Portland to Florida trip round 2
 

Looks like I’m doing another coast to coast trip! I’ll be documenting my experiences here.

This time is different because I’m trying the box cavity flares at the end, taped front rims, and some wheel flarings ti deflect airflow around the tires and catching the wake ( not best shape but some mock ups)

First 200 miles - 57 miles per gallon at 78mph cruise control. Not too bad

Caught a small tail wind next 150 miles and averaged mpg bumped up to 64. With AC ON! Still cc at 78mph

Two of the foam wheel flares flew off though.

610 miles on first tens of Gas at highway speeds with mountains. Not bad. All wheel flarings have blow off besides the back two rear wake ones at the rear wheels. Other than that it’s just no mirrors, wheel spats, cavity fins, and taped front wheels

Did you go back and pick up the pieces?

Only one flew off. Would’ve been difficult to get it. The others kept coming detached and flapping around. They were being held on by gorilla tape so I just ripped them off and threw them in the trunk.

Caught a tail wind in Utah. Whenever the load is reduced at high speeds, my car behaves this way and does it’s “ lean burn” mode or whatever you want to call it. High elevation at 5k feet and tail wind. Car charges the hybrid battery to the max then switches over to engine only versus engine and battery charging. The mpg goes insane and stays this way for a long time. I wonder if the car would behave the same way if I dramatically lowered the cars CD with a full boat tail and other mods? Just random thoughts. But mpg in the 60s while going 88 mph is just wild

Strikes me the easiest would be to keep the battery max charged or spoofed that way

I wish there was a hack to change it and make the car do that. The switching to EV mode works a lot better with city driving versus high speed interstate

Salt lake to beaver Utah at 88 mph did the lean burn thingy again and averaged 51mpg with 3mph cross wind.

Then from mountain pass to lake Powell Arizona averaged 68 mpg. Average speed with tons of hills and mountains was about 73-74mph. Not too bad. Had like a 4mph tail wind but super rough desert roads.

Today is just uphill the whole way to flagstaff Arizona so won’t report on mpg

Heading to

Flagstaff to Holbrook. 6 mph head wind. Cc at 83mph. Averaged 52 mpg. Not too bad compared ro last years trip

Holbrook to Albuquerque cross and head winds cc at 83-84 gave 57 mpg. Wild

Why is it Round 2 and not Phase 2?

That phase identifies as a round.

Mess with the black bullet and catch these rounds. Lol jk

Amarillo to Oklahoma stateline had 51-52mpg average with cc at 83. 4mpg crosswind.

Numbers are going down. Also check engine light for failing cat converter came on so no idea if that’s a factor.

Point is, only different mod this time compared to last years trip are the cavity fins. If you recall, my average mpg for 80 cc was then was 49-50 mpg. So the fact that I’m still getting a few extra mpgs with a few extra mphs is pretty nice. Will update more when next stages speed limit drops

Short section in Oklahoma with cc set to 80 gave 53-54 mpg with 4 mph crosswind. Ac is on too. Seems like the fins throughout this trip are giving about a 4mpg boost on average. Crazy since that’s a bigger boost than wheel spats and side mirror removal combined!

Extreme heat then thunderstorms and then heat and then hail then rain again are causing the foam board to warp. It’s more bumpy now and the back edge isn’t as tapered anymore. It’s more straight out. It’s still cutting drag but not as optimized as it could be

Also front wheel covers tape and the tape holding the rear fins gets loose with heat from the sun. I have to retape every few hours. Anyone know of some heat resistant duct tapes?

Just curious what necessitates the drive vs fly?

I'm pretty hardcore about preferring driving, but over about 1000 miles or so I'll fly. Having to stay the night somewhere ends up making the drive not as financially prudent... I am in the process of convincing my wife that our family of 4 needs to drive the 24hrs to Colorado every year rather than fly. I think after this year I'll have her convinced.

It’s 150-200 bucks in gas to drive one way in my car. A flight is 800 dollars out of pdx. Then getting a rental car is also expensive. Especially for 2 weeks. Not to mention the gas for the rental car. And then sitting next to strangers on the nasty plane? Limited luggage of what you can pack? No way

Plus I love the local cuisine of the drive. New Mexican chiles in New Mexico. Cajun in Louisiana. Tex Mex in Texas. Southern food in the south. You name it. I’d be flying over all that stuff if I didn’t drive

But yeah the hotel thing sucks. Usually use rewards for hotels or book super cheap crappy motels in and out. Wish my car was better for car camping

I once packed everything for a week in Hawaii in 1 carry on, and 1 backpack, and that included all SCUBA gear besides a tank and weight belt. With family, carry on only is no longer feasible, so the luggage fees add up quickly.

I'd say about 1/3rd of my flights go wrong enough that I'm extremely inconvenienced, lending me to want to drive even more. Zero of my drives have been wrong enough to extremely inconvenience me so far.

CO (24hrs) is about the limit of what I'm willing to drive by myself in a single push... roundtrip tickets to FloRida can fairly regularly be had for around $500 or a little more.

The longer the boat tail, the more room you'll have; if it's configured like Aerocivic.

I have a six foot rack in the SUPERBeetle. Last time I overnighted in it was at the summit of Donner Pass. (I took a wrong turn coming home from Bonneville)

I do the drive from Oregon to Colorado every February for snowboarding. It’s really scenic and pretty. You miss all the gorgeous sights if you just fly. Oregon ti Colorado is much different of a view than say Illinois to Louisiana lol.

I may even be going to Colorado in July for some gold panning and adventures

I still have no idea how I am going to do the boat tail with the shape of my rear spoiler and opening and closing the trunk/hatch with the boat tail.

It seems like building a boat tail for the new 2023 Prius would be soooo much easier with that roofline and barely existing spoiler

I’ve done a lot of car camping and figured some things out. Especially if you’re driving alone, you could do it pretty easily.

Another option (and it might not be too late to realize a savings) is to just buy a cheap tent and air mattress or something and find places to do real camping. You generally see more attractive scenery this way, which seems like something you’d enjoy if you like the different foods of the areas you’re in too. A cheap single burner stove and a thrift store pot and pan gets you making coffee and breakfast in the morning and reheating your dinner that you didn’t finish the night before. A cheap tent would be fifty bucks. Less than $100 would have you sleeping for free or for $25 a night or less for basically the rest of the trip, including the way back. Camping has gotten expensive lately but I’m sure you could slip in somewhere after dark, set up and sleep, and break down early and go. Hotels definitely add up.

Just like ecomodding, there are tons of ways to make road trips cheaper. You can make it a game just like hypermiling.

I slept most nights for 2 years in the back of a Subaru Legacy. Just fold down one of the rear seats, crawl into a sleeping bag, and I'm done.

I also have my cat with me so hotels are nice to set up his litter

Alabama stateline ro birminghsm metro with cc set to 75 gave 59 mpg over the rolling hills. That’s nice because last time my mpg at 75 with ac on was 52mpg in the same region last year

Birmingham to Georgia stateline with cc set to 75 gave 56 mpg in light rain. I took off the rear fins and taped over front wheel covers because of “ appearance” and just higher population areas and the tape issue

Add small magnets spaced as you would rivets, and the tape just smoothens the edge.

Well now the fins have baked in gorilla tape on them and taking it off will just peel and rip away the out her foam layer. When I get back to Oregon I’m going to get some sheets of abs plastic and trace out the shape and cut it and sand it and then 3m double sided tape it to the car and possibly drill it into the body still the mod will actually be able to be kept on even in winter time. May even help with snow build up at the rear?

A turnpike cruiser skirt could have lots of attachment around the wheel well and then only need some attachment to the rear bumper.

I don’t think it’ll need that much attachment because it’s mostly lift happening at the rear. Probably a few strips of double sided extreme 3m tape and then 3 drilled bolts, top bottom and middle

Starting trip back west now. Went to tire shop because I thought something was in the wheel making a weird sound. Apparently my tires are wearing out on the inside and that’s what’s making sounds. I’ve never had an alignment done on my car after 160,000 miles. So sounds like I need to get an alignment when I get back to Oregon. A lot of websites mention alignments and mpg increases. Has anyone tested this or noticed that? A lot of sources say 10 percent impact. There’s no way if I get an alignment I’ll get a 10 percent fuel economy boost lol

An alignment is money well spent. I had a limited slip diff installed and thought it was hurting my mpg. I got an alignment and went right back to my previous mpg numbers. FWIW I would do it before your return trip and save your tires and mpg.

No sales tax in Oregon.

Can't disagree with someone who quotes me in their Signature. :) But redpoint5 has a point consideration.

I’ll be doing an alignment when I get back to no sales tax Oregon and also go to Costco to see what they say about tread warranty or new tires or to rotate and balance.

They let me walk under the ioniq when it was on the lift at Firestone though. And wow. The underside is actually extremely flat and flush. Seems like making it perfectly smooth will barely make a measurable difference for fuel economy. Only non aero sections would be cat convert and exhaust section and then maybe the small gap around the flat underside muffler. Seems like just building a longer diffuser at the end would still work extremely well

Birmingham to meridian ms at 75cc gave about 56 mpg. So consistent with other parts of trip without fins. Making my way to Texas this afternoon

Amarillo to gallup New Mexico. 36-37 mpg at 84 mph cuz of 22-30 mph headwinds and elevation rise. Lol