gas prices and travel

[mckenney56]

Sorry I set you off Slow. Let's change the subject. Is it still snowing there? Made it up to 87 here yesterday. And do you think switching the over the road rigs to natural gas will work?

[bestclimb]

One thing that can help with the travel expenses is to drive smart.

1st air your tires up to the maximum on the sidewall, all that extra flexing makes for a soft ride but is less efficient. If the ride is too bumpy let a little out until it is acceptable.

Slow down. The friction in your drive line is pretty fixed regardless of speed, but faster than about 55-60mph the aerodynamic drag starts to really increase.

Drive like your brakes are out. It takes vastly more fuel to accelerate your vehicle to speed than it does to keep it there. If you use your brakes you are turning the fuel you used to get to speed into heat. If you let yourself coast down to yonder impediment all that fuel you used to accelerate is now turned into distance traveled.

Get some sort of fuel economy information. At the very least calculate it when you fill your tank and keep track of it. Scangauge or Ultragauge really help. These little devices will tell you how much load is on your engine, what kind of efficiency you are getting and will help you to tailor your driving style so as to maximize the distance you travel on a gallon of fuel. Most newer cars have some sort of display, use it try to keep the number as high as possible. When you have to use more fuel to do something use it in a way that gets you farther down the road.

When accelerating find a balance. (the previous tip will help with that). the balance is between accelerating slowly, being easy on the throttle for longer, and accelerating quickly by using more fuel over less time.

Don't idle. A small 4 cylinder engine uses .25 gallon per hour. A small 6 can use .5 and a big v8 can be over 1 gallon per hour. While it may not seem like much over a whole tank a minute of sitting at a light here, 30 seconds while you put your seat belt on.

When using above techniques I always get over 50mpg out of a 95 honda civic EPA says I should only be getting 38mpg. My wife gets 38 out of a 99 escort with a rating of 28mpg. We get nearly 30mpg out of a 2011 ford escape rated at 22mpg.

[doris s.]

I wanted to take my son to the grand canyon this summer but don't think that will happen, gas prices are to high. My daughter is going to college in the fall, so need I say more. We'll go to the beach and camp closer to home.

Doris

[dguff]

Hey Slow,
Your arithmetic is wrong on your Monday rant. At $4.29 per gallon and 5 mpg the cost per mile is 85.8 cents per mile, not $1.16. So if the fuel cost went from say $3.75 per gallon to $4.29 that would increase the fuel cost per mile from 75 cents per mile at 5 mpg to 86 cents per mile, a difference of 11 cents per mile.

Jerome

[rowerwet]

right off the top we could ditch a good 50 cents/gal by getting rid of all the different gas formulas. Many states require reformulated gas, which was a great idea until something called electronic fuel injection, now it is mostly a waste. Then figure in all the diesel being burned to produce corn to make ethanol, not only is this driving up feed prices, we are burning over a gallon of diesel to create a gallon of ethanol, which REDUCES YOUR FUEL MILEAGE as it has less energy per gallon then regular old gas. http://cei.org/op-eds-and-articles/are- ... s-obsolete "hi I'm from the government and I'm here to help......."

[Martiangod]

We should be gratefull to be able to buy gas and allow the sheiks to have gold plated luxery cars instead of riding around on camels.

[jstrubberg]

right off the top we could ditch a good 50 cents/gal by getting rid of all the different gas formulas. Many states require reformulated gas, which was a great idea until something called electronic fuel injection, now it is mostly a waste. Then figure in all the diesel being burned to produce corn to make ethanol, not only is this driving up feed prices, we are burning over a gallon of diesel to create a gallon of ethanol, which REDUCES YOUR FUEL MILEAGE as it has less energy per gallon then regular old gas. http://cei.org/op-eds-and-articles/are- ... s-obsolete "hi I'm from the government and I'm here to help......."

Yup! If we would push California into the Pacific, gas prices would drop due to fewer formulas being produced...

Agree 100% on the ethanol, too. Don't forget the 51 cent subsidy per gallon we pay for corn to be sold to ethanol producers!

[nrody]

Of course they gold plate their cars. Have you ever tried to gold plate a camel?

[S. Heisley]

right off the top we could ditch a good 50 cents/gal by getting rid of all the different gas formulas. Many states require reformulated gas, which was a great idea until something called electronic fuel injection, now it is mostly a waste. Then figure in all the diesel being burned to produce corn to make ethanol, not only is this driving up feed prices, we are burning over a gallon of diesel to create a gallon of ethanol, which REDUCES YOUR FUEL MILEAGE as it has less energy per gallon then regular old gas. http://cei.org/op-eds-and-articles/are- ... s-obsolete "hi I'm from the government and I'm here to help......."

Yup! If we would push California into the Pacific, gas prices would drop due to fewer formulas being produced...

Agree 100% on the ethanol, too. Don't forget the 51 cent subsidy per gallon we pay for corn to be sold to ethanol producers!

Actually, from what I've heard, California gas gets better mileage than some of the other states' gas.
Anyway, if you pushed CA into the ocean, you'd loose some refineries and give the oil companies another excuse to raise prices.

Of course they gold plate their cars. Have you ever tried to gold plate a camel?

...Good one!

[rowerwet]

slow- the ng glut is causing this due to all the areas being opened up using the "new" drilling tech. Now we need more ways to use NG to power things, then the drillers will get back to work. If the pond scum lover and the other rich guys in DC would let us go after the oil on Govt land (the only real action in oil is on land the Govt. can't stop us from going after) we could see the same major drop in crude prices, and put a lot of Americans back to work. instead they're throwing my kids future taxes down the "green energy" hole. Vote the bums out!

[jstrubberg]

Actually, from what I've heard, California gas gets better mileage than some of the other states' gas.
Anyway, if you pushed CA into the ocean, you'd loose some refineries and give the oil companies another excuse to raise prices.

That's possible. The problem is the number of blends they demand. Producers have to make more and smaller runs of each, which drives the price per gallon up for everyone. It's a lot more efficient to produce one or two blends than thirty.