Why I Strive For MPG In A Big Pickup

[MetroMPG]

Come on, now. Play nice.

Obviously people will take different positions on the "rolling fortress" train of thought and where that might lead. I'm not inclined to get into the debate because frankly I doubt anyone here is likely to change their position!

So I'll just say: happy it ended well, and I'm genuinely glad to see you making an effort at efficiency given your vehicle choice.

[Coyote X]

http://tubearoo.com/articles/80799/M...kup_Truck.html I think you need a bigger truck, I was on the fire dept when a pizza delivery guy went up to the mines in a pickup truck and didn't pay attention to what he was doing. Same thing ended up happening to him.

I think feeling safe should be more along the lines in confidence in your driving and awareness of others. Size can help or hurt depending on the situation you find yourself in. I have been in situations that if I was in a car instead of a bike I would be hit and if I was in anything other than a fully caged race car I would have been seriously messed up. So drive what you want just be aware of it's limitations and what you can and can't expect it to do and you will be fine.

But if something is going to happen bad it really doesn't matter what you drive a truck can get splattered as bad as a car by a illegally overloaded semi crossing the center lane. I have seen both situations happen and it never is good for the non coal truck passengers.

[tasdrouille]

Here's my winter beater. I think I could use some hubcaps.

Driving a big vehicle vs a current fully equipped sedan (safety wise) solely for the purpose of being "safer" on the road is plain stupid IMHO. All you'll do in the end is kill someone when you would have probably both walked away.

[Lazarus]

Dave I'm gald your OK.

Here's a list of the safe transportation.

Are pickups safe.
There is some goods link on there to.

The number of occupant fatalities in passenger cars dropped from 25,063 in 1989 to 20,320 in 2001 and then edged upward to 20,415 in 2002. In contrast, the number of deaths in light trucks — which includes pickups, sport utility vehicles and vans — climbed from 8,551 in 1989 to 12,182 in 2002, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Light-truck fatalities accounted for nearly 36 percent of the total vehicle-occupant deaths during 2002.

I know you don't drive a light truck but..

It would be interesting to see data about the safety of large trucks, Hummers and SUV instead of what is just accepted as facts. The safety requirements are not the same as cars.

[basjoos]

I guess if someones's top concern is driving the largest, heaviest, "safest" SUV/pickup out there and don't give a rip about the lives of other motorists, they could always drive a Navistar International 7300 CXT. It would flatten a Ford Excursion or a H1 and would only lose going up against a fully loaded semi or cement truck (or an M1 Abrams). It's the current top gun in the SUV arms race.

http://www.pickuptruck.com/html/stor...nal/page1.html

[Big Dave]

Let’s face it, we all operate in a couple of different continuums seeking utility, safety, and economy.

Nobody here has taken MPG to the max that I know of. The most energy-efficient type vehicle to move a human along the surface is a powered street luge. The CdA on that is nearly negligible and the weight is almost all that of the driver.

The extreme of the safety continuum would be to hunker in Cheyenne Mountain. That don’t get it either.

We all have to make our choices. Balancing safety/MPG is a matter of the old risk/reward thing. How much risk can you tolerate? How much reward do you need? Even hypermilers get tickets and have wrecks. Their per-mile low is very, very low, but if you drive enough even remote probabilities will catch up with you.

As far as safety, I do believe that damage control on the Titanic starts with “Don’t hit the darned iceberg!” In my case the excellent ABS on the ford did the job. I thought sure I was gonna hit those rubes. I had resigned myself into spinning into them. My old Chevy truck certainly would have but the Ford ABS brought me down fast and dead-nuts straight on a poor road surface. Yeah, I’m an engineer too and I know about F=ma and all that, but the fact is that the Toyota spinning into my lane was unable to get enough grip on the road and he spun. With a half-ton of iron over my front wheels, obviously I did get a grip and stopped.

I do think driver competence is paramount but it is not a fail-safe trump card. I have nearly three-quarters of a million miles under my butt and my insurance company considers me a preferred risk. Obviously, I drive to get good MPG, so I am hardly a speed-demon. But I drive a lot of miles and the law of large numbers is still working.

So I have to strike a balance.

I think ecomodding and hypermiling is good for society as a whole and the big numbers that little cars can rack up provide fine leadership, but it is important to remember that people buy different vehicles for different reasons. To concentrate of squeezing the last MPG out of a Prius (as satisfying as that would be) while ignoring larger cars, van, pickups, etc is an exercise in self-marginalization.

BTW, I do ride a motorcycle – a Honda Valkyrie (whatta gas-hog!), but I don’t ride it in “have-to-get-there” situations. If my butt is on a bike seat, a Bell helmet is on my head. Back in the 70s I trashed a Bell Magnum on a mailbox post and walked away.

[trebuchet03]

With a half-ton of iron over my front wheels, obviously I did get a grip and stopped.

Again, this is not how physics works

KE = .5*m*v^2
Friction = Cf*m*g

More KE means more energy to dissipate while braking. You're increasing friction force while increasing the amount of power necessary to come to a stop in the same amount of time. As your ABS kicked on, that's case and point that your weight was not why you were able to stop in time... You have the braking power to lose grip with the road (and you did - ABS kicked on to manage it).

People do buy cars for different reasons... I may not agree, but accept this. But physics applies the same for everyone and I personally would like to dissolve these myths about heavy vehicles that are based on incorrect intuition.

[Frank Lee]

We'll see who gets marginalized with $6 gas.

[mattW]

Here's a solution to the safety/ efficiency problems! A 4 tonne electric pyramid made out of bullet proof glass! It only cost $60,000 to make and seats 1.

[MetroMPG]

But how many 4x8 sheets of plywood can it haul??