The new guy here, introducing myself

[swskeptic]

Hey there everyone. It's the new guy here. I'm here to help myself save a little bit of fuel. The summer is coming and I need to start tightening the belt again. I'm driving an '03 Dodge Caravan.

Tonight I filled my tires up to 40 PSI, and removed some heavy items I no longer need. Tomorrow I will be removing the mud flaps and roof rack under recommendation from this website. Also, a few days ago I got an oil change.

I was averaging around 21 MPG or so on the highway and 18 MPG or so in town. I am curious to see what happens this weekend on my 1 hour 40 minute drive.

Also, it needs a nice wash and wax which should bring down the drag, it is super dirty right now.

So, hello to everyone and I look forward to learning from all of you. I was wondering, does anyone here have any tips specifically for my Caravan?

[Vwbeamer]

Hi. although not specifically for a Carvan, the scangauge was the biggest improvement i made for my car.

You can get them for about 150.00. Do a google search for "scangauge group buy". You can usually find a forum with a group buy going on.

Or, you might want to wait, there is cheaper version rumored to come out in march at 80 bucks.

[swskeptic]

I think I will have to pass, my van has most of the features built in.

[Whoops]

Yes. Along with what your doing, you can do a grill block. I picked up about 10% on our 98 Town & Country. You do have to watch the temperature gauge and listen for the radiator fan kicking in. If the radiator fan is kicking in, you have to much of a block.

On the roof rack, I would just pull the horizontal cross members. The front to back rails don't present hardly any profile, going into the wind.

The 4 th gear, torque lockup does not occur until around 48 mph. Anything short of that speed and either the lockup will be off, which costs about 200 rpm, or it will downshift to 3rd gear which will give you a hit of about 1000 rpm higher engine speed.

p.s. welcome to ecomodders

[Vwbeamer]

Yes, I forget some newer cars have MPG read outs.
Welcome to Ecomodder.

Originally Posted by swskeptic

I think I will have to pass, my van has most of the features built in.

[swskeptic]

Wow, just by pumping the tires up from the recommended 36 PSI (actually, I had about 30-36, depending on the tire) to 40 PSI I am acheiving upwards of 27.3 MPG at 65 MPH on the highway. I don't have a problem going 55-60 and my MPG would improve even more, yippie. Also, I have yet to remove the roof rack bars, mud flaps and wash and wax the car. After all of this, I'm hoping to be pushing 30 MPG!

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Whoops

On the roof rack, I would just pull the horizontal cross members. The front to back rails don't present hardly any profile, going into the wind.

Don't forget crosswinds, where they'll present quite a lot more profile and create more drag because the apparent wind isn't coming from head on.

Personally, I'd pull the whole assembly off if you're not using it.

Welcome to the forum!