70mpg while driving 70mph

[mee081224]

Yes you heard that, I was on my way to the GATOR game(GO GATORS!!!) and got 47-50mpg while driving 70mph.

So I was driving and I was behind a F350 who had a hitch of something who was behind a big rig. I notice my mpg was at 60, i was like wtf? Then I was oh yeah wind tunnel effect, so i said let me try this, so i went to the other lane and it went down to like 48mpg, so i was like hmmmmmm......... when the truck left, I was behind the big rig(no rocks shooting out of it, of course) and I was getting between 65-75mpg I was like wow, but I was in dangerous proxmity range. I think they say 10ft for every 10 mph, so i was probably average about 30 ft away or so but got close to 15 and got far away like 100 ft, though my visuals could be all messed up since i sit way back and cant see my front bumper, i barely see my hood, so that may be another 10 ft i dont see. I was in a comfortable zone though, not like what everyone does with cars, the only issue, i cant see in front of him, but i think big rigs will stop more earlier than cars just because of their load and height, so I feel pretty safe behind one. If tire rips it rips out wards, and we do have pretty good braking system, so another reason why i am not worried. when i got off the higway after following for 40 minutes, my meter was in green for about 10 miles and i was getting 90-99 mpg while traveling at 50-53mpg, not bad I must say, i will be going back in a weeks and I will try my madness both ways and see how well the performance is

since no edits, i will post an update, yes i know i am crazy, but i dont think i was that close, i am just bad at guessing how far away something is i guess, I would say the closest was 1 car length, and that was for a glimpse of a second( i misjudge the drivers patter going uphill and the my decent) but i averaged about 2.5 to 4 car lengths, i got out a few times at 6 or 7, but it seems the closer you are the better the mileage well not really when i am within 4 cars, it was hard to just use cruise control every time i was at 68 he would get away and when i was 69 i would get close to him, so it seems he was going 69 but i was push much easier

[Tideland Prius]

Yeah, there was a thread earlier this year (or late last year) about drafting semis.

[Stringmike]

I was recently following a large truck at high speed and what I regard as a safe distance (I like 2 to 3 seconds, which is over 200 feet at 70 mph) when one of its rear tires blew. And I mean blew - there was a loud explosion and the tire literally disintegrated. One large fragment flew thirty feet in the air and travelled ten times as far, sailing over a power line and landing in a field. A couple of smaller fragments flew backwards and landed in the road ahead of me, but I was able to avoid them. I've also had a couple of lost loads land in front of me, including a stack of soft drink bottles that toppled backwards from a truck.

I'm not sure twenty or thirty feet is a safe distance and running your Prius into the back end of a truck will hurt a lot more than your gas mileage!

Mike

[molgrips]

Three or four car-lengths is insanity. You know how there are these road accidents that cause tailbacks and delay you for hours, and you sit there thinking 'stupid drivers having accidents'.. well that's exactly how they happen. People driving too close too fast or doing something else that 'they're sure will be okay'

At 70mph you'd travel 30 feet in 300 milliseconds or thereabouts. That's not really long enough to be able to react safely. You'd probably have covered twice the amount of road you can actually see completely blind if you just so much as look in your mirrors.

It's not worth the risk for you and everyone else.

[mee081224]

well thanks for caring, i did it when no one else is around, plus i might be exaggertaing on the distance, i am not like draftbumping like in nascar, i am within a reasonable range, not perfect but not insance, if you want to talk about seconds I would of been about 4 seconds behind, the closest was 1 second and that was when i misjudge the timing, but other than that i was between 3-6 seconds behind. And dont forget SEMIs take longer to stop so if somethign happens in the very front of the highway he will see first, if he needs to stop I will stop way before he does. The only issue is like the previous post, if a tire get chopped up, but like i said it usually goes out wards, just like the previous post of stringmike. Plus at the distance I was, I would be able to avoid them, my reaction time is better than the elderly since i am 25, Trust me my safety comes first and so does effieciency, why do you think i bought the car, if there is an accident and i cuased it i would make a huge backup, I HAVE ALWAYS hated idiots who caused them, 75% of those were caused by speeding, 10% bad tires(bad maintence) Lets see who speeds in a prius? who doesnt take care of their prius ? uh ok, thanks, ask before you assume.

[eagle33199]

First off, Those run on sentences are absolutely painful to try and read. Secondly, i seriously doubt your numbers. While speeding is a problem and causes accidents, i'd think there are much more from other sources. doing a quick search (and i know, not everything on the web can be trusted) yeilded the following two sites:
http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/arti...-accidents.html
http://www.lawcore.com/car-accident/statistics.html

which list massively different numbers: 98% due to distracted drivers (rubbernecking, cell phones, fatigue, adjusting the radio). Additionally, about 40% of car accident fatalities are caused by drunk driving. only 30% are caused by speeding. compare that with 33% for reckless driving (the numbers are not exclusive). I'd say following too closely falls into the "reckless driving" category.

A few years back i saw someone lose control of their vehicle and roll down the side of a hill on the highway. was he speeding? no. He was simply following behind a semi too closely. The semi drove over a deer he couldn't see, and when he could see it, he had jsut enough time to react and try to get around it, driving over it on one side, causing him to panic more.

moral of the story: Always, and i do mean always, give yourself time to react to anything that may happen in front of you. 20-30 feet at highway speeds isn't nearly enough time.

[Proco]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(massimo @ Oct 9 2006, 10:20 AM) [snapback]330011[/snapback]</div>

well thanks for caring, i did it when no one else is around, plus i might be exaggertaing on the distance, i am not like draftbumping like in nascar, i am within a reasonable range, not perfect but not insance, if you want to talk about seconds I would of been about 4 seconds behind, the closest was 1 second and that was when i misjudge the timing, but other than that i was between 3-6 seconds behind. And dont forget SEMIs take longer to stop so if somethign happens in the very front of the highway he will see first, if he needs to stop I will stop way before he does. The only issue is like the previous post, if a tire get chopped up, but like i said it usually goes out wards, just like the previous post of stringmike. Plus at the distance I was, I would be able to avoid them, my reaction time is better than the elderly since i am 25, Trust me my safety comes first and so does effieciency, why do you think i bought the car, if there is an accident and i cuased it i would make a huge backup, I HAVE ALWAYS hated idiots who caused them, 75% of those were caused by speeding, 10% bad tires(bad maintence) Lets see who speeds in a prius? who doesnt take care of their prius ? uh ok, thanks, ask before you assume.
[/b]

Your reaction time might be better than someone else's (elderly or not), but that doesn't mean you'll have sufficient time to react.

It may take longer to stop a semi, but if some bozo cuts him off while you're changing stations, when he hits the brakes you could be hitting him ... especially if there's no place on the left or right to safely go. Worst case you wind up sandwiched between the semi and the car following you.

In my opinion, the reward of pushing more MPG out the car isn't worth the risk of an accident, injury or worse.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Oct 9 2006, 02:34 PM) [snapback]330130[/snapback]</div>

First off, Those run on sentences are absolutely painful to try and read.
[/b]

Go over here to ease your pain ----> http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=25287&hl= :P

[eagle33199]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Proco @ Oct 9 2006, 01:54 PM) [snapback]330135[/snapback]</div>

Go over here to ease your pain ----> http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=25287&hl= :P
[/b]

Hmmmm..... Maybe i'll stop ignore FHOP if stuff like this is discussed! LOL

[mee081224]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Oct 9 2006, 02:34 PM) [snapback]330130[/snapback]</div>

First off, Those run on sentences are absolutely painful to try and read. Secondly, i seriously doubt your numbers. While speeding is a problem and causes accidents, i'd think there are much more from other sources. doing a quick search (and i know, not everything on the web can be trusted) yeilded the following two sites:
http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/arti...-accidents.html
http://www.lawcore.com/car-accident/statistics.html

which list massively different numbers: 98% due to distracted drivers (rubbernecking, cell phones, fatigue, adjusting the radio). Additionally, about 40% of car accident fatalities are caused by drunk driving. only 30% are caused by speeding. compare that with 33% for reckless driving (the numbers are not exclusive). I'd say following too closely falls into the "reckless driving" category.

A few years back i saw someone lose control of their vehicle and roll down the side of a hill on the highway. was he speeding? no. He was simply following behind a semi too closely. The semi drove over a deer he couldn't see, and when he could see it, he had jsut enough time to react and try to get around it, driving over it on one side, causing him to panic more.

moral of the story: Always, and i do mean always, give yourself time to react to anything that may happen in front of you. 20-30 feet at highway speeds isn't nearly enough time.
[/b]

EVEN better I am all for keeping idiots off the phone while driving, people think driving is a joke. When I drive I concentrate on the road, I have blind spot mirrors, auto dimming rear view mirror.

Yes I def did get 70mpg while driving 70 mph, I will be probably be going on a road trip in a few weeks and I will take pictures while driving, well actually I WONT be my girlfriend will.

You guys make no sense, if a truck is cut off and is forced to break, he will try to stop, and his break lights turn on, then that means for me to stop, not to mention I drive on the left side of the road so i can still see ahead of him. I dont care if he runs over the geo, it wont affect me as I will still be able to stop.

GUYS! I was only joking about bump drafting, you only have to drive behind him within 250 ft -500 ft to get these numbers

[hobbit]

"I'm 25, therefore I'm invincible" -- typical. You'll get over it,
hopefully not the hard way.
.
On a long road trip last summer I did a little drafting [at a
relatively safe distance, but wasn't entirely comfy with it] on
the way out and then NO drafting on the way back. My MPG was
better on the return trip, because by giving myself a much larger
open cell to play in I could concentrate more on RPM control
instead of trying to always adapt on a shorter-term basis to how
far behind a truck I was, and that allowed the car to do its job
much better. If you're behind a truck at a nominally safe distance
you get a little wind-bucking effect, sure, but to really benefit
you'd have to stay tucked *way* in beyond any hope of safety and
visibility. 'Tain't worth it, end of story.
.
_H*