fflores

I've been meaning to post this up for a while... I am taking a trip seen which will total about 2000 miles round trip... I was curious what was the best rate of speed to travel at so that i achieve the best MPG?

Saken

55-65 Is probably the best range to get the best MPG

SmokingTires

55mpg, I read some survey somewhere...

soros151

^^ exactly

fflores

There are "rules of thumbs" out there... usually its general... i was wondering if anyone did this and actually tried to document it...

I will be driving from Chicago to Columbus OH, to New York, to DC, and then back to Columbus and Finally Chicago. I guess i might just have to do some testing myself... I was thinking of tring to compare if i can get better milage compared to the cruise control... but i would have to first pick a speed to set it at. I was thinking 70mph since it puts the RPMS's in 5th gear really close to 3000 rpms

tortus

Yes, 55. They set the speed limit of all freeways to 55 in the seventies when the gas shortage hit to try and conserve gas. Before that, the speed limits on most freeways were higher.

paul34

heh, but of course, if you're holding 55 on basically any of our national highways, you will get run over

Tcguy85

just keep it between 60-70, like the other guy said if you do 55 you'll be gettin passed by everybody. when your going the same speed constantly you'll get good milage anyway.

bdballer69

yea...i go 70 most of the time...

Soupy_TC

keep it parked and you will get the BEST gas mileage.. the gas will last you a month or two before it starts breaking down... hahaha just kidding i would say RPMs around 3grand or less
is when you'd get the best

fflores

I did a little bit of a test prior on 1 of my road trips when i had the srt... the funny thing was that the gas milage was pretty good around 24mpg while cruisin on the highway. When we traveled around 80mph, our mpg kinda seemed to go down a bit... to around 22mpg. But here is the interesting thing... when we would go up in speed... to about an average of 95mph... our mpg's went up to 32-35mpg.

Yes, at higher speeds we ran out of gas sooner, time wise obviously, but we covered much greater distances. Did it 2 times, once driving down to Louisiana, and another time driving to South Carolina.

SquallLHeart

^^ yea... made a trip last weekend... followed a few people that went ave about 85-90.. rpms were well around 4K or so for a majority of the trip.

and i got 32.6 mpg... yeah... i was shocked too... i expected it to be much lower..
i normally average around 27-29 mpg hwy..

i dunno... but i was drafting behind them too... maybe?

steve_r

i feel stupid i always get 18-22 but then again i drive city, barely any highway and uh.. i floor it about half the time lol

quiksilver24r

So I've been in the same boat for a while... trying to figure out the best gas mileage. Here it is... Shift at 3k. If you shift lower, your car is using much more fuel to accelerate than if you shifted at 3 becuase it takes more to overcome the lower gear ratio. Shifting at 3 drops it to 2k the next gear. Down shift if necessary if you get below 2k. Cruise at 55 if you can, but downshift when going up steep hills becuse 55 in 5th is less than 3k rpm and itll drop your gas mileage. No downshift braking. Thats suicide for gas mileage. And use the cruise control.

SquallLHeart

we've discussed this numerous times.... it won't do anything negligable at all.

fflores

I'm hoping to crack 450-500 miles per 12 gallons (that about when the fuel light turns on) on this trip... Right now i'm averaging 320 miles per 12 gallon fill up. but that is about 75% city, 25% highway

steve_r

did u mean it wont do anything at all, if at all, negligable?

Zebman

It won't do anything you're going to notice.

SquallLHeart

for mileage.. yes.

quiksilver24r

well, think about it. rather than engine braking, put the car in neutral and coast and brake with the... um... what do you call it? oh, thats right. the brake. tell me how it doesn't make sense. and aside from anyones conviction, i have noticed a differnce.