Flexibility of travel times to avoid highway rush hour conjestion, smooth
sailing as opposed to stop and go and timeing green lights. With the open
box, tailgate down makes a noticeable difference on windy days with my 91
Dak. Maximum tyre pressure and halfing the Tim Hortons Donuts.
Jim Knox, 91 Dak
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Tom" <tigers@bserv.com>
To: <dakota-truck@dakota-truck.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 07, 2007 3:01 PM
Subject: Re: DML: Beater economics
>
> At 12:12 PM 4/7/07, Jason wrote:
>>It's been getting between 17.5 and 20 mpg lately, depending on the
>>weather.
>
> Not bad at all!
>
>>My commute is about 2 miles getting to the freeway, then 30 miles on the
>>freeway,
>>then 3 miles getting to the office. Mostly highway miles.
>
> Have you tried the following to see if your mpg improves?
>
> If you've got cruise control, use it on the highway. Tests show an
> average saving
> of 7% can be achieved. Note that cruise control doesn't save in hilly
> terrain. It is
> more fuel efficient to let your speed drop going uphill and build up again
> going
> down the other side.
>
> Keep tires properly inflated (follow owner's manual recommendation) and
> check
> your tire pressure regularly, especially after a sharp drop in
> temperature. Properly
> inflated tires can improve mileage by around 3.3% while under-inflated
> ones can lower
> mileage by 0.4% for every 1 psi drop in all four tires.
>
> Get rid of excessive baggage and lighten up the weight. An extra 100
> pounds in the bed
> can cut fuel economy by up to 2%.
>
> Maintain your truck regularly. Fixing a badly out of tune (spark plugs
> cleaned and
> properly gapped, plug wires cleaned and not cross firing, distributor cap
> and rotor
> cleaned, cleaned air filter) can improve gas mileage by an average of 4%.
>
> Just like performance add-ons, don't expect these increases to be
> cumulative.
> Nevertheless you should notice a significant increase.
>
> If a reduction of $100 per month will help your financial crunch, have
> you looked
> into the possibility of lowering your truck insurance i.e. putting on
> collision only and
> no comprehensive or raising the deductible amounts?
>
> Any possibility of car pooling or ride sharing?
>
> Just some thoughts that have cropped up in my feeble and senile
> mind ;-)
>
> Bob
>
> BTW, you forgot to mention gasoline taxes which are a huge part of
> gasoline prices.
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon May 07 2007 - 19:04:35 EDT