After asking about a drop in mileage last month, I have managed to get my mileage from 31.8 back up to 32.8 through a combination of tire pressure/rotation and EV/coasting through my local suburban neighborhood (sometimes infuriating the Expedition behind me, however...) I am concerned about this "forced charge" into L you are talking about-
#1-I cant seem to get the car to do it, and #2 what is this doing to my transmission?
One sidenote-we recently took a 300 mile road trip that was combination of freeway
and backroads-and the mileage went up .2...which is against the EPA numbers that
seem to indicate better mileage with all-city driving (85% of where I go is not freeway). So should I be taking longer high-speed spins?

 

Okay, I'm starting to get annoyed by comments like this. Not all of us live in Florida with a favorable commute with a FWD FEH. Something tells me that Gary probably couldn't match my FE here in Michigan, especially with my commute during the winter. Just because we aren't logging...wait a minute, why isn't Gary logging any of those tanks here?

Anyway, I'm closing in on 40 MPG tanks, using fake shifts, gear shifts, and other techniques. Just because I'm not boasting 70 MPG trips doesn't mean I'm doing something wrong, or any of the other users.



1. It's just shifting into L gear as your driving.

2. Since you don't really have a transmission, nothing. N,D, and L are the same physically, the change is software.

 

As I said in my earlier post, if you can hit 70-75 MPG or more, please explain your technique for us. Looking at your sig page, it says 64.4, best round trip for 21 miles. This is a far cry from 70.3 during the day in traffic at 4:30 rush hour with a strong headwind half the trip. The outside temp was 88F and the speed limit was ideal for EV driving. From what I hear from most posting, these would be considered ideal conditions and I agree. If 70mpg doesn't mean much, why did feel 64.4 (your best round trip) should have been part of your sig page?

The techniques I use are new from Feb. 06 and very effective that have never been talked about untill I tested and made public. The mere fact that you ask what my battery level was at the start of my trip tells me you don't understand my technique, so I would like to know how you can get to 70mpg on a round trip.

Most here would be in heaven to get a 60mpg round trip. Telling them that 70mpg for 20 miles doesn't mean much is an insult when you've never done it. The statement you made "fool around" with speed and coasting and all that" doesn't cut it at 70mpg, you better have your act together when you go for it. Trust me, I had 78mpg on the restart of the ICE and 73mpg with the battery ready for a glide in EV with 10 miles into the trip. Any slip up like dropping the speed to low would kill those numbers. Same with raising the speed to slow or to fast. There are more details on http://www.cleanmpg.com/ of how its done. It's not easy hitting 70+ mpg, but the technique can improve everyone's mileage in their daily commute.

It is the technique, not a record that is important. BTW, my battery was almost dead at the start of the trip, that's part of the technique I use now.

GaryG

 

Which way? Showing more on the Scanguage or FEH Nav Sys?

 

You don't have a hybrid and yet your casting aspersions on those who do, but don't get what is admittedly the (currently known) summit of FE in the Ford Escape Hybrid?

Turn down the smugness a bit, and you might get better results. GaryG and GPSMan and Pravus Prime have it right -- provide facts, share perceptions and experiences, discuss but save the smugness nonsense at least until you have a hybrid and can experience the tradeoffs first-hand.

I'm not a hypermiler by definition, but I am increasingly learning techniques (and breaking in my Ford Escape Hybrid) that increase fuel economy in my vehicle and I fully expect to exceed EPA mpg easily on as many tanks as possible in the future. Does that mean I will try every single thing I read that a hypermiler with a similiar vehicle is successfully using? No, and I don't think that's a viable reason to chastize anyone.

 

Phillip, that is a very valuable question to those who don't have a scangauge but have the Navi.. If you or anyone else have the Nav sys, reset the 15 min average every fillup. It is as close too the scangauge as things can get (+ or - .3 mpg). If you let the 15min average alone till fillup again, the 15 min average reading you see is your average MPG for that tank. I've been comparing those two gauges for months now.

The pump method is for the birds in the FEH. I tried everything from filling at the same pump, shaking and bouncing, you just can't get a good reading that way.

GaryG

 

Glad we can agree that the electronics give a better ( more accurate ) representation of fuel economy for a short term ( one tank, or partial tank ) than doing the math based on gallons pumped.

I know, this goes against instict, the tank "should" hold a fixed amount of gas, but the reality is, there is A LOT of air space in there, and it is impossible to fill the same way 2 times in a row, no matter how hard we try. And our cars don't even have a flexible "bladder"!

I also agree that the ScanGauge and built-in very closely match, and they should.
The ScanGauge is NOT making an independant measurement, it is using the same raw data as the Navi Screen, so one CANNOT be considered better than the other. If they vary by a small degree, this is based on "rounding" or how each interprets EV driving. We know the SG treats EV as 9999 MPG, which is high, but not the same as infinate, the true answer. What does the built-in use for EV? 99 MPG? 999MPG? 9999MPG? 999,999,999 MPG?
You get the point. I think the difference between the SG and On-Board is so slight, feel free to use either, or take the average of both.

I like to add the miles with my MPG so everyone can see the relative weight.
To me, 45.3 MPG for 721 miles pulls more weight than 64.4 MPG for 21 miles.
Just like 37.0 MPG for 20,065 miles includes driving in -15'F winters with 10% ethanol, and 115'F summers with A/C on Max.

 

Since I got no technique from GPSman on how he can get over 70mpg, I posted they way I was able to get over 70mpg in my FEH. These techniques need to be shared so everyone can get great FE. If you care to read my reply, you can find it in my article on "Hypermiling The FEH" at http://www.cleanmpg.com/

GaryG

 

As you can guess, and should already know, it's no one thing Gary.

Of course I use everything we have ever learned or read, when appropriate.

One of the most effective is P&G but with larger swings ( like 40MPH to 20 MPH ) but is something that not many people should do or could do. I do a lot of rural driving w/o traffic, and so on my way home from work, in no hurry, I can turn on the Radio to my favorite station, relax, and take my time getting home.

As you know, short trips kill mileage. My commute is only 10 miles, but by driving slow, I turn that into 25 minutes which allows everything to get hot, and doing P&G in the country gives great results.

( Right now, saving $ is more important to me than saving time. Driving the FEH is fun for me, and yes, it is a type of "hobby" as someone else put it. )

Last weekend I drove a 118 mile round trip over the highway doing P&G between 60MPH and 50MPH, and using a few fake shifts, but that's kinda not much different than P&G. Got 46.9 MPG for the round trip.

My 64.4 was in less than ideal conditions, 40'F, with 10% ethanol, in rush hour traffic, in the city. The 64.4 was with P&G and L gear most of the time. Since I was in busy traffic, I had to keep up with the flow.

In more ideal conditions, with 100% gas, that could have been over 70 MPG right there.

 

As I am rather new at this, Gary, could you briefly reinterate P&G (I assume
that means Pulse and Glide) and the Fake Shift? I did read your article a couple of times, but it was somewhat difficult to completely comprehend. Practicing the Fake Shift as I understand it (slowly accelerate to around 40 mph, then drop into L gear?)
as well as attempting as much EV driving as possible in my neighborhood has gained me about .3 mpg in the last week...without the Nav, I don't have any of the data for high mileage short trips, but it is gratifying to see the Average Econ creeping up .1 by .1! (33.0 now). Its a fun way to make my trips more interesting.