Tips for Saving Gas..........

[CrazyElvis]

Here are some tips to save gas ......these tips are for regular driving.....I guess most could apply to pulling a boat also.......but I think we all drive without the boat more than with it.........

1. Obey the speed limits (I know....this may be the hardest one)....Each 5 mph over 60 is like paying an additional 15 cents per gallon.

2. Avoid agressive driving. Rapid acceleration and braking can lower milage by as much as 33% or about 73 cents a gallon.

3. Keep your engine tuned up .......can save as much as 88 cents a gallon.

4. Replace that clogged air filter.....can save as much as 22 cents a gallon.

5. Watch that weight.......(No more Twinkies )........ for every extra 100 pds milage goes down about 2% or 2-3 cents per gallon.

Hope this helps out..........

[shawn706]

Also get who ever you are fishing with to toe your boat, you'll save over $2 a gal.

[tcope]

Elvis...

Good post, though I did not agree with the numbers posted so I did some research of my own. I took one item, 55mpg vs 65mph and did some looking around. What I found was that the EPA states for every 1mph above 55, you loose 1% in fuel economy. Now, this is probably the worst case scenario and does not take into consideration _many_ factures, such as weight, terrain, and shape of vehicle. But using those figures, going from 55mph to 65mph decrease your fuel efficiency 10% (same as you mentioned in your post)

Now.... I've done the math so your head does not need to hurt as much as mine

Driving 65mph instead of 55mph costs about 1 cent more per mile... or about $3.00 per complete fill-up. Being able to drive 300 miles per tank, driving 65mph will save you about 1/2 hour on a 5 hour trip.... at that cost of $3.

But again... this is probably the worst case scenario. I'm guessing the actual additional cost is much less, probably around $1 or so. At the expense of losing 30 minutes of fishing time.

Also, to put the items into perspective, if I complied with all 5 items, I think I'd actually be making money while I drove . Again, this just reminds people that most people will not see these best case savings.

I would pick out 2 of the items as most important as they have other benefits as well. Don't drive more then 5mph over the speed limit. Chances are, your pulling a heavy boat anyway and should reduce your speed accordingly. Also, avoid aggressive start ups. It won't take much longer to achieve cruising speed.

[CrazyElvis]

These numbers were from some govt. agency.......I don't remember which.......

Dang Govt.!!!!

[tcope]

I don't doubt it... from what I could find, the figures were correct as provided by those agencies. So we should consider the intention of the source

[RLewis7]

It makes a huge difference in my truck (ALOT more than 1 cent per mile) driving 10 mph less than posted. I have to agree with Elvis. Especially with gas and diesel prices skyrocketing.

[Passion 4 Bassin]

By a Hemi???

[Rude520]

ROLFLMA at Shawn076. Brilliant!!

[fishingmarlin]

Tow without your cover on your boat when possible, and drop your tailgate. The cover has a lot of wind resistence and the tailgate down decreases wind resistence.

I have also heard that driving with the air conditioner on rather than having the windows down is better. Apparently with the windows down there is more drag and costs more than running with the AC on.

[jasonglh]

Actually motor trend has done stories on both of those urban legends. The automaker wind tunnel tested the truck with the tailgate up when they designed the shape of the hood/windshield/roof.

[rayz379]

Tailgate down theory out the window. Putting your tailgate down increases fuel consumption. There is design to ALL p/u's in that when the gate is up, an airpocket forms and actually decreases drag on the truck. Try it out, through a empty box in your truck at the tailgate with it up, go for a drive and it will move to the cab and try to fly around, leave it down and a suction takes over removing all objects in the bed which is = to drag on the truck, a suction on the rear of the cab. Just my $.02 from the articles I have read.

[Branson]

AC vs Windows Down was just on Myth Busters tv show. If i remember correctly, windows down won, hands down.

[Rollo331]

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Branson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">AC vs Windows Down was just on Myth Busters tv show. If i remember correctly, windows down won, hands down.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The myth busters show, the suv with the air conditioner on won the fuel milage...
I just watched it again...

[Jason Phillips]

And, I vouch for the tailgate up for better gas mileage. I drive 92 miles one-way to work, so I try lots of stuff to save gas. I fill up every other day and I get close to 1 mpg better with the tailgate up.

I KNOW that it is also better to drive slower to get better gas mileage, but driving all interstate each day, I have found a couple of factors preventing me from doing this:

1) My 4.0 V6 Ranger cuts off at 92. Therefore it is obviously designed for me to drive 91.5 mph consistently.

2) I DO NOT LIKE TO GET PASSED. However, number 1 above allows this to happen too often.

3) I cannot leave my house early enough to drive slow to work therefore causing number 1 above to inevitably happen.

With that being said. Something that does help is tire pressure. Make sure they are at the max recommended pressure if not a little above.