Hey all...

Been hypermiling the last month with the huge increase in prices here and the shortage...

have a 2007 Limited 4X2 CVT...in city I can get 29mpg and 37 on the Highway...

I have 7500 miles in my Pat right now...

Before I started hypermiling I was in the 23/27 city/hwy range....

Vince

Wow! That is impressive. No mater how hard I try, I never seem to have the patients to get all the inertia out of rolling to a stop or just accelerating enough so as not to have to use the brake.

How long do you take to get up to speed? Maximum RPMs and such?

I'm Really Curious how you get that on the highway? What speed do you drive? I could probably get that if I drove 45 MPH everywhere, but I can't rationalize that. I just stick to the speed limit of 65 which nets me 30 to 32 on a good calm day.

Wow! Please share with us your techniques. You must go way beyond the usual common sense stuff for saving gas. I'm very interested in this.


NP

I would think with the AutoStick Hypermiling would be easier. as you can upshift way before you need to. Think about it you could just shift at around the 2500 to 3k mark instead of the 4 k or so it does it.

I might try something like that on our next long trip we take.

i know with my caliber (being the 1.8l and a 5-speed) that i can get 26-30 mpg city and 38+ mpg hwy. That is simply by staying at or below 110km/h and shifting at 2000-2500 rpms.

These vehicles are not necesarilly aerodynamic as others, so once you break 85km/h the gas mileage will go down.

I'm sure that if I was to shift just before 2000RPM I would be able to get the EPA numbers no questions asked (I think its like 33 city/42hwy here, in the funny Canadian mpg measurement)

EDIT: when I first got the car, i used to shift at 3-4000 RPM all the time, and I wondered why i was only getting 22 mpg in the city ha ha

Ok...Here's my trick....

I don't have the autostick...so it's like a pure automatic....

Anyway...I never get above 1800rpm....just feather the gas....Naturally I don't accelerate the fastest, but not rediculously slow either...Naturally, I do stay in the right lane as much as possible...

Hug the speed limit....

If it's 65 on the hwy, I do that and can feather my gas so that I can do 65 and only hit right at 2000rpm

Now, have my tires inflated to 40psi cold...they then get up to right at 44psi which is the max....

However, here's the real mpg gainers....

on downhills, I shift to neutral and just let it roll....

At lights (when I catch the yellow and know I have a fresh red) I simply shift to neutral and turn it off....According to Mythbusters (Discovery Channel) as long as the vehicle will be off for at least 15 seconds, you'll break even in what it takes to restart versus letting it run. If it's off 15 seconds or more, you actually make out better...

13.5 gallon tank and I can routinely pull 400-415 miles from the tank....

I'm telling you...try it....

I used most of the ve14326's driving techniques, they work. I hesitate to do the engine shut-down part at stop light b/c of extra wear on the starter. Though I'm still in break-in period at 2000 mi, I recently had some interesting SG results. I got 6.1 L/100km (38 mpg US) on busy hwy (55-62 mph); city was 9.1 LHK (26 mpg).

This shows that this Jeep can meet & better the Cdn govt fuel ratings. It seems that hypermiling depends of 3 important factors: the vehicle, driver, and traffic pattern.

We can control the model selection and our driving habits. The traffic is partly controlable by our route and scheduling selections. If all 3 factors are aligned, we can get impressive mpg

Alas, the traffic thing often messes up the overall results from superb to ok. So I'm trying to rethink my schedule each time I need to drive.

To make matters, our lefty (Toronto) mayor has a fix against cars. Toronto is spending tax money to narrow roadways!... to replace traffic lanes and street parking with trees and bike lanes. I even suspect that the mayor may have tweaked the traffic signals to further tick off drivers. Life in a green city.

btw. I'm trying out some plastic block/barrier for the rad to shorten the engine warm-up time for the winter. The SG now shows a 4 minute warm up when the system dumps gas in open loop. The open loop warm up will be more of a challenge in the coming cold months.

on downhills, I shift to neutral and just let it roll....

Not good on an automatic transmission and actually illegal in a whole heck of a lot of places. It's also dangerous! Please, you are doing well with the other things but take into consideration the extra wear and tear on your transmission and brakes and don't put your life and someone elses life in danger just to save a couple of mpg.

Not good on an automatic transmission and actually illegal in a whole heck of a lot of places. It's also dangerous! Please, you are doing well with the other things but take into consideration the extra wear and tear on your transmission and brakes and don't put your life and someone elses life in danger just to save a couple of mpg.

To elaborate on Oktazcat post, with the engine off, the oil pump in the transmission is not pumping oil and lubricating bearings and bushings. This is the reason most all automatics can not be flat towed for any length of distance. You can cause a lot of wear. Hopefully when you are shutting down the engine, you're turning the ignition back to "On" position so that you're ABS will still function if needed.

Not good on an automatic transmission and actually illegal in a whole heck of a lot of places. It's also dangerous! Please, you are doing well with the other things but take into consideration the extra wear and tear on your transmission and brakes and don't put your life and someone elses life in danger just to save a couple of mpg.

Are you talking about shifting to neutral or turning the engine off that is bad for the transmission?

Are you talking about shifting to neutral or turning the engine off that is bad for the transmission?

I do believe my response targeted his statement about going downhill in neutral.

To elaborate on Oktazcat post, with the engine off, the oil pump in the transmission is not pumping oil and lubricating bearings and bushings. This is the reason most all automatics can not be flat towed for any length of distance. You can cause a lot of wear. Hopefully when you are shutting down the engine, you're turning the ignition back to "On" position so that you're ABS will still function if needed.

Thank you Todd for helping out on that one. I had made a thread specifically asking about the hypermiling technique of turning off the ignition if idle for more than 10 seconds and shifting to neutral while going downhill. I got some very informative answers. I had never heard of hypermiling before so I did a lot of internet research and the general consensus is that turning off the ignition and coasting in neutral produce such a miniscule amount of mpg savings that it doesn't offset the danger or wear/tear factor.

I do believe my response targeted his statement about going downhill in neutral.

With or without the engine on? That's what I'm not understanding. It seems people are talking about two different techniques.

With or without the engine on? That's what I'm not understanding. It seems people are talking about two different techniques.

Either way it illegal in most states. With Car computers the way they are now they record everything. I wonder how you explain that you wrecked while in Neutral doing 40mph down a hill.

I think doing the posted ( not under) speed limit , ShortShifting ,coasting in a Higher gear are all good ways to save on MPG

But time after time you hear of Rollovers or spin-outs because someone has the tires ti high and not enough tread on the road.

So you all save that few dollars (and thats all it is) while I drive much safer.

I think ve14326 was referring to shifting his CVT to neutral while coasting (moving) downhill. This common technique does save some fuel and momentum; Otherwise, he would be coasting in gear, known as engine-braking; which notably slows down the vehicle speed. This form of braking is often used by train locomotives while trying to move slowly down slope. Coasting in neutral is relatively safe since the engine is still idling: powering the steering, ABS, ESP etc. The only question is how the CVT mechanically like being manually overridden? This is not a mechanical issue with a basic manual tranny.

In contrast, on dead stop while waiting for a red traffic light, ve14326 shuts off his engine. This is just as safe as we power off the car at the parking lot since the vehicle is not in motion, when steering, ABS, ESP are not needed. Of course, ve14326 risk annoying other motorists if his Riot stalls or he's not paying attention to the light change. This manual shut off while waiting is also a common hypermiling thing. I wonder what the starter wear-out time would be? btw. A hybrid vehicle is rigged up to automatically shuts off its ICE (internal combustion engine) at a dead stop.

Finally, a third shut off technique used by some extreme hypermilers is FAS (fake auto stop). FAS involves manually shutting off the engine while in motion/coasting to cut off all fuel usage by turning the key to accessory position. After a long coasting and diminishing speed, the hypermiler 'bump starts' the engine by turning the key back to 'on' and putting the manual tranny in high gear and engage the clutch. The vehicle momentum will restart the engine even at 25 mph, without the starter motor. FAS on a 5-speed Riot is tricky: steering is strictly musclar, there's probably enough residual hydraulic for a couple pumps at the brakes. ESP who knows? Having tried FAS a couple times on a secluded road on a Sunday morning, it ain't worth the risk on the Riot.

Interestingly, some hardcore types even do FASing on automatic tranny.

You can start a manual Patriot at far less than 25 mph. We have a slope in our driveway and I often just turn the key on and coast backward and pop the clutch. It fires right up at 3 mph or less.

Thanks jepstr67. Good to know that 3 mph on reverse gear could bump start a manual Riot. That means I don't need too many beefy friends to push start a dead Riot.;)

When I tried out FAS, I was quite nervous and feared the bump start thing; thus my 25 mph floor speed.

Thanks for all the great info. I always like to hear from first hand experience on things like this. Thanks guys!

The best thing I did to increase mileage in my Nissan P/U was to buy a ScanGauge. I was able to monitor RPM and TPS and watch what effect both had on my mileage because there is an instaneous mileage readout. I haven't put the ScanGauge into the Patriot yet but I am sure I'll be able to break 30 mpg on the highway.

Keeping your speed down on the highway, avoiding things like accelerating while going up hill, coasting down hills in neutral and coasting up to stop signs and lights can have a big effect on mpg. The best description I heard is to accelerate like you have an egg between your foot and the gas pedal and drive like you have no brakes.

I'm going to be posting a review on Gassavers.org in a few weeks once I have some fuel economy data.

My patriot is my only vehicle new enough to be able to use the scangauge. I would like a mileage computer that was able to tie into old vehicles so I could check up on the rest of the aging fleet.

One of the easiest and cheap ways of improving the mpg is adding more psi to the tires, to reduce the rolling resistance. Although many 'authorities' advise tire pressures in accordance to the mfr's label stuck to the B pillar, I pumped up my tires just below the 44 psi sidewall max.

These 'authorities' often cite the disadvantages of over-inflated tires being: excessive/uneven wear, reduced traction and braking, and blow-outs. I came across a link posted by a retired tire engineer...

www.geocities.com/barrystiretech/sae800087synopsis.html

It seems like most of those disadvantages are somewhat exaggerated.

Food for thought, now we must check our pressures in preparation for the winter chill.

Would it increase mpg if I installed a block heater and started the engine when it was already warm?

Yup, block heater will help the initial mpg somewhat. More importantly the initial engine warmth also helps the lubrication flow, and cabin heating earlier.

It's a win, win, win in the chilly northern belt. More info on another posting, reply #13....

http://www.jeeppatriot.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8821