Hypermiling - Part Three

I have been trying to achieve better fuel economy for about a month now. It has been going pretty well so far. You can read about my methods on my previous posts Hypermiling - Part One and Hypermiling - Part Two.

I have been practicing most of the methods from the above mentioned posts and am happy to report a new milestone. On my way home Friday night I hit 25.3 miles per gallon. This is a full 2 mpg from the time I began paying attention to my driving. It is roughly 3 mpg higher than it was when I noticed it was time to rethink my fuel efficiency. Just going by the 2 mpg from my official trial period, I am saving quite a bit of money.

2 mpg times 15 gallons that I typically put in my tank, and I get roughly 30 extra miles per tank. Multiply by four and I am up to 120 extra miles per month. 120 miles is a huge improvement.

I have learned of a few more things to try out, so I will report back once I have tested them. They involve the timing of gas fill-ups.

• Always fill up in the morning. This ensures an accurate reading of gallons pumped. Warmth causes gas to expand, and you may be losing some money by filling up in the afternoon.
• If a fuel tanker is filling the underground tanks, move on. The junk in the bottom of the tanks gets stirred up and can enter your gas tank.
• Don't use the maximum notch on the fuel pump. The faster the gas goes into the tank, the greater the chance of fuel vapors cheating you of some of your fuel. Use the medium or low setting.
• Fill up at a half tank. This is supposed to help reduce vapors as well. I need to check into this fact, but it seems the fuel tank has a flexible ceiling that lowers to reduce vapor creation. At half a tank you are better off than on empty in this regard. I will follow up on this and let you know if it is a standard gas tank feature.

I found these tips on an EntreCard member's site the other day, and will post a link as soon as I find it again. Until then, try these tips out. The less we have to fill up our tanks, the better off we will be as prices continue to skyrocket.