Hypermiling on the gulf

Shelton .... you're a jag off.

... Brad

 

35 in a 55 is pretty extreme and a bad example of a hypermiler (to me at least ... and I like to think I am one).

 

We see that sort of driving up here all the time. We call them "tourists".

Tom

 

I usually speed up to the speed limit or so if there are cars behind me... However, when I know the light up ahead is red when I get there (traveling at the speed limit), I time the lights.

 

Typical slanted journalism...............

Find a couple of extreme examples out of "about 20,000 hypermilers." Use them instead of finding an actual concensus on normal hypermiling practices. Find a state trooper who hasn't even heard about it. Locate a speedfreak redneck who hates everyone who won't drive 90 or get out of "his way." (reporter probably didn't have to leave the office on the last one. Likely could have interviewed himself.)

Whatever happened to balanced reporting?

 

Pretty much what I was thinking. 35 mph in a 55 mph zone? Geez, ya think people might get aggrevated with you? I drive 55 mph in a 65 mph zone (55 mph for trucks and cars towing trailers) and people get pissed at me.

What grinds me is that a lot of articles on Hypermiling focus on the extreme behaviors of it. Rolling through stop signs/lights? Tailgating big rigs? Overly aggressive drivers do the same thing but for time related reasons, not fuel efficiency reasons. Both types are morons, despite their motivations.

What I don't understand is the coasting in Neutral bit. Whenever that is raised, their is never really a follow up why that is bad, other than some canned answer that "you don't have control over the car" or "you can't accelerate out of a tight spot". Ummmm, Hello? 99.9% of the time, when I'm in a tight spot, I'm hitting the brakes and the clutch. My car doesn't have the horsepower and torque to make the "floor it to safety" approach a viable option (and likely, I'd be in the wrong gear if I needed to do it). If I'm approaching a stop sign a block away, I'm in neutral, no sense in gassing the car just to stop, and if a kid darts into the street, I'm not gunning the engine to avoid them, I'm braking (and hitting the clutch).

 

"Hypermilers are known to turn off their engines at long stop lights, drive under the speed limit, coast on highways in neutral, time stoplights, drive without air conditioning, overinflate their tires and follow closely behind semi-trucks to reduce drag." -Hmmm. I can't say I've ever "over" inflated my tires, I've never drafted, and due to the nature of the freeways in CA, I can't say I put my car in neutral on the highway that often. On the streets, I'm in neutral a lot, but there is so much drag at 60mph, that being in neutral would only last for a second or two before having to shift back into drive.

"Gerdes discourages hypermilers from drafting less than 1½ seconds behind a truck. But he says three seconds is not realistic, given today's traffic patterns. He said people in city traffic generally drive one second behind the vehicle in front." -The people that are one second behind are NOT getting better mpg! Those are the tailgaters that are constantly going from gas to brake. I always leave several car lengths so that I don't have to touch my brake pedal unless the stop is more severe. I save a lot more fuel keeping 5-10 car lengths (depending on speed) than to try and draft.

"He said he may be the only person who's "ecstatic" about $4 fuel because it's motivating the rest of the country to explore fuel alternatives." -That makes one more of us. Every single day, Americans are handing over billions of dollars to fund foreign militaries - the stupidest thing we could possibly be doing!

"The American Automobile Association has come out against hypermiling." -That is because AAA is about 'safety first.'

"In his 10-year-old truck, he can get up to 34 miles to the gallon in town, almost double its EPA rating. In addition to being a textbook hypermiler, Shelton converted another truck to biodiesel and ordered a converter to change vegetable oil waste to biodiesel." -Hell Yeah! But why doesn't he just buy a Prius?

 

I agree...it is slanted.

 

Yeah, I'm still waiting for the idiots that get P.O.ed because I'm not powering to the red light to figure out that neither of us is going through the light any faster their way.

Had one in a big pickup today. I was in the right lane (so the speeders can use the left lane) and I didn't crank up to 35 from 25 immediately at the speed limit sign because it is on a fairly steep hill that crests about 100 feet farther on. A little hyper-miling by not fighting gravity. He stomps on it and whips around me then cuts back in. I switch to the left lane since there is a long line of cars that are turning right at the next light. He waits at the red, I roll up at 15 MPH as the last car in my lane starts to move. I look at him as I pass, he gives me a foul look. He wasted his gas and aggravation making it to that red like ASAP but probably doesn't even recognize it.

 

Haha! I love it when that happens! :yo:

 

isnt 55 mph the generally agreed upon most efficient speed for (most) cars?

 

Nope, it's a little slower, more like 45. For a Prius, it's even slower.

 

joe & mink, actually the "efficient speed" @ 55mph was a 70's thing in response to the '73 oil crisis, it was probably a comprimise at best, to adopt the national 55mph. for the "AVERAGE VEHICLE", 60% of the energy consumed at highway speeds comes from the vehicle moving through the air. The faster you go, the percentage increases very quickly. This is due specifically to drag. The Prius has a drag coefficient of "0.26" as compared to a Hummer H2 which is 0.57!!! so moving a Hummer through the air take more than twice the energy. Most cars fall somewhere in between... for example a 2006 Toyota Rav4 has a drag coefficient of 0.31. And a 1999 Mustang is 0.39...

Prius has a lower than AVERAGE coefficent of drag, and as such has a higher efficency. So, I would say that the average of 60% energy consumption at highway speeds, is probably a little high for a Prius. Ultimately, the energy draining effect of higher speeds on a Prius is less than the energy draining effect on the average car.

Oh, so to the original post of the 35mph -vs- doing the posted speed limit... The effect of drag at 35mph is less for sure... But the pile-up behind him, and forced aggrivation, and generally un-safe behavior PROBABLY caused more waste than his miniscule personal savings... especially if he was in a Prius... The more this kind of thing happens, the more I'm sure we'll see increased road-rage, and maybe even a few "un-safe speed" tickets due to going too slow.