Wayne Gerdes, founder of hypermiling, started with a Honda Accord

[PetitFrereArmada]

I posted this just as a discussion post. Just for us to share what we think about this guy, his hypermiling techniques and his community of extreme "hypermilers". I will not go as extreme as he does, but I sure find some things very interesting to me and so, I plan to make some adjustments and may try some extreme hypermiling techniques.

I have been reading about this guy for some time now and since I am very interested in hypermiling, I decided to post this thread to see what others think about him and his Guineas Book of Records achievements so far.

Wayne Gerdes is the founder of "hypermiling" and he became famous when he was still driving his Honda Accord. He describes hypermiling simply as "Always beating the EPA ratings in whatever car you own and drive."

Wayne Gerdes, if you aren’t familiar, owns a website called CleanMPG.com. That is the hypermiling forum! It’s a forum dedicated to those squeezing every bit of fuel efficiency possible from their vehicles — also known as “hypermiling.”

Hypermiling is generally characterized by smooth driving and thinking ahead. Thinking ahead helps you avoid using your brakes except when absolutely necessary.
Gerdes' philosophy: "I always drive at or just below the Posted Speed Limit in the far right lane."

I watched this video of his and these are the summary points I got from it



How to Hypermile and get great results. All these info are what he said in the video. I am just posting what he said. It is not be word for word, though, but it is what he says in this video of what he does to achieve what he achieves.
(1) Increase Tire Pressures. Set at maximum sidewall psi. It allows vehicle to accelerate, decelerate and coast a lot easier. For example. Many members of the hypermiling community set the tire pressure in their Honda Insight above sidewall and their tires last them over 100,000 miles. Tires explode at 200psi and more.
36:36-36:55: Waynes Gerdes words; "I run 55psi to 60psi in all my vehicles and get minimal tire wear"
(2) Make sure your air filter is always clean. So, get a brand new air filter every year or as needed.
(3) Oil change with full synthetic and use the recommended weight for your car.
(4) Remove excess weight from the car that you do not need.

Techniques for hypermiling
(1) Speed kills mpg. For example. A brand new Honda Civic hybrid maintaining 35mph in the city will give you 90mpg. Nonhybrid will give you about 50mpg doing 35mph.
(2) Accelerate delicately.
(3) Avoid stepping on your brakes by anticipating what is coming up and your stops. Learn how to drive without needing your brakes except you need it for emergency situations or when it is absolutely necessary to use it. Stepping on your brakes often causes you to lose gas.

Some key points about hypermiling;
(1) You get good results from hypermiling in warm or hot weather
(2) You get great results in city driving than highway driving

 

[PandaBear]

The only limit to hypermiling is human patience. If you remove the human you can get a LOT of mpg going very slowly over a huge distance. Imagine you have a driverless truck going 25mph and 1/2 the engine size as before (say a 2.5L instead of a 5L) at night on the interstate staying far away from human drivers, you can save a lot of drivers' salary and a lot of fuel.

You probably double some road capacity as well if you move all of the trucking traffic to 9pm - 6am.

 

[Pew]

City driving is more efficient than highway? He must live where there's no traffic, lights, or stop signs.

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

I had a tire explode (belt separation, blow out on the highway) last week now I need about $1000 in car repairs (body.) First warm-ish day. I keep upwards of 40psi.

I am a fan of high tire pressures too but some of this is extreme, .

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

The most comprehensive detail about how to hypermile and beat the EPA of whatever car you drive.
Beating the EPA - The Why's and How to Hypermile...

 

[Owen Lucas]

"I run 55psi to 60psi in all my vehicles and get minimal tire wear"

I think very high pressures will result in poor cornering and longer emergency braking lengths. Maybe doesn't matter to the traffic conscious hypermiler but if you need to stop on a dime, high pressure will be working against you. Being the odd one out in traffic doing 60 in a 75 isn't the best idea either to save a few MPG.

I think you can do pretty well if you accelerate much slower, that seems to be what's programmed into most "econ" modes anyway, slower gas pedal response time so you don't accelerate too hard.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

City driving is more efficient than highway? He must live where there's no traffic, lights, or stop signs.

I guess driving in the city where highest posted speed may be 45mph is different from when you get on the freeway with posted speeds of 65mph or 70mph. I am guessing maintaining both speed limits would yield higher mpg in the city than on the highway.

 

[Dave9]

It's a great way to save on fuel, and reduce vehicle (including tire, if not severely overinflated) wear, but I consider it extremely selfish and problematic when there is some congestion on roads, where it ends up costing everyone else fuel to brake and accelerate around, and a potential decrease in safety to be traveling slower than the surrounding traffic, as well as having overinflated tires, especially in slick conditions.

Plus, the longer it takes everyone to get from point A to B, the more vehicles on the road at any moment, more congestion, everyone is slowing and accelerating more than if there was less congestion. Overall it might even cause more wasted fuel for everyone else on the road, than the hypermiler saves, as well as an aggregate of more wear on other vehicles.

If it's only you on that stretch of road, have at it! Otherwise, be respectful of other drivers, not an obstacle.

 

[dishdude]

The only limit to hypermiling is human patience.

Ha! As I was reading the OP I was thinking I just don't have the patience for this. This is torturous!

 

[Oliveoil2]

I love this guy. Patience pays off in greater mpg and less stress.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

I had a tire explode (belt separation, blow out on the highway) last week now I need about $1000 in car repairs (body.) First warm-ish day. I keep upwards of 40psi.

I am a fan of high tire pressures too but some of this is extreme, .

I know how frustrating that is. Dangerous too. I have had (3) front tire blow outs over the years. Two in different Chevelles I collected and one in the family car 1986 Monte Carlo SS. Strange - all Uniroyal Tiger Paw tires. The last one in 2009 cost over $5000 to repair my 76 Chevelle show car and I had to hunt 6 months to find a replacement OEM fender and chrome. Thank God for no deductible collector car insurance.

 

[PandaBear]

City driving is more efficient than highway? He must live where there's no traffic, lights, or stop signs.

that's actually normal for hybrid (you can regen braking) and at low speed there's little to no aero loss.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Wayne Gerdes' advice on psi for serious hypermiling; "MAX sidewall is what I would recommend for most as it is well within the safety limits of your car and tire and allows better Fuel Economy than the pressure listed in the driver’s side door."

I don't know what you guys think about this.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Wayne Gerdes' advice on psi for serious hypermiling; "MAX sidewall is what I would recommend for most as it is well within the safety limits of your car and tire and allows better Fuel Economy than the pressure listed in the driver’s side door."

I don't know what you guys think about this.

High tire pressures resulting in better handling / braking seems counterintuitive. Tires are the first part of your suspension and allowing them to deflect around corners and during braking is what I presume the engineers accounted for when designing the car to handle safely.

Wayne's understanding of handling is probably driving 35mph on a highway onramp and then accelerating to a brisk 60mph (in a 75mph zone) over the course of 15 minutes in an overheating unairconditioned cabin in 90* weather while big rigs swerve around him. I'm not an engineer so I wont argue with these hylpermilers, they are pretty dorky and spend to much time calculating how to save 3 mpg while annoying every other driver on the road.

I might give it a shot though adding extra air in my tires and then dropping the anchor to see how the ABS and stopping distance works out. Could be an interesting YouTube video.

 

[Jetronic]

It's a great way to save on fuel, and reduce vehicle (including tire, if not severely overinflated) wear, but I consider it extremely selfish and problematic when there is some congestion on roads, where it ends up costing everyone else fuel to brake and accelerate around, and a potential decrease in safety to be traveling slower than the surrounding traffic, as well as having overinflated tires, especially in slick conditions.

Plus, the longer it takes everyone to get from point A to B, the more vehicles on the road at any moment, more congestion, everyone is slowing and accelerating more than if there was less congestion. Overall it might even cause more wasted fuel for everyone else on the road, than the hypermiler saves, as well as an aggregate of more wear on other vehicles.

If it's only you on that stretch of road, have at it! Otherwise, be respectful of other drivers, not an obstacle.

It doesn't have to be slower over the whole journey. You can coast towards a stop light and get green before you are there vs maintaining speed, braking and sitting there stopped for 30 seconds. In both cases you cross the intersection at the same time.

 

[aquariuscsm]

I would think overinflated tires would be really hard on your suspension.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

It's one of those things that can get addictive. I used to enjoy it on the trip to my parents and back with the Focus. The best I ever got was low 50s (hand calculated) out of the Focus. 45-50 MPH, no brake applications; just coasting down. I took good advantage of the DFCO in that car a lot.

Once I started putting some miles on our Sentra last year , I really started to get a feel for light hypermiling that car. I can get mid 40s on the trip to my parents if I take the state highway. Specifically, route 49 which has a lot of small towns (drop down to 35) and a lot of elderly drivers who won't drive above 45 MPH. Timing stoplights, etc. Especially now that it costs quite a bit more.

 

[Hermann]

It is possible to be a hypermiler and not be a traffic hazard. Instead of plodding along in the slow lane at 60mph, get behind someone who is moving with traffic and get 4 to 6 car lengths behind and use the aero advantage of the car in front breaking the wind. #2 The real key to hypermiling is to drive like you have bad brakes, COAST whenever you can without creating a line of cars behind you. The less you use the brakes is where the big results happen. #3 is Driving With Load (DWL) If traffic permits. #4 SPEED KILLS MPG What's everybody in a hurry about. I'll end up at the stoplight with the same group of people who blasted by me a few seconds ago. #5 Learn traffic light patterns.

 

[IndyIan]

High tire pressures resulting in better handling / braking seems counterintuitive. Tires are the first part of your suspension and allowing them to deflect around corners and during braking is what I presume the engineers accounted for when designing the car to handle safely.

Wayne's understanding of handling is probably driving 35mph on a highway onramp and then accelerating to a brisk 60mph (in a 75mph zone) over the course of 15 minutes in an overheating unairconditioned cabin in 90* weather while big rigs swerve around him. I'm not an engineer so I wont argue with these hylpermilers, they are pretty dorky and spend to much time calculating how to save 3 mpg while annoying every other driver on the road.

I might give it a shot though adding extra air in my tires and then dropping the anchor to see how the ABS and stopping distance works out. Could be an interesting YouTube video.

I hypermile a bit, I won't let traffic build up behind me as that gets dangerous. I think the only thing I'll do that sometimes annoys people is coast up to a stop light to avoid an actual stop, if practical. But if someone is behind me for a couple lights they might realize we are getting there faster and using less fuel...
As for the tires at max sidewall psi, go to an autocross and play with tire pressures, they make some difference in the corners, but nothing crazy in terms of street driving. Very low starts to roll the tire onto the sidewall in the corners, (lots of 90's to 10's SUV's and Sedans had almost unsafely low door card pressures for handling, IMO) Up to the sidewall max gets more precise steering at the cost of a small bit of ultimate grip and perhaps a faster breakaway when you ask too much. Its all 2-3% stuff which is huge at the track, but almost unnoticeable in normal street driving with all-season tires.
Broken pavement and bad shocks with hard tires is bad too, as the tire has more tendency to bounce more like a basket ball.

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

I would think overinflated tires would be really hard on your suspension.

But what do you consider overinflated?

I personally do not like to put too much air in my tires. But to be very specific, the current tires on my car now has maximum psi on the sidewall as 51psi. So, I am sure that means the manufacturer is saying if that tire is filled up to 51psi "cold",it is ok to drive with it.

And remember when we drive the tire heats up and that 51 can quickly get to 55 or more. I am sure the tire manufacturer is aware of that.

So, at what point is it an overinflated tire? Since I have read that tires explode at 200psi or more. Not at 55psi or 60psi. And definitely not at posted sidewall psi of whatever a tire says.

So, what do some of you consider over inflated tires compared to the sidewall psi of your tires. What is the sidewall psi of your tires and when do you consider them overinflated?

Manufacturers who make a tire with 51psi on sidewall, I don't know if they call it overinflated when they fill up the tires to 51psi cold. Knowing well it will go as high as 55psi or more when that tire gets hot from use that day.