SUV's? Huge Trucks? Hypermiling Techniques???

I coaxed 20 mpg hyper miling a 2002 Nissan Frontier. My dad averaged 16 for a 25% improvement. That's right in line with the improvement in our Hyundai Sonata from DW's 25 to my 32 mpg and Prius from 44 to 55 mpg. However, even though we're saving the same percentage fuel economy, we save 1250 gallons in the Frontier hyper miling versus 455 gallons in the Prius over 100,000 miles. That's saving $2400 more in fuel costs hyper miling the Frontier than by hyper milling the Prius. If anything, owners of large vehicles benefit much more by driving for economy than a hybrid.

I'd like to see what kind of reaction you'd have in a parking lot of 2 diesels and some 20 other automobiles, mostly minivans and SUV's idling for AC. They do this everyday for 30 minutes or more. Can you guess where? That's right the parking lot line up at an elementary school. I understand when it was hot in the summer but they still do this when it's 70 degrees outside. There's even one older Tundra that idles without an occupant while the parent personally walks her daughter all the way to the back to in-school daycare. I park and walk next to this mom to drop off my daughter so I noticed. I initially thought the truck had issues starting up so she is not taking the risk to shut down but she does this to a late model Rav4 occasionally as well.

 

Looking at fuel saved is the incorrect approach. You need to look at fuel used.

 

Sadly, the automobile, designed as a means of getting places, has too often become a "personal environment bubble", pumping out detrimental gases and heating the environment for others.

 

I think the previous generation of Tundra actually had a V6 option.

 

It did.

You forgot the (detri)mental music/noisemakers.

 

Gonna have to disagree with you there. Without context, there's not enough information to determine what the correct approach is.

 

I've done well when I've wanted to. Wouldn't call myself a hypermiler, but I try to be efficient. I'll list some of my numbers. Vehicles with *** before their names are larger, per the original title of this thread.

First car: 1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille. No special techniques: 10 city / 13 highway. Started developing techniques when using it to deliver pizza (true), and bumped the "city" number to 11.5. Doesn't sound like much, but it's a 15% improvement. Going 55 would yield 15 mpg highway.

- - - The rest of the vehicles come from the time after I delivered pizza, meaning I was driving them all more efficiently. - - -

***1987 Dodge Ram B250 conversion van: averaged 15.5, got it up to 18 by going 55 mph.

1985 Chrysler New Yorker: EPA 18/22. Regularly got 24+, best tank was 27.1.

1981 Cadillac Coupe DeVille (V8-6-4 engine): No EPA ratings but managed to get that beast up to 17.1 average and 21-23 on the highway.

2000 Ford Taurus 3.0: 17/26, managed to get it north of 30 more than once for a full tank.

2010 Subaru Outback (4cyl): 22/29, broke 32 more than once

2006 Chevrolet Impala: 18/28, best tank was 31 and change

***1996 Chevrolet C3500 (6.5 turbo diesel): Averaged 18 not towing, hit 25 once over 100+ highway miles

***1996 Chevrolet Tahoe (4x4): 12/16, regularly broke 18 on full tanks

2014 Toyota Prius v: 44/40, my first full tank was 48.6, topped 52 more than once on 100+ mile trips

***2004 Toyota 4Runner SR5 4WD (6cyl): 15/19, have averaged 23.2 over the last 6,000+ miles (including some towing)

***2003 Pontiac Montana: 16/22, best tank was 25.2

1967 Buick Skylark (300ci V8, TH350 auto) - used to average 19-20

***1992 Ford F-150 (2WD, 300ci straight six, 5spd manual) - 14/17, regularly got 19+

Maybe it was because I didn't have it for long, but I never did well with my 2006 Odyssey. It's rated at 17/23 and I usually got 22.5.

That's all I remember for now.

 

I would hope you were relying on notes, that's quite a saga.

 

I had to look up EPA numbers but I remembered all of mine.

 

Cadillac Seville pizza delivery!

 

1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille. Much larger than the Seville ever was.

Most likely the largest and least efficient vehicle ever used for pizza delivery... but it's what I had, and since humanity was duped into accepting capitalism and hadn't yet done much to get rid of it in 2001, I had no choice but to make money and the economy wasn't doing well... so I had to take what I could get. I fried a starter in the two months that I did pizza delivery. But, I did learn how to drive efficiently, because the gas cost came out of my pocket. (Oh, and that 10-13 miles per gallon? That was on the premium gas that car required! Fortunately, it was still a buck-something a gallon in those days.)

 

I do not hypermile obsessively, but I do use those common sense techniques that all car manuals recommend for better mpg: properly inflated tires, no leadfooting, no engine idling unless necessary, do not carry stuff you don't need to carry etc. The reward is about 8-10% better mpg than the EPA rating and, hopefully, lower cost of maintenance. What's really interesting is that the 8-10% improvement reproduces itself regardless of the vehicle size and propulsion method.

 

Interestingly, I get my good numbers with the Prius at probably close to its maximum load. I've been running that car at near max load its whole life. ~600 pounds of people + dog, ~100-200 pounds of equipment, and when you add incidentals and the weight of the fuel in the tank, it's close to carrying 1,000 pounds.

 

That's my understanding too. Hypermilling techniques can improve fuel economy in pretty much any vehicle. However, its generally only hybrid/EV owners who care enough to achieve them. It does help that most hybrids/EVs make fuel economy improving behavior visible and noticeable on your dashboard.

 

If you are doing all other things "right", taking advantage of other savings' avenues, this is likely compensating for some extra fuel usage due to a high load.

 

No real hypermiling but a light, steady foot must make a difference. I drove a friend's 2003 Chevrolet Silverado C2500 from here to our storage unit in California twice in the last few days to empty the unit out. 240 miles each way. My friend went with me yesterday. He insisted the truck was only capable of 12 mpg empty, 10 mpg loaded. I ran at 70 mph almost the whole way but concentrated on accelerating smoothly, letting a little speed bleed off on uphills, let gravity do its thing on downhills when I could use it to help gain speed, etc. End result was almost 15 mpg on the empty side of the trip and 13.1 mpg fully loaded with furniture and boxes on the way back.

Not huge in raw numbers but a nice percentage boost. The increase saved $16-20 in fuel yesterday and really didn't add much in the way of time to the trip. I think, though, that if you put out the big money for a large, heavy duty V-8 or diesel truck, squeezing an extra 1 or 2 mpg out of it is not all that important to you. You're also not using it all that often to cruise 400-500 miles in a day on the interstate.

 

All three of my personal vehicles are GMCs, and one might recall that GMC does not sell very many cars - although the differences between "car" and "Truck" are somewhat blurred in this age of cross-overs. Although I do not assiduously track my gas mileages I do observe trends and I can report that I nearly always beat the house by at least 10-percent in MPG.
Many times by more than that.

I don't call it "hypermiling" I call it not driving like an idiot.
Also....If you only accelerate and brake when absolutely have to, then often you will find that you don't have to replace your brakes before the 150,000 mile point and, miraculously, 50,000 tires are good out to 80,000 miles......and more!

That's REAL savings when truck tires are $1200 a set.

 

Hypermiling isn't just the advanced stuff people like Wayne Gerdes does, it also the driving people here are saying isn't hypermiling.
It is any driving style that has fuel economy as a consideration.

 

I think that guy is a nutjob. One of these days he's going to get pulled over for "ridge riding" and/or flying around curves at breakneck speed just to avoid braking. Not to mention, all of the engine stops and starts he does will fry his starter sooner than normal, so it seems as though he'll probably break even when it comes time to replace his starter. (This is why I think that "stop-start technology" on newer cars for fuel consumption reduction is crap. You'll go through twice as many starters and eventually think that it wasn't worth saving twenty bucks in gas over the life of the starter just so that you can pay $200 for a new starter.) One would think you reach the point of diminishing or negative returns after you have applied sensible driving techniques like making gravity your friend, driving at fuel-efficient speeds, and timing traffic lights.

 

fortunately for us, prius 'starter' is the tranny. you can't hurt it.

no matter what i try, i cannot coax more than 18 mpg out of my dakota.