Hypermiling
 

This post by Ivan (um_lunchbox) over at the Scikotics forum is very interesting. > http://www.scikotics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48640 Some of you may have already seen it, but just in case you're interested in achieving incredible gas mileage in your xD, check it out.

Last weekend I was able to get 45 MPG while drafting behind my buddies racecar trailer. I used the cruise control and hovered at 60 MPH for over one hundred miles. My tire air pressue is bumped up 4 PSI over reccomended pressure (still within the safe zone). Even without that draft I can usually get between 37 & 41 MPG using these techniques. If mileage is of no concern, then this stuff wont matter. But the results are impressive and worth checking out if you are trying to save money etc.

I guess hypermiling is nothing new, but it was an eye opener for me, hope it helps.

This is a big stickler with my xD, it really irks me - I get between 24 and 26 mpg around town and driving back roads to work, and the best I've ever gotten on the highway is 29 - but perhaps somewhat because I pretty much have to drive between 75 and 85 mph on the highways around here - If I tried to drive anywhere close to 60mph I would be road kill for sure...

45 mpg is just totally incredulous to me comparing with my results... Grrr! :emotions122:

Have you increased your tire pressure a few pounds yet? Try going 65 instead of 70. Coast when you can, it all adds up.

tru i try to coast wen i can i notice the difference

I only got 45 MPG one time drafting behind a trailer at 60 MPH. I can usually get between 36 and 40 MPG when I focus on it. I'm telling you guys, bumping up the air pressure in your tires has a dramatic effect on your mileage. Even if you do nothing else, you will see a difference of a couple of MPG. My stock tires are recomended at 44 PSI, and I put them at 47-48 PSI.

Yeah you feel a few more bumps and can sense more of the road changes, but for me saving money is just that, saving. If your tire pressure is below the maximum pressure indicated on the sidewall, you will not get as good of mileage as is possible. More air pressure equals less rolling resistance, which equals better MPG. In an 11 gallon tank, even 2 MPG improvement is 22 miles, and it only gets better when you focus on it.

When I first got the car, I would get around 320 miles before I needed to fill up. Now when I work on it that number is up to 360 or better. It can be done, but you must change the way you drive. Now I don't always drive like a slug, only when hypermiling!

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I noticed a change with bumping up the tire pressure too...I am averaging 38 to 40 now...and that's with a heavy foot.

I don't know what the deal is... but on the last coupld of tanks, I've gotten lower FE than I expected. I have had a hard time keeping above 40 MPG. Well, I can keep the displayed FE near 40-41, but that ends up being more like 37.5-38.5 at the pump. I have been filling up at the same BP station as always... I wonder if it is a different gas formulation... or just the warmer weather the past few weeks. I have been using the A/C a little... but not all the time.

Hey Cylon, my wife and I are driving up to York for the weekend (she still has a house there). If you see a red xD towing a trailer, that's me! Maybe we'll get to meet up at a Scion get-together one of these days... I'd be interested in riding along with you (or you in my car) and see if we drive totally differently (based on my FE vs. yours). Just one of those curiosities.

Hey, I'm going to the Scion East Coast Show of Champions at the Capital Raceway in Crofton MD on Sunday, so I'll be down YOUR way that day, haha...

I'll be home Saturday but workin on cleaning up the car for the show at least part of the day... you two ought to come over Saturday night to see a movie in the Frey Theater! :)

http://freytheater.com

I know that both the generation XB's and now the XD get great mileage while drafting. There aren't many hills here at the beach unless you are on an overpass and thats when I put the car in neutral and coast. I see my mileage jump like crazy on the ScanGauge. This is some useful info for us guys. Thanks!


Tim

Cylon, got back from PA last night. I was towing a trailer with a queen mattress, sofa-bed, and a few boxes of books and misc stuff (both on the trailer and in the car). I had about 140 miles with no trailer, 110 miles with an empty trailer, and 110 miles with a full trailer. I filled up when I got home and got 35.9 MPG (38.something on the display). My real-time MPG was showing as low as 15 MPG going up some of those hills on 83!

Ha, we might have even passed each other on 83 Sunday night - I was driving north on 83 between about 7:00 and 7:30 pm... I wasn't thinking to look for your car, though... :)

I won 1st place in the xD division - a repeat of last year's win - and SnuGG won 2nd place...!

Congrats! I was already at my friend's bonfire by 7pm. I wasn't far from Crofton, though.

I just towed the trailer back up to York to pick up more stuff from the wife's house. I filled up just after leaving home. With 100% trailer towing, I'm showing 46 MPG in the display. Of course, the trailer is going to be loaded up on the way home... but I'm going to try to keep the mileage up as best I can.

Hey well, I've been getting a good solid 12 mpg on the highway with my Dodge Ram 4x4 pickup driving to work these past two weeks, lol!! :mad:

I had to stop driving my xD to and from work for the time being, because they're repaving the highway and left 2" or 3" lips where the asphalt stops and starts at the bridges and underpasses where they're working now - hitting them at 65 mph in my lowered xD with 40 series tires, I'm bottoming out slammin' the struts so hard it makes the car hop 6 inches into the air. I'm afraid of breaking another wheel or ripping out the strut towers in the front... :mad3:

Doesn't look like they'll be finishing the paving anytime soon, since their concentrating all their work on the bridges right now, could be months till they finish the asphalt at the bridges and underpasses... so i'll be taking a painful hit at the gas pumps for a while... :boxed:

Wow, if the bumps are that bad in the xD, imagine what happens to a horse and buggy! Just got back from York with a huge load: full size mattress, box spring, frame, headboard, two tables, a work bench, etc. Got about 32-33 MPG (35 showing).

You must be running on only 3 cyliders or something, Brew, lol! My drive to work is about half highway driving and half 50 mph country roads, and I'm still only getting about 27-28 mpg... I have yet to break the magic 30 mpg barrier in my xD, even on a longer all-highway trip...

oh, and the bumps are that hard on my xD because the drop is very low in the front with the progress springs - about a half inch lower than Tanabe DF's even... so I have less than two inches of piston movement on my struts before they bottom out... doesn't take much to slam them!

What, you use all four? lol! Because I was worried about losing something out of the trailer at high speeds, I kept the cruise set at 50 MPH most of the way home.
I can believe it... I've got the TRD suspension parts, and bumpy roads are quite noticeable. I've gotta be more careful with my morning coffee than I did when I drive a Golf.

Just got another 40+ tank... 41.3 MPG to be exact. The display was showing about 44 MPG. For most of the tank, I had it up to 47-48 MPG (on the display), but I killed that with some higher-speed driving and then driving in town to avoid backup on the DC beltway.

I'm not getting 40+, but I am averaging around 34 MPG. On the highway I can get 40-41, but with a family we do a lot of around town driving and that kills the mileage.

I can't believe some are getting sub 30's. From what I can tell you really gotta be hammering the xD to push the mileage that low. :boxed:

Nope, just normal driving with manual transmission. I've gotten as low as 24 mpg on one tank, when I WAS beating the car quite a bit, but that was shortly after I got it, maybe the third or fourth tankfull, and that was before I added any mods like wide wheels and tires or intake filter or axleback exhaust or anything else to the car... I suppose the mpg's on my car are basically close to the rated values, but just a couple mpg below them... instead of 27/33, I get more like 26/29... Ah well.