I am planning atrip from Tyler Tx area to Virginia and back, what data will I need to record. (Bob Wilson, if you have Excel spreadsheet that would save me the trouble of making my own.) I would like to provide information that I was unable to record on trip last year(premature birth of grandson). That was emergency trip and did not take computer with me. Will start trip on May 22. so not a big rush.
Honestly, I'd just record your FE and maybe your estimated average speed. There are so many variables that it makes the information fairly useless. Wind speed and direction are variable and hard to measure/record. Elevation changes come into play. Temps vary along your route of travel. Traffic affects your ability to maintain speed. I think it's nice to see a post like "Average 50mpg on 1500 mile round trip b/w X and Y"...then a little summary of the conditions (hit snow in Texas, temps climbed to 90 in Minnesota....). If you hypermile or use Premium gas or anything like that it helps paint a general picture as well. But trying to record precise numbers will be an exercise in frustration I think.
at beginning of journey 1) top off gas tank 2)reset trip B 3) record fills or save receipts and Trip B reading at each fillup 4) enjoy
Thanks, Last year was a rush and only got to post total miles and Total FE. This year will record each fillup/miles between/FE etc.
Yeah, last year I used trip B for total miles and FE. My second day was a total of 1000 miles in 15 hours avg speed of 66.6mph including stops so you know i was flying. totally wiped when I got there.
My suggestion is that you simply get in the habit of recording the odometer reading each time you fill up. In the same little book, record the gallons, the cost, the date and, if you care, the average temps during that prior tank. I would record both the MFD readings (reset at each fill) and the readings from the gas pump. If this is too much work, then just write down on your receipt the odometer reading and the MFD info (miles and MPGs). You can enter this on a spreadsheet at a later time. Several thread here include links to spreadsheets for recording this basic data. These spreadsheets also will give you info and calculations of interest. I have always collected this information on my cars. Well, not ALWAYS: I don't think I started until I got the '77 Scirocco.
Take a look at this webpage It's the on-going data collection I keep, online. You can also download the spreadsheets of that same data, for a different and graphs too. .
Thanks John, I have something similar to this for every day driving records, just wondered if more info for trip would be helpful. Last years round trip was 3266 miles @ 50+ average. actually dug thru car and got most gas reciepts but not all had location or even date and time so could not assemble reasonable data. (My wife was in a panic almost all the way there and didn't keep all in order) Will post this years trip data back to this thread when possible.
Got a smartphone? Register at mymilemarker.com and update from your phone. I've been using it for about a year now. It's a little simplistic, just records odometer readings, gas prices and gallons to fill. It does show you some decent historical graphs and provides some predictive data based on your consumption and gas prices.
Thanks for idea, but no smart phone not even internet on plan.(Already have 4 phones on plan, the extra charge is too much) I have an ACER 8.6" netbook to record so that's not a problem.Just bought 150 watt inverter to power it today.
you dont need all that. nearly all phones have notepad which u can use to your heart's content with only a very minor battery usage penalty
