about, driving shoeless. You just have to learn what the vehicle wants. And don't tailgate. I've driven big trucks without shoes, gives you better feel, and in an emergency you need to modulate and not panic brake ( kinda rhymes there ). To guard against moments like that, use a safety tip I learned in commercial driving: always leave yourself a way out front, back, side to side. Keep as much area around you several car lengths clear. If you have to pass, get around the vehicle and leave plenty of room. Don't "billboard" other drivers by driving next to them if there is plenty of roadway ahead.

[NachtRitter]

Cd... thank you for the pic of the Jetta! Looking under the front end of mine is interesting... the skid plate is about 6" from the ground while the front valance is about 8" off the ground... might be some benefit to blocking the air before it hits the skid plate. Whereas the area between the wheel and the skid plate (where the suspension is) isn't even visible from the front (that is, it doesn't stick out in the air flow). Trying to get a picture to show what I mean, but having trouble uploading at the moment.

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

It looks to me like the central roué is better, also take ambient temps into account. The farther south the hotter it gets, more tempting to us ac and more grill opening needed.

From my experence without a side mirror, do it a week or two before the trip, you will be use to driveing without it by that point. On my car the side mirror removal was good for 1.6 mpg. Smoothe wheel covers were good for 1+ mpg. So I would put thoses up on the list of mods to do before the trip.

While I can handle the heat pretty well, on this trip I'm bringing family... so I will do what I have to do in order to keep the family whole for the ~6 days of 10+ hrs of driving ... the slight hit to FE for running AC (*if* it is even needed) would be worth it. Actually, I'm more worried about snow & ice over the mountains on the central route ... would hate to get stuck on a section where chains are required ... that'll kill FE fast!

Good tips about removing the side mirror. And I may try a simple tape job on the wheel covers to see if it helps.

Originally Posted by larrybuck

What is your comfort level concerning bumping tire psi's?

Do you have cruise?

Have you read Hot Weather: Dirt cheap cooling help? Many ways to stay away from that AC.

Is your accelerator pedal linkage light enough that you could consider driving in your socks? Your sensitivity will increase, and you will think wearing shoes to be barbarian;
picturing them as oversized awkward rain boots!

If you don't have cruise, or are in those circumstances where you wouldn't; a very small
pillow will give you much comfort under your right heel. Its my hot tip of the day for prolonged right foot resting.

Tires are already at sidewall max (50psi). Definitely have noticed better rolling / coasting with these tires (they are LRR).

I do have cruise, and for long drives on 'level' freeway, I use it a lot. With the cruise set at ~60mph, I'll get between 60 and 65mpg showing on the Scangauge (and the Scangauge is pretty well dialed in).

In fact I do like driving in socks (or moccasins)... a LOT more comfortable than shoes! And a lot better pedal feel than shoes. Figured that one out when I was driving the Maus (my VX) which does not have cruise! That is a great tip, BTW!

cleanspeed1 - good tips; thanks!

[cleanspeed1]

Originally Posted by NachtRitter

Picked up a few supplies today from storage... a big sheet of coroplast (had saved it from the last election) and a plastic water heater drain pan... I'd used one of those drain pans as a rear wheel skirt on my Honda VX with decent looking results... might be *just* big enough to fit the wheel arch of the Jetta too. Will pick up some more supplies tomorrow.

Played around with Google Earth some more. Plotted two significantly different routes... one across the center of the US and one going across a bit more southerly. The elevation profiles:
Central (same as posted before):

Southerly:


Initial glance makes the southerly route look better (max altitude is 7340ft on this route while the other route has a max altitude of 8520ft). But then there are other details that seem to favor the central route (26,675ft of climbing on the central route vs 28,366ft of climbing on the southerly route; 1931mi for central vs 2159mi for southerly... worth at least 3 hours assuming the same avg speed on each route). Argh! Too much information!!

I've driven probably every major route to the west coast, and honestly ( if you are pleasure cruising ) run the route that you will have the most fun on. MPG wise, it won't even matter; you adjust for the conditions. I personally hate I70 across for a truck, love it in a car ( no scales to cross ), I40 across is my favorite lane, I20 and I10 across will run you through the heart of Texas and it's looonnngggg. I didn't read where your end point will be, so I am being very general. Oh, I80 across will put you through the wind tunnel that is Nebraska. Nothing out there.

I know this may sound off topic, but is your suspension at stock ride height or is it lowered?

[NachtRitter]

Did a "test run" today with the Jetta 'as-is' (none of the mods discussed in this thread implemented yet) and got 68.x mpg over 280+ miles (per the Scangauge)... promising for the long drive coming up with a few more mods!

Cleanspeed1 - I am heading to St Louis (to be with our FIRST Robotics team for the FIRST Championships), coming from the Central CA area (Sacramento). Car is not lowered, and since I already scrape the skid plate, I don't think I want to lower it!

[NachtRitter]

Return drive from my previous destination (where I got 68mpg) gave me 63mpg over 190 miles per the Scangauge. Not surprising that it was less since the ending destination was about 1000 ft higher than the beginning. Filled up with 15.9gallons after hitting 1000+ miles on this tank, giving me ~63mpg for the tank.

Should have some time this weekend to try out some of the aero modifications mentioned earlier in this thread.

[cleanspeed1]

Originally Posted by NachtRitter

Return drive from my previous destination (where I got 68mpg) gave me 63mpg over 190 miles per the Scangauge. Not surprising that it was less since the ending destination was about 1000 ft higher than the beginning. Filled up with 15.9gallons after hitting 1000+ miles on this tank, giving me ~63mpg for the tank.

Should have some time this weekend to try out some of the aero modifications mentioned earlier in this thread.

Your a beast NR, a total beast!

Now, if you can do a 1000 mile tank running stop and go, you will hit EPIC status!