Any hypermilers here?

SDAlexander8

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You don't need to be remotely close to a semi to get a good slipstream effect. 20 car lengths back will give you a good little boost, and riding the bumper will pretty much allow you to turn your engine off except for hills. I try to stay half of the legal tailgating distance, about a half car length per 10mph. This gives me about 50% more mpg at highway speeds and is safer and further back than most traffic stays anyway. I use the 3-4 car lengths as a buffer for when the semi speeds up and slows down, following too closely you will have to use breaks if anything happens and that will kill all the extra mpg's you just saved pretty quickly. Pretty much 90% of drivers tailgate in dense traffic. I am usually further back than just about everyone else, and you are much safer behind a semi than anywhere else but a clear road. They stop and accelerate so slowly that it is easy to react to them, they will never outbreak you unless they run into a brick wall.
I can’t emphasize enough how dangerous this is, regardless of the fact that you’ll be able to react to the semi braking and accelerating.

You are completely cutting off your vision of the road ahead of you. The semi may be unaware that you are even there. Some semi drivers have no problem accelerating hard or driving well above the posted speed limit for trucks.

Those things handle and accelerate much better than you think. They can change lanes quickly or brake hard if they have to. you may be caught off-guard if they decide to aggressively pass another semi going 15 mph slower than they are.

Semi drivers are also taught to get over to the left lane for cars and trucks that are broken down on the shoulder. It’s actually a law in most states. I see accidents occur from cars passing semis on the right all the time.

Part of safe highway driving is anticipating the road ahead of you, and you are taking this advantage away from yourself by tailing a semi trailer, even at several car lengths. You will get unlucky one day when you aren't giving it full attention and an accident ahead on the highway has every car slamming their brakes or dodging out of the way. Maybe a deer runs out in the road and they slam the brakes while you’re focused on changing the music or sipping your starbucks. Maybe a tire retread blowout happens and they’re dodging tire pieces.

I’ve literally seen a wheel tandem fall off the axel of a semi truck trailer on the highway and roll freely next to the truck for some distance.

It isn’t worth it for the pennies you’re saving.

If you need to save some money, look at how you can save money on your monthly bills and subscriptions. Quit smoking those 7$/ pack cigarettes. Quit going to starbucks for your daily frappacino-machiatto-pumpkin spice latte w/ 2 pumps cream 1 sugar that costs 6$. Chewing tobacco, lotto tix that you’re never gonna hit a jackpot on, alcohol, whatever etc. Move closer to work, work closer to home, buy a hybrid.

Sacrificing your safety and the safety of others on your daily commute to save a couple dollars is not worth it.
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UberCivic

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I can’t emphasize enough how dangerous this is, regardless of the fact that you’ll be able to react to the semi braking and accelerating.

You are completely cutting off your vision of the road ahead of you. The semi may be unaware that you are even there. Some semi drivers have no problem accelerating hard or driving well above the posted speed limit for trucks.

Those things handle and accelerate much better than you think. They can change lanes quickly or brake hard if they have to. you may be caught off-guard if they decide to aggressively pass another semi going 15 mph slower than they are.

Semi drivers are also taught to get over to the left lane for cars and trucks that are broken down on the shoulder. It’s actually a law in most states. I see accidents occur from cars passing semis on the right all the time.

Part of safe highway driving is anticipating the road ahead of you, and you are taking this advantage away from yourself by tailing a semi trailer, even at several car lengths. You will get unlucky one day when you aren't giving it full attention and an accident ahead on the highway has every car slamming their brakes or dodging out of the way.

It isn’t worth it for the pennies you’re saving.

If you need to save some money, look at how you can save money on your monthly bills and subscriptions. Quit smoking those 7$/ pack cigarettes. Quit going to starbucks for your daily frappacino-machiatto-pumpkin spice latte w/ 2 pumps cream 1 sugar that costs 6$. Chewing tobacco, lotto tix that you’re never gonna hit a jackpot on, alcohol, whatever etc. Move closer to work, work closer to home, buy a hybrid.

Sacrificing your safety on your daily commute to save a couple dollars is not worth it.
Just about everything that you said would be true if I were actually following semi's closely, but as I stated I am not. The recommended legal following length is one (~20ft) car length per 10mph. If everyone did that on the highway cars would be spaced 50 yards apart. No one actually does that and the guideline is based on 60's era automobiles driving in bad conditions. I stay 80 feet back at 80mph instead of the legal 160ft. That is much farther back than most drivers actually do, most are around two car lengths. The one thing that I disagree with is that semis can react fast. They simply cannot compared to even the slowest of passenger vehicles, and at the distance I follow I can clearly see further down the road and am not just looking at the back of their trailer like a tailgater would be.
 

SDAlexander8

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Just about everything that you said would be true if I were actually following semi's closely, but as I stated I am not. The recommended legal following length is one (~20ft) car length per 10mph. If everyone did that on the highway cars would be spaced 50 yards apart. No one actually does that and the guideline is based on 60's era automobiles driving in bad conditions. I stay 80 feet back at 80mph instead of the legal 160ft. That is much farther back than most drivers actually do, most are around two car lengths. The one thing that I disagree with is that semis can react fast. They simply cannot compared to even the slowest of passenger vehicles, and at the distance I follow I can clearly see further down the road and am not just looking at the back of their trailer like a tailgater would be.
I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t see how following a trailer 80 ft back is doing anything either. If anything I think it is disrupting the airflow around your car. When I follow a semi at that speed and distance, all i feel is the air colliding with my vehicle strangely and causing it to shake.

And Semis are capable of handling, accelerating, and braking better than you think they are. It’s just not a great idea to drive them that way. Real experienced truck drivers follow highway safety and driving techniques very closely. If you see a semi driving erratically, speeding or spending too much time in the left lane, they really shouldn’t have a CDL.
 

Civic17siYAY

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Extreme Hypermiliers would be like :-D

2017 Honda Civic X Hatchback Sport Hypermiling Edition 01 - Aero Hub Caps.jpg


2017 Honda Civic X Hatchback Sport Hypermiling Edition 02 - aero cover rear wheels.jpg


2017 Honda Civic X Hatchback Sport Hypermiling Edition 03 -  Tail Extension.jpg
Lol. Spend 30k to save a dollar a week in gas.

As for hypermiler, I drive about 1000-1500 miles a week. One of the biggest selling points for me was the advertised mpg. That being said, time is money. Going 55mph or only revving to 2k to save a couple bucks on gas a week is not worth it to me. If I can get to my appointments even 15 minutes early, that's well worth the cents lost in gas. If you are in no rush to get to where you're going then I could see the appeal, but there's easier ways to save money IMO.
 


GermanCivic

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Lol. Spend 30k to save a dollar a week in gas.

As for hypermiler, I drive about 1000-1500 miles a week. One of the biggest selling points for me was the advertised mpg. That being said, time is money. Going 55mph or only revving to 2k to save a couple bucks on gas a week is not worth it to me. If I can get to my appointments even 15 minutes early, that's well worth the cents lost in gas. If you are in no rush to get to where you're going then I could see the appeal, but there's easier ways to save money IMO.
That's true but I think most people don't hypermile because of money saving. I think it's only a hobby for many of them. It's fun for the Hypermilers to beat the mpg from their last tank filling or compare their MPGs to other Hypermilers. From outside most of the things people like to do with their cars, like making it louder, lowering or tuning just seems to be totally stupid, if you're not into that.

Despite from that, gas ist not everywhere as cheap as it is in your country. When driving between 1000 and 1500 miles a week, fuel efficient driving can save you 200 or 300 bucks per month, at least with gas prices in Germany.
 

Civic17siYAY

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That's true but I think most people don't hypermile because of money saving. I think it's only a hobby for many of them. It's fun for the Hypermilers to beat the mpg from their last tank filling or compare their MPGs to other Hypermilers. From outside most of the things people like to do with their cars, like making it louder, lowering or tuning just seems to be totally stupid, if you're not into that.

Despite from that, gas ist not everywhere as cheap as it is in your country. When driving between 1000 and 1500 miles a week, fuel efficient driving can save you 200 or 300 bucks per month, at least with gas prices in Germany.
That makes sense. Although, 200-300 a month in savings still doesn't come close to the time and therefore money lost from using such gas saving techniques... for me atleast. I see where you're coming from, as a hobby it makes sense. I guess just in my scenario it doesn't work.
 

NoKz

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Full Bolt-On, on Map 1 (Stock-ish Tune), I was able to get 43mpg granny shifting and sticking to 50mph in the slow lane with the trucks. Damn near drove me crazy. But I accomplished my goal.

Honda Civic 10th gen Any hypermilers here? nsWypNM
 
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Gruber

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That makes sense. Although, 200-300 a month in savings still doesn't come close to the time and therefore money lost from using such gas saving techniques... for me atleast. I see where you're coming from, as a hobby it makes sense. I guess just in my scenario it doesn't work.
If I could save $200-300 a month on gas, I would add another $200-300/month, trade in the civic and lease me a richer and faster car.... :spaz:But wait, :hmm: then I couldn't save so much on gas anymore....o_O my genius plans never work....:banghead:
 

GermanCivic

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My best value so far:
I was able to drive 497 miles with a single gas tank, that's an overall MPG of 44.

I think I will not get a better MPG with that car, I was already cruising relatively slow.
 


Elussive

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I finished a drive this weekend which lasted about 120 miles. Slip streaming and eco mode on with cruise control at 55mph got me 52.9 mpg. I had AC on the whole time so I probably could have gotten higher.

I’m running a 2.0L NA 6MT Civic with ktuner on 91.

Honda Civic 10th gen Any hypermilers here? 3879207E-A4F4-4214-975B-A3A9440860A6
 

GermanCivic

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I know Ktuner and Hondata are there for getting better performance, but I'm curious is there also a tune that can be helpful for hypermiling?
 

GermanCivic

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Still interested. Are there any experiences or maybe even comparisons about better fuel efficiency after a flash with Hondata or KTuner?
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