i usually have a hard time not being the fastest driver on the road, but for my hiking trip drive today (about 80 freeway miles round trip) i kept the expy CONSISTENTLY under 63mph, usually between 53-60 (between 1.2-1.6 rpms) with very gradual accelerations and averaged over 21mpg on my overhead computer (ac was on for the ride back had 23 for the ride there). i was on a pretty level freeway, and i'm not including my mpg for the ride up the mountain (about 7mpg).

i know a lot of you like to poo-poo your overhead computer, but mine has consistently shown a slightly lower mpg than i've calculated myself over the last year or so. my city driving mpg from the computer is about 11.4 and my own calculations have shown 11.8.

anyway, just thought this might interest some of you since there's a new "how can i get better mpg!" thread every 3 days or so.

happy gramma driving,
al

i've got a 2000 eb 5.4, 2 wheel drive, 50k miles, and my gears are 3.3 (or something like that if i recall correctly).

 

Wow, you must have some really tall gears! And how do you keep the motor from stalling below 2 rpms? I can't get mine below 500 rpms before it stalls.

 

(i was actually outside pushing the car!)

just in case anyone else is confused (or pretending to be for the sake of humor) by 1.3-1.6 i mean, as the display shows. this is actually 1,300-1,600 rpms

 

Well, I'm glad to know your pleased with the mileage. Personally, my time is worth more than the small amount saved--I'd rather just get there, but it's my choice. Also, I know it's a large v8 and I feel pretty good about 19mpg at 78.

 

i don't really care about the time saved/wasted. the hardest part for me was simply driving so slow. i enjoy driving fast. but my speeds usually garner a 14-16 mpg ave on the freeway.

by my quick calculations i can save an hour 15 minutes driving 90mph on a 200 mile trip and pay about $15 bucks more in gas vs driving 58 mph. (not to mention saving money by not getting any tickets!)

i guess it's all in one's prefference and mood.

 

I suppose if you don't mind wasting the time and the traffic is real light it would be ok, but here in NY our speed limit is 65. So if you're doing 58 you're a danger to everyone else on the highway as we have to weave around you since the average speed is around 74.

 

"danger" huh? unless you're an absolutely horrible driver you should be able to make it past a vehicle going 2-7 miles under the speed LIMIT.

speed limit here is 65 as well, and while slow drivers are often a nuisance to me, they certainly don't make me feel like i'm in danger.

 

Where in NY is the speed limit 65? Every time I drive through on my way to or from my in-laws on Cape Cod I see the speed limit signs that say "State Speed Limit 55" as soon as we enter NY. It's like they're saying not only are the speed limits around NYC 55, but they're no more than 55 anywhere in NY.

Are you saying there are some NY highways with a 65 limit?

Also, in my experience it's not so much a problem of people going to slow in general, it's that they go too slow in the left lanes. There's no concept of passing on the left then getting right as soon as safely possible. People who sit in the left lane going under or even at the speed limit drive me crazy!!

 

My wife has a 97' exped with just over 97,000mi, this thing has been very well maintained, So still today we can get 20.5 to 21.5 mpg highway at between
65 - 70 mph with three kids and all our stuff for the weekend to the condo. In
the city whenever it gets used in that way we get about 16mpg. We can fill'er
up drive 135mi befor the needle moves off full. So maintenance times 3 pays off.

 

I dont understadn it. Not one bit. How stupid do you have to be to cruise in the left lane!? These idiots are a hazard to the saftey around them.



Sorry, had to rant about that real fast

 

Just took a 75 mile trip this weekend. On the way there with cruise on, it downshifted maybe 15 times because of the hills. While at my parents I cleaned the throttle body and also put some seafoam in the tank. I have 78000 on it and it was the first time I cleaned the throttle body. On my way back it downshifted twice and that was even driving more into the wind. Wish I would have checked to see how much fuel I saved not downshifting so much.

 

I understand Jay S. about NY commuting. I commuted from CT to NY just north of the city for 5 years. It is the fastest moving traffic I have ever seen anywhere. The interstates just north of NYC have bumper to bumper 75 to 90 mph traffic 3 lanes wide each direction during rush hours, 6-9 AM and 4-8 PM every day. You could shut off your engine and be pushed to work at 75 mph. Once in awhile taillights light up and rubber burns ahead of you, traffic merges into the left lanes and cars are sliding all over the place as you find some tourist driving along at the 55 mph speed limit in the right lane and traffic veering around him as everybody is trying to stay alive. Any accident involves 50-100 cars and a road closing for hours. The drivers are good but wilder than anywhere else in the US. Think about it--millions of people are trying to get to work on a dozen or so highways. When I retired it took me 10 years to come down from the ceiling and for my white knuckles to recover.

I don't see how you can drive an Expy in that kind of traffic. My ride was a 5.0 Mustang and I hit 90 mph at least a dozen times each morning trying to get in the proper lane as I approached my turns.

 

I had to drive in San Juan, Puerto Rico while family was stationed there. It's like driving in NYC but with much less traffic laws and everyone knows they can get away with runnin your *** off the road. The best way to deal with it there was to drive insane like them, then it wasn't so bad.

 

The NY traffic is wild but the safest way to stay alive is to drive like everyone else. I don't know how many days you would stay alive driving at the speed limit. The cops never ventured out into the inbound lanes in the AM or the outbound lanes in the PM. They waited in the station drinking coffee and smoking cigars until the rush hour traffic cleared. Stopping speeders would involve stopping thousands of cars and surviving the impact of the ones behind the stopped ones. You never have to fear a ticket in the rush hour traffic unless your are driving in the opposite direction as the commuting crowd.

 

18-19 is best I've seen on the trip computer, around 19.5 average using direct fill calcs, not too bad imo for a truck this heavy. I stay at 65-70. Around town its still about 14-15 best. I'm ok with that. Never got to 20 though. Oh well.