...what have I learned lately?
Well, this is a blog, so if I ever wanted a medium to brain storm this must be it. It's just that continuing to follow my advice in my last article about the truck's miles per gallon has continued to improve my fuel mileage, or has it? You see, it might just be that it's been less windy, so there has been less resistance against moving forward, or it's been warmer, so my engine hasn't needed to warm up as much. It's tough to say.
One definite change that I've made is that I do much more of my accelerating through the gas pedal since my cruise control's acceleration is pretty aggressive. I'd wrongly assumed long ago that that might just be a good rate of acceleration for the truck. I use cruise control constantly just like I used to because a steady rate of speed is great for your fuel mileage most of the time. I'd like to say all the time, but it's just not true. When the hill gradient gets tough, I try to judge when to take it out of cruise control to keep it from jumping into a lower gear, which uses more fuel. You see, if I gently add a little extra gas early to the hill, and put a gentle extra push of gas as I go up the hill I can keep the truck's cruise control from going out of overdrive for a more powerful means of maintaining velocity. Going high on the RPM's is definitely a way to decrease the truck's miles per gallon. How high depends on the vehicle. Some RPM increases makes acceleration take less gas due to variable RPM/horse power ratios.
The other technique that I've been working on has been horribly misconstrued to the public. They say you should slow down slowly when approaching the light to save gas. This is somewhat true in a general sense, but when you know the logic behind it, it's missing some important detail which will effect your car or your truck's miles per gallon negatively for different speeds depending on design. The lower your RPM's when you are maintaining speed the better the truck miles per gallon, but when accelerating, which if the RPM's are kept too low you actually get worse miles per gallon while maintaining speed or accelerating. For my truck, my maximum speed that I'll stay in gear when slowing down is 30 MPH since that keeps the RPM's at little more than 1000. My car however can achieve that at 40 MPH, so I'll stay in gear longer when slowing down. At speeds higher than this whether I'm coasting or slowing down I go into neutral. There are two concepts behind this: (1) the wheels can help keep the engine running using less fuel through the transmission being engaged so long as the RPM's are low. (2) The next entire paragraph covers it.
When you slow down since just continuing at the same speed is generally better for your truck's miles per gallon. But here's some advice to minimize gas waste: I try to slow down ahead of time so that I'm still moving when the light goes green again. This is easier to do when there is light traffic or you don't mind people rushing around you, but it does save your fuel mileage, so what is your priority? I know that when the traffic is thick enough I don't employ this technique as well because I'm concerned with safety first.
by AutoBravado
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Truck Miles Per Gallon
I've found it more challenging to find out how to increase my truck's ability to get a good miles per gallon because I've never been a truck owner until this 2004 Nissan Frontier 4X4, which I've only owned for a few years. It may be more challenging to figure out how to improve its miles per gallon more because I'm learning how to drive it for good fuel mileage. I already know a lot of driving techniques for my cars, but my Nissan was harder to figure out.
You see, normally to get good fuel mileage on the freeway, you just drive slower than everyone else and make yourself a hazard. It is certainly what I learned from Consumer Reports. Don't knock that source of information, their entirely right that many large vehicles do much better at 55 and 65 mph then they do at 65 or 75. My Chevy Prizm for many years got better fuel mileage at 140 KPH - or kilometers per hour for any surprised for me to not talk about it in the usual American way(!) - then it did at the slower 55 and 65 mph that you'd expect. I think that speed was just right for the engine design or some such. I mean, I've learned that to maintain 55 or 65 mph, the only way to get good mileage in the Chevy Prizm is to take it out of overdrive which feels strange because it makes the engine so much louder. The point is, to get good truck miles per gallon reading, the slower I drive the better I'm off. Whether I say slower because of the acceleration or slower because of the speed it all helps. Now, I'm not saying to all of you drive your big vehicles in the city to get good mileage because the stops at all the lights will get you, but maybe when the freeway is going a steady 30 to 45 mph, that my truck gets as much as 3 miles per gallon better! Yeah, traffic jams on freeway have only given my truck better fuel mileage! Isn't that nuts?!? You'd think that all the slowing down and speeding up would cost more, but my Nissan truck just doesn't get good miles per gallon at the higher speeds. Now, I've tried cruising on the freeway at 55 or 65 where the traffic was light to save gas and so far it hasn't worked, but maybe that's because I only drive it a long way on the freeway when I have a lot in it, or a payload that only the Nissan Frontier can move.
Sorry to get off topic, but if any of you were wondering why I was referring to the kilometers per hour (KPH) instead of miles per hour (mph) it's because after I left Europe focusing on going 140 KPH was the only way I could keep myself from driving too fast. It's much harder to maintain a certain KPH than the equivalent MPH because there are so many more KPH numbers on a gauge in the same amount of the gauge movement than MPH. It was the only trick I could think of to stop myself from driving too fast after being allowed to drive faster out of America.
Now, I'm not saying to all of you drive your big vehicles in the city to get good mileage because the stops at all the lights will get you, but maybe when the freeway is going a steady 30 to 45 mph, that my truck gets as much as 3 miles per gallon better (16.6% improvement, which is a nearly magically impossible improvement)!
In conclusion:
Seriously, traffic jams on freeway have only given my truck better fuel mileage! That's totally nuts!! (A generally moving traffic jam, but it did have some light stops too.)
Get more on the Truck or Car Miles Per Gallon from AutoBravado's other website.
by AutoBravado
You see, normally to get good fuel mileage on the freeway, you just drive slower than everyone else and make yourself a hazard. It is certainly what I learned from Consumer Reports. Don't knock that source of information, their entirely right that many large vehicles do much better at 55 and 65 mph then they do at 65 or 75. My Chevy Prizm for many years got better fuel mileage at 140 KPH - or kilometers per hour for any surprised for me to not talk about it in the usual American way(!) - then it did at the slower 55 and 65 mph that you'd expect. I think that speed was just right for the engine design or some such. I mean, I've learned that to maintain 55 or 65 mph, the only way to get good mileage in the Chevy Prizm is to take it out of overdrive which feels strange because it makes the engine so much louder. The point is, to get good truck miles per gallon reading, the slower I drive the better I'm off. Whether I say slower because of the acceleration or slower because of the speed it all helps. Now, I'm not saying to all of you drive your big vehicles in the city to get good mileage because the stops at all the lights will get you, but maybe when the freeway is going a steady 30 to 45 mph, that my truck gets as much as 3 miles per gallon better! Yeah, traffic jams on freeway have only given my truck better fuel mileage! Isn't that nuts?!? You'd think that all the slowing down and speeding up would cost more, but my Nissan truck just doesn't get good miles per gallon at the higher speeds. Now, I've tried cruising on the freeway at 55 or 65 where the traffic was light to save gas and so far it hasn't worked, but maybe that's because I only drive it a long way on the freeway when I have a lot in it, or a payload that only the Nissan Frontier can move.
Sorry to get off topic, but if any of you were wondering why I was referring to the kilometers per hour (KPH) instead of miles per hour (mph) it's because after I left Europe focusing on going 140 KPH was the only way I could keep myself from driving too fast. It's much harder to maintain a certain KPH than the equivalent MPH because there are so many more KPH numbers on a gauge in the same amount of the gauge movement than MPH. It was the only trick I could think of to stop myself from driving too fast after being allowed to drive faster out of America.
Now, I'm not saying to all of you drive your big vehicles in the city to get good mileage because the stops at all the lights will get you, but maybe when the freeway is going a steady 30 to 45 mph, that my truck gets as much as 3 miles per gallon better (16.6% improvement, which is a nearly magically impossible improvement)!
In conclusion:
Seriously, traffic jams on freeway have only given my truck better fuel mileage! That's totally nuts!! (A generally moving traffic jam, but it did have some light stops too.)
Get more on the Truck or Car Miles Per Gallon from AutoBravado's other website.
by AutoBravado
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