ShawnB,

Can you pinpoint specifically what you are doing differently now? Your changed frame of mind must be causing you to drive differently somehow (other than "more carefully"). I was just curious if there was a technique you are now using that you weren't using before.

Thanks, ShawnS

 

I don't think you're lying. I think there was something off in your measurement. 53MPG is believable. 109 is not. The best average in the GH database for an HCH2 is 63MPG, and that's by someone who says he drives 53 MPH on the freeway. Any higher speed on a flat road with no tail wind will hurt your mileage.

 

Sounds like Shawn is doing some good things and I don't doubt his numbers based on what some other HCH II drivers are getting.

The numbers in my signiture was on a single tank with Sparky, a CVT HCH 1 last summer and calculated to 74.9MPG over the 1003 miles. I earned every mile of that.

 

ShawnS,

I will answer more specifically over the next few days. I need time to think about this answer and to monitor my change of driving habbits... I'm hovering at 54 MPG at the moment which is a first for me with all these hills so I am still doing something different but I need to identify what it is.

In the meantime, here is a photo from the day before yesterday and while it shows 54.4 for 56 miles, I am now at 112.8 miles with 54.1 MPG. This includes the 7 miles of 3-6% uphill grade and every red light possible that I can possibly catch.

http://www.zenofdotnet.com/downloads...0-0094_IMG.JPG


Thanks,
Shawn

 

I see that sometimes. Usually it happens when driving down a long hill, after the I-MPG has been pegged at 100 for a while. When I leave home with a cold start and drive the long way down the hill, the engine hasn't warmed up yet. So after a couple of miles at 100 MPG (no gas consumed, no engine heat), the IMA decides that the engine is too cold and it forces the engine to start (and waste some gas). But I'm still not pressing on the gas pedal. I think it goes into a neutral idle mode, coasting downhill while revving the engine. And my theory is that the gauge gets confused in this situation.

My solution is to shift to S gear. This engages the engine at high revs in "brake" mode, and immediately gets the I-MPG to read correctly. I can then shift right back to D and everything looks right.

 

I have done some testing and believe that when the instand FE bars disappear, you are driving in an ultra high mileage mode. The FE is definately being recorded as it happened to me once just after I had reset my display and the average FE display kept increasing the entire time the instant FE display was blanked out.

 

If it really is ultra high mileage mode, then that's great. Because there are two places on my trip where I can make that happen at-will (since I started this thread I've since learned how to trigger the anomaly). I'll be monitoring it next time I get it to kick-in.


Thanks,
Shawn

 

Something else I noticed about the blanked out display...

After making my initial observation, I set the dash to metric when the instant FE display was pinned at 100. The display blanked out when I switched, and again, the average continued to climb.

Because the FE scale is different when set to metric, the gauge gets 'pinned' at maximum more easily, when the FE is well in exceess of its maximum, the display blanks out.

(not sure if this is true - just my personal observation).

 

Sorry it took so long to answer. I had to monitor my driving. Honestly, I don't know what I changed. Perhaps I took everything to an extreme. I now do whatever it takes to drive my trip with the I-MPG meter at 60 or higher. My accelerations are at 2,500 RPM (50 I-MPG) and I, during the commute spoken of in my original post, perfected the pulse-and-glide. I could never get it before that.

I also extended the technique to accelerate_some-pulse-glide-pulse-accelerate-glide-pulse-acelerate-glide-sustain kind of thing. I just filled my tank up today since I posted this thread... I was getting 58 MPG for a while until I made a few city trips then it went down to about 44 and I nursed it up to 48 or so but I can't lie to myself. I only perform well on the last gallon.

When I got to 445 miles on the tank and 44.5 MPG I figured I had used 10 gallons. So I traveled until 530 miles (thinking 45 * 2 = 90 miles for the two remaining gallons) but I filled up 11.3 galls I could have done more. Then, on my trip home, 31 miles, I got 58 MPG even with all the hills and some interesting traffic.

My technique has been to keep my foot as light as possible such that my MPG meter reads greater than 50 at all times (usually its at 75 or so). My acceleration is 3,000 RPM until 25 MPH (using full assist) and then *ease* off the gas until 2,000 - 2,500 RPM and the I-MPG reads 50 MPG and then I do my pulse-aclerate-glide trick until 60 MPH and then I feather the gas and keep it above 50 MPG as much as possible. I had a strong tail window today on the way to work so while *feathering* the gas as 1,100 RPM I was getting what appeared to be 85-90 MPG on the meter the whole trip. Interesting.

Otherwise, I'll keep my eyes open and try to figure out if I do anything else. But I think its the pulse and glide trick and the intensity at which I keep my I-MPG meter showing always more than 50 but its been showing the 75+ most of the time. What kills me are the reds that I'm always catching once I'm off the freeway on the way home and from home to the freeway.


Thanks,
Shawn

 

ShawnB,

Thanks for the update. Are your hills climbed at highway speed or more like 35-45 mph? I am doubtful I would be able to climb my hills (at highway speed) and keep the rpm under 2500 (or even 3000 for that matter). I am happy with my overall 45 mpg, but if there is a way I can improve, I'd like to find out how.

Thanks,
ShawnS