Posted on 05/02/2008 5:13:54 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick
PHILADEPHIA: As gasoline prices hit records on almost a daily basis, an increasing number of motorists in US are following a radical driving technique designed to eke out every last mile from a tank of fuel. Known as 'hypermiling,' the methods can double gas mileage, even in gas-guzzling vehicles.
Promoted on a growing number of websites, hypermiling includes pumping up tires to the maximum rating on their sidewalls, which may be higher than levels recommended in car manuals; using engine oil of a low viscosity, and the controversial practice of drafting behind other vehicles on the highway to reduce aerodynamic drag — a practice begun a few years ago by truck drivers.
The price of gasoline has rapidly emerged as the public's biggest economic concern. Gas prices are a "serious problem," ahead of jobs, and healthcare, according to a poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The "advanced" techniques of hypermiling are in addition to well-known approaches including keeping speed down, accelerating gently, avoiding excessive idling and removing cargo racks to also cut down on aerodynamic drag.
Adherence to hypermiling and other disciplines are designed to boost mileage well in excess of the US Environmental Protection Administration's ratings, which apply to each car model.
Wayne Gerdes, a former nuclear plant operator from Wadsworth, Illinois, and the originator of hypermiling, said he gets 40-70-mpg (almost 20km a litre) out of his Ford Ranger pickup truck, about doubling its official fuel consumption.
Gerdes (47), estimates that hypermiling has saved him $15,000 in fuel since he began the technique after the attacks of September 11, events that convinced him that US national security was being undermined by its dependence on oil from the Middle East, and motivated him to reduce his own fuel consumption.
"If every vehicle in the US got 25km per litre, we would not import any oil," he said. Deron Lovaas, vehicles campaign director at environmental group the Natural Resources Defense Council, said most hypermiling techniques are "sensible recommendations" that could drive down demand and even prices if widely adopted.
"We should be looking under every rock for potential energy savings," he said.
He said he could not recommend drafting behind fast-moving trucks because it could potentially lead to highway accidents. Hypermiling can even make fuel-sipping gas-electric hybrid cars more efficient. Chuck Thomas (50), a computer programmer from Lewisville, Texas, said he has been getting 30km a litre from his Honda Insight, a hybrid whose EPA rating is 25km a litre, in the two years since he has been hypermiling.
Among Thomas' techniques is "pulse and glide" in which he accelerates and then coasts with the engine off until around 24 kph when he kicks the engine back on and accelerates again. "It's the automotive equivalent of skateboarding," he said.
Yes, the sudden stresses will shorten mechanical life of the engine parts.
He’s probably doing this by switching the ignition off to kill the engine, while simultaneously depressing the clutch lever, and immediately turning the ignition back on again, without running the starting motor, according to the pattern he mentions. The car can use the kinetic energy of its motion to start the engine, simply by releasing the clutch lever suddenly, when the speed drops to 24 kmph.
I thought it was rods per hogshead.
It is your money... you go spend it any way you want.
I think I would rather slit my wrists than try to drive like that for more than a few miles. I call shenanigans on the whole article.
a practice begun a few years ago by truck drivers.”
I was 24 at the time I was doing such stupid things. I just went to Gainesville, Florida (GO GATORS!) Wednesday to Shands Medical Center for some tests, about 300 miles one way from here, and I cannot stand to be behind big trucks anymore.......
Or one of me. LOL.
I'm cetain I could do better, but I have a lead foot.
you have an excellent sense of humor.......i like you
Pulse-glide won’t work with an automatic transmission. Without the input shaft turning the front pump, the auto tranny has no internal lubrication, and it is still turning while going down the road in neutral.
Your transmission shop will love you if you do this to a auto-trans.
Wrong! MEN the hardest hit, probably by women and minorities! lol
Awesome picture! Thanks.
Incorrect - drafting helps the lead vehicle as well as the following by reducing the negative pressure on the rear of the lead vehicle.
Stopped by an auto parts shop the other day. Bought 6 ft of 3/8th fuel line. Guy asked how many hose clmps I needed. I smiled and told him “none, I am tired of paying for gas and will get it free from now on”. He and his manager looked a little uncomfortable and mumbled something about locking gas caos.
Thanks. For me personally, not burning as much gas is just about saving money. I absolutely hate buying gas, but, I need it... so I will do everything I can to buy the minimal amount of gas that I need.
I do the same thing with CFL bulbs and I reuse as much stuff around the house as I can so that I don't have to spend money on new stuff. If you didn't know any better you would think I am some hippie tree-hugger, but I am not. :)
locking gas caps
I had a 1970 Beetle for 17 years. Made many
trips between Colorado Springs and DC in it. Drafting was a well known practice. Speed limits on I-70 in Kansas were 80 or 85 (I think).
Didn’t draft much, but it was very, very well known at the time. In a VW you needed relatively flat ground since it wasn’t really good on some of the hills in western Kansas. And absolute concentration.
And, of course, have you seen Breaking Away? Done that, too, when I was younger.
The Mythbuster show I saw the PROVED “drafting” behind a big rig worked.
New fad - harumph. It ain’t new and something that’s been going on for 30 years ain’t a fad.
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