So I am routinely getting 44ish MPG to work (got my first over 45 mpg this morning) and I am going to try pluse and glide now.

As a reference, my drive is all city streets, mostly 45 mpg, with the exception of 1 strech of 35 for about 1/2 a mile and then the last 1.5 miles being 25 (on the air force base).

As a result I can't run in all electric too often, however I do it as much as possible since I know the timing of the lights. However, there is one strech when I set the cruise on 40 mph for about 2.1 miles becuase of the timing of the lights. Since the speed limit is 45 I don't want to go much under 40... That said I am normally at the back of the traffic flow at this point becuase of a right turn that I have just made onto the street.

Will a pluse and glide benifit me that much more than setting the cruise at 40? I'm thinking accelerate up to 45, put it in N and then as passing through 40 cut the ICE, down to 35 and do that again.

What are the thoughts? I use glide as much as I can to include acclerating up to 55ish mpg and then gliding all the way to a turn as much as 1/2+ miles.

Thanks for helping a newbe... My current tank is 1.25 gallons used on 53.6 miles (42.25 mpg), I'm just trying to improve it anyway I can.

 

Your doing just great and yes P&G can increase your mileage. The problem with P&G is in traffic where people can't pass or your creating a bottleneck in traffic with more than one lane. I find that below 20mph it takes to much fuel to get back to 30-35mph for the pulse in my '05 FWD FEH for P&G. I find the best mileage is from 25mph on the low side and 35mph on the high side. Of course you can P&G at highway speeds, but wind resistance the faster you go is the killer of MPG.

GaryG

 

Gary G., I think I read somewhere that there is a video of your drive during hybridfest last year. Is it still available online? If so, can you attach the link?

 

In short, P&G can help in the right conditions, and not do much in most conditions.

There was a ~1 hour presentation at HybridFest 2008 by a very technical Prius owner, and he did 50 tests with P&G vs. Cruise Control on the same roads.

He did about 50 runs so he could average out all types of weather conditions.
The verdict?

50% of the time P&G saved gas vs. Cruise Control.
Conversely, 50% of the time, Cruise Control saved gas.

The difference of the two ( in a Prius ) was generally less than 3 MPG.
The telling part was... the times he tried P&G with a large spread ( say 10-40 MPH) were worst. P&G with a narrow spred ( 30-40 MPH ) seemed better.

 

There were two videos made during the '07 MPG Challenge in Debbie Katz's '05 FWD FEH. Debbie's Challenge and my Challenge were filmed from start to finish and an hour long each from a fixed tripod. Two problems with the films were they were fixed on only the Nav Sys, SGII and the road ahead and they are too long to post on places like You-Tube. There is a lot of glare and at times the gauges were to dark to read sometimes because of lighting. The road ahead was very good IMO, but it's not a learning film because you can't see Debbie's or me shifting.

The video's basically documented that Debbie got 48.5mpg and I got a MAX 60mpg reading on the Nav Sys. The video's backs-up that the SGII was set-up incorrectly and my MAX 60mpg was really 61.8mpg for the 26 mile Challenge according to the SGII if set to match the Nav Sys and the OD. To date, about 10 people have requested copies of the DVD and I haven't had one bit of feedback after sending them free copies.

That said, my family can watch my video on a HD Blue-Ray player as that was how I recorded it last year. My camera was a Sony HD and I copied it to my Blue-Ray HD laptop recorder. I can hear it in 5.1 surround sound what Debbie and I talked about during my challenge. Debbie was by herself during her Challenge. I played the Eagles "Take It Easy" as I was having fun getting 61.8mpg driving on roads and hills I've never scene or drove on in my life before. Reading maps during a MPG Challenge is not safe IMO!

GaryG

 

That is exactly what I have found the 2 days this week when I P&Ged. Due to the fact that it is very slightly uphill during the 2.1 mile strech of my drive it was actually being worse to FE. Compund that by the fact that I wanted to P&G between 45 and 35 and with no real easy way to get the car into EV mode without shifting into L or hitting the brakes - I was stripping off too much speed around 41-38 mph due to this maneuver.

Trying it completly in "N" from 45 to 35 and I noticed no improvment in FE, but a slight decrease in FE.

I did get 46+ mpg into work today (my new highest). It helped it was only 80 out so I could do the windows down (as opposed to the high 80s normally) and I took a detour to the store to pick up coffee which was actually a better FE route due to lights and what not (35 mph streets too).

 

Can someone clearly explain the Pulse and Glise procedure to me? Do you put it in Neutral? And what does the engine do???

-Novice Hybridder