katmann343 wrote: In the Dallas/Ft. Worth area the traffic is going even faster. The speed goes up with the cost of fuel........??????
X 2
The higher cost of fuel has further stressed-out those already maxxed-out on stress already. If anything, it's "fueled-up" their stress level,.......they ain't slowin' down 'round here, not a bit.
Well, I just got back yesterday from a run down to Algodones, Mexico. A little border town outside Yuma.
Got 11.25MPG on the trip down by staying at 55 to 56MPH.
Coming back ran the same speed against a pretty steady head wind of about 20MPH and got 8MPG for an overall average of 9.625MPG.
I used to tow at 63 to 65MPH and pretty regularly got 10.5MPG.
In conclusion I haven't really gained much by slowing down as "Mother Nature" will do her best to find a way screw up the best laid plan.
We aren't going to win this one unless we just park the rigs and camp in our yards and I'm not ready to do that.
My total savings from slowing down in $$$$ is $17.32. I spent that savings and much much more with the dentist and in the stores on the Mexican side of the border.
This is just a small offering of things to think about, I don't know about most of you, but I will end up spending the $$$$ somewhere.
What ever amount of fuel you save by going slower, you'll burn half of it because you'll run longer,......or something like that. I think I'll stay at 65, at least for a while.
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Cloud Dancer wrote: What ever amount of fuel you save by going slower, you'll burn half of it because you'll run longer,......or something like that. I think I'll stay at 65, at least for a while.
Most cars are most efficient around 45 MPH. There are three basic factors determining the most efficient speed: rolling resistance, wind resistance and engine efficiency.
The energy to overcome rolling resistance is the same no matter what speed you travel. Going faster takes more power but you exert the power for a shorter time so it comes out the same no matter the speed.
The energy to overcome wind resistance goes up with the square of speed. Twice as fast means 4 times the energy to move the vehicle over the same distance.
At slow speeds, the wind resistance is negligible and rolling resistance dominates. Around 45 MPH, 1/2 of the energy goes into rolling resistance and 1/2 goes into moving the air. Go much slower, and the energy required doesn't change much since rolling resistance dominates. Go much faster and the energy required increases rapidly.
So looking just at these two, it would make sense that going real slow would be the most efficient. But the third factor is engine efficiency. The efficiency is real bad at light load and gets better with more load up to around 75% power. Combining the poor efficiency at light load causes the overall efficiency to start getting bad below 45 MPH.
Now most of us don't drive long distances at a steady 45 MPH, so we don't see just how efficient our vehicles can really be. I'm certainly not. The only time we drive that slow is in town where the starting and stopping makes the efficiency real bad. The exception is hybrid vehicles, where around town mileage is higher.
Just drove 190 miles up I-75 in Fl. on Friday morning and trucks galore along with cars zipping by tag team friend towing and myself in mh. Passed no one while driving 60 to 62.
On way home today got behind one 18 wheeler doing 62 and after he pulled off one mh doing 62. Same trip in reverse but today we passed 3 cars, everybody else was zipping by.
No real slow down these 2 days on this section of I-75.
We just got back from a camping trip, 556 miles round trip.
On our way down I drove 60-65 and averaged 8.45 mpg. On the way home I drove 65-70 and on several stretches cruised 75 mph and averaged 8.75 mpg.
I doubt that I will be slowing down, I was going to but not now.
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Which part of "people just don't care" did you miss?
Until peoples credit cards are rejected at the pumps they will continue to gulp it down.
This is America. We don't have to do anything that we don't want to.
Conservation is for the other guy.
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