A little hypermiling experiment

4899 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by 10%More, Oct 6, 2014

dhumphus

Discussion Starter · Oct 5, 2014

Just for fun I tried a little hyper-miling experiment on my last fill up ($3.79/gallon Chevron, SoCal). Here are some of my results. I'd like to hear from you all if you've tried this.

Currently 1030 miles on the odometer. Truck is about 4 weeks old.

R/T commute is 60 miles 90% highway. Starting point was 22.5 MPG after a WE of towing a trailer. Commute includes a long climb and a long downhill in both directions.

On the flats I'm trying to push the instantaneous readout to between 22 to 60 MPG, keeping it, on average, around 40 MPG. Cresting over the hill (about a 4 mile down grade), I switch to neutral for the ride down, topping the instantaneous at 99 MPG.

Just for fun, on the way back over the hill I decided to cut the motor (turn key off), and discovered to my surprise the power-assist steering and braking were not affected. At the bottom, the motor was restarted and I continued on until arriving home. BTW, if the headlights are set to auto, and the engine off, the headlights will turn off after 30 seconds. Went to manual headlights.

So I cruised about 4 miles downhill with motor turned off completely and in neutral. After less than three days I went from 22.5 (starting) to 27 MPG average.

I'm not sure if cutting the motor has any detrimental effects on the drivetrain. Not so sure I'll make a habit of it though.

I have a little experience at this with my Ford C-Max hybrid and consistently get 43 MPG.

What do ya'll think?

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10%More

· #5 · Oct 6, 2014

Interesting first post.

Decades have had me use neutral often. We used to call it Jewish Overdrive (JO) and I still do. With my old manual Cummins I made a game of coasting down the street and up into the garage for over a mile. Today I use this Ecodiesel and found out you can put it into neutral, coast and just turn that know back to drive without touching the brake. It will go into gear as opposed to not using the brake when stopped and getting a neutral.

Also noted that the fuel mileage goes blank when I coast in neutral. Not sure that is even working as surely an idling engine is using fuel.

If you coast in gear that transmission will slow you down dramatically. Use neutral for a good coast.

As or shutting off the engine ... man that's scary. Surprised power steering and brakes still work. Must be vacuum related. No clue how long that would keep working. Smashed into a tree years ago when I turned off the engine to sneak up on some turkeys. Could not control the car and did a real stupid and pulled the key. Hit that tree before I could get things working again.

I would not turn off the engine.

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