Thanks! It's been great to have something new to obsess over. Feels like it's taken forever, thanks to those first few "I was clueless" tanks. But I resisted the urge to delete them, and now I've made it "fair and square" (and without succumbing to the temptation to take the other car for known-mileage-killing trips, or to drive around the best parts of town repeatedly, or the like). Now when we get our new hybrid (not sure exactly when, but it's likely to be within the next year, either a Prius or a HCH, to replace our '02 V-6 Escape), I will already know how to drive it!

For now, I'm just trying to build up a "buffer" to deal with the nasty winter here in the snowbelt; anyone found a good alternative to using the window defroster, which disables autostop in the FEH? That's going to kill me, I know it. Maybe I will really have to clean out the garage, soon.

 

Don't they make some kinds of spray things you can put on your windows to stop fogging? What about that stuff people put on eye glasses?

 

What I do is crack the 2 passenger side windows about 1/2 - 1 inch and turn the heat up a bit. It's generally dryer outside and the 2 windows cracked create a natural circulation inside without creating much drag. I do the same thing in the summer and it works better than trying to get the fans to blow directly on me. In the summer I crack them a little more, normally 2-3 inches.

 

I keep the directional set to Defrost but the fan set to off.
This creates a natural draft across the window.

When defrost is needed I'll rotate the fan control most of the way on and it instantly clears.
Once everything is clear I turn the fan back to off.

That's with foggy windows but I'm not sure about the frozen stuff.

 

Thanks for the tips! I'll let you know what works when it gets below freezing (probably in about two weeks - just kidding), and then when it gets below 0!

In the meantime, I'm happily running this tank at about 34 mpg!

 

--

 

___And a recent new member named Psyshack just blew through the EPA combined on the fifth in his 2000 Ford Ranger XLT P/U named after its manufacturer, (Ford)! I love to see this kind of increase and all it takes a few weeks learning how to achieve higher FE is all … Nice job Psyshack!

This is very hard work in my Ranger. As you can see the 22 mpg and 24 mpg tanks are very normal for the truck, 80% plus hwy.

As the mpg started coming up, so did the work on trying to get it there. No A/C, coasting, tailgate down, and speeds droping. Along with geting into 5th gear as soon as possible and timing lights and such.

Some of the problems with FE and this truck is the tires are over sized in width and hieght. Will be buying new tires soon,, like this weekend or first of next week. They will go back to OEM size and will be a passanger car style tire. I chated with xcel the other night. We discussed my truck verses his. I dont think mine will ever do as good as his. Given they have the same body style it ends there. Mine has the 2.5 liter 4 cyl. his the 2.3 liter mill. Mine only has 120 hp and no torgue,, so to speak. Its really taxing on the motor to pull the truck around. My tranny is a mistu junker. Im sure his is a Mazda tranny.

Just this week I found out why the truck wouldnt cost with engine off, ignition on and keep the dash still working. The ignition switch had worn out that contact. Ive replaced the ignition switch and the problem is corrected. Thinking I was in good shape and mpg was going to take another step up. The front wheel bearing failed out of the blue yesterday morning. While fixing that yesterday I found the U-joints to be in bad shape and the power steering pump to be failing. I stoped looking at that point. So hopefully when all this is fixed and the truck is driven again. MPG should come on up abit more. Would like to see a 33 mpg tank out of it.

psy

 

Wow, looks like you are being nickel & dimed in your current truck.
I know of a few good reliable cars on the market!

 

Waiting on the new Civics. Still whizzed off cause the hybrid is a CVT and no rear disk brakes.

 

Keep an eye on the non hybrid 2006 civic. I won't be surprised if it is a 45 MPG car, that can be hypermiled in it's manual config.