My friend Wayne Gerdes and I were talking, and discussed a scenario. If we wanted to set a national record for farthest distance traveled on a single tank of fuel in a stock Prius, we might do this: Take my 2020 Prius L ECO, during late July when the rockies/midwest is experiencing a heat wave, and drive to the top of Pikes Peak. Take a 3 gallon full can of gasoline, and top off the tank. Have 65 psi in the tires. Begin by coasting all the way down, after ensuring battery pack if full with regen. This would use up a lot of brake pad, but that's ok. When reaching the bottom, proceed driving to Colorado Springs and continue east. Get out to the flatlands of the midwest, and just follow the wind, whichever direction it goes. Stay on country roads where we can drive slow, averaging about 28 MPH. We should be able to average about 115 MPG, getting nearly 1320 miles on this tank of gas. We purposely run the car out of gas, shutting engine off manually just as we sense it is missing or sputtering.....so it does not quite totally run dry. Does that sound like fun??
Sounds crazy but expect to get pulled over by the cops for only going 28mph on our highways...that's a hazard on our 75 mph interstates where most folks are doing 85+!!!! Personally, I'd never EVER let my vehicle run out of gas because the fuel pumps sits inside the tank and that's a good way to burn that puppy out....and replacing it requires dropping the tank. (MSRP on a fuel pump for a Gen 4 is $385.50)
Evidently you did not read my post carefully. I am speaking of staying off the freeway and driving on back country roads. I have done this many times over the years. Also, I talked about shutting the engine off as it begins to sputter, and NOT totally draining the fuel pressure. I have done this many times on cars and airplanes....
If this was really a big risk, then Bib Wilson should have experienced it many times. He ran them dry over 50 times for fun / sport / engineering curiosity / fuel comparison tests, reported plenty of interesting finds back to us, and never had a fuel pump failure.
Follow the science seems to be a popular saying nowadays.... Fuel pump is immersed in fuel to help it stay cool. Fuel flows through it to help it cool. No fuel = less cooling=eventual pump damage? C'mon man! It's science. It has to be right. No other opinions are permitted. Just havin' fun...
Is there a reason to not aim for the existing (that I've heard) Prius world record of 118.6 MPG? This ought to be easier in a Gen4 than it was in a Gen2: Which gen Prius has highest MPG? | Page 2 | PriusChat
Hi Fuzzy1......the 118.6 you are speaking of was NOT draining a full tank of fuel. I am dreaming of farthest distance traveled on a tank of gas. Am not sure what the MPG would be in this scenario...
It was over a single-tank distance of 1889.4 miles. Though it did help that they had bigger tanks. You'll want to scale that back to our Prius tank size. Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
Did you do the math about how long it might take to to drive almost 2k miles at 25 mph? unless the brakes started to smoke and / or catch on fire. Ever see a big rig descending a western states mountain pass at 65 mpg with smoke billowing and sparks flying from all 18 of its wheels? LOL great fun indeed.
Yeah, Pikes Peak is elevation 14,300 feet. That would give us a great start to our efficiency run. I just wonder if the brake pads would wear out....although presently after 200,000 miles, my original pads have MORE than 50% left.
Plenty of Prii have been up there, and not worn out their brakes on descent. Though when I descended in mine (and took several turnouts for cooling, as the prevailing traffic speed was too slow to get much engine braking in a Prius), another vehicle seriously smoked its brakes and was ordered into the cooling off parking area at the mandatory brake checkpoint. It was an F-150 pickup, but the Florida plates should be a clue to why it happened.
