Can't get over the hump

I never bothered pushing beyond 500 miles per tank with my 2010. What is there to gain from pushing it... especially in Minnesota? There was no sense risking the fuel pump or shortening the life of the battery. When the refill notice appears, I fill up right away. If nothing else, it was nice knowing how consistent the gauge was at the refill point. That came in handy for tracking true MPG.

 

While our clubs are fun milestones for some of us to attempt, we strongly discourage pushing the limits when carrying precious cargo (children) or when the act of running out of fuel could be dangerous to you or your vehicle.

 

I'm just across the river from the Mall of America.

Once upon a time, we had gatherings. I'd love to start them up again.... especially since I'm one of the few around here with a plug-in model.

Have a good location suggestion, some coffeeshop with a large parking lot?

 

I don't worry about 500-700 miles to a tank. Just drive the car and enjoy the ride. I might be wrong but one could cheat to get into say the 800 miles to a tank club by adding a gallon of gas every 100 miles seeing how the computer will reset after 3 gallons or more are added. Haven't tried this but it might work??

 

Some of us pushing the tank limits are doing it to check out the car's real limits so that we know what to expect just in case certain past emergencies or difficult situations happen again.

I do this only in non-hazardous situations were the cost and inconvenience of failure is low, and only consenting able-bodied adults are in the car -- which usually means just me. When your passengers include a child in a car seat, or an aging parent with limited mobility, don't even consider pushing for long tanks.

 

Coffeeshops work best, since it allows people to come & go as they please. Sadly, the ideal setup (large interior, massive lot, easy to get to location) I knew of years ago is no longer available. There wouldn't be any access to the cars while in a place like Perkins. Being able to find a park would be nice, but that can be challenge finding enough spots grouped together.

We'll have to keep our eyes peeled for a location. Arranging the gathering itself is pretty easy. It ends up being a great venue for sharing of information & experiences... stuff just like the topic of this thread. People get to look at options available too, like aftermarket gauges and bike racks.

 

What type of fuel economy are you seeing? What is your displayed vs calculated value?

Assuming you get a complete fill up - if you multiply your displayed MPG by 10, that will give you the number of miles you can drive and would require 10.5 gallons (Prius has an estimated 11.9 gallon tank). Your last pip will be blinking, and your distance to empty will be 0 miles, but assuming you got a complete fill up on the previous fill up, you will have 1.4 gallons in reserve (usually good for 70 miles).

Thus, if you are displaying a value of 60.0 mpg or better, you have a very good shot at a 600 mile tank without running out of gas.

I've tracked my mileage for 3+ years and my data supports this. If you check out the screen shots in the 600 mile tank range thread, look at the displayed MPG and the number of gallons used, and you will see that it correlates very well.

 

In order to get 600, 700 or 800 mile tanks, you will have to drive in a manner that you're not accustomed to, and allow more time for your daily trips. How you start from a stop and how you slow down or stop are two key components that you will have to master. It may be you never will do a 600 mile tank if you're not willing to sufficiently change your driving habits. I know I never did and never will. I got an average of 52 mpg with my previous Prius IV and now average 45 mpg with my new v. I'm happy with that!

 

My dad used to keep a container of gasoline in the trunk because his job required a lot of driving. Filling up the tank could mean on time delivery or disgruntled customer. I hated sitting in his car because he didn't do a good job sealing the container.

 

Somebody correct me: I think the way to get those high miles per tank is due to terrain and driving with the direction of the wind. I think you can get better milage on flat land (Minnesota doesn't seem very good for that). Or, if you are mainly going downhill with some flat land in-between. Though the test numbers state that city driving has higher MPG than highway driving, I think that has to do with no cars being on the road in the city. I can get 60 MPG if I set my cruise control to 60MPH on the freeway, so I consider that to be easy as long as there isn't much traffic and I don't feel like driving faster. I couldn't get 60 MPG in the city under any reasonable condition that I can think of because of stop signs, stop lights and traffic. And 60 MPG x 12 gallons equals more than 700 miles per tank.

Mike

 

Not having to drive into a strong headwind or a cross wind helps MPG's immensely. Crossing the San Mateo Bridge (8 mile long), I will average a displayed 65 mpg cruising at an indicated 60 mph. However, some days I'll drive into a head wind, and my mileage will drop to 45 - 50 mpg even though I've reduced my speed to a displayed 55 mph.

 

Joining Fuelly to track mpg's will give you better guidance based on your driving. This past winter I was lucky to get 400 miles on a single pip (flashing or not). In better weather I generally get 540 miles doing the same.

 

Wringing max distance out of a tank seems an irrational "hump" to me. It might lead to an extra, out-of-your-way-running-on-empty, drive to a gas station, and isn't the object to conserve gas? D.O. for topping up in an attempt to extend tanks: could lead to gas spilling through vent tubes when you take corners.

 

I am one of those 800 mile/tank drivers - first of all - I'll say the obvious - getting 800 miles on one tank with a Prius is not easy because you need to achieve an overall computed fuel efficiency of +70 mpg for that tank of gas ( this means the HSI display on a 3rd gen Prius should be estimating your MPG at greater than 74 mpg). The Prius' fuel efficiency varies over the seasons and by speed - cold weather and high speeds will lower a Prius' fuel efficiency significantly. The best time to achieve high MPG on a Prius is from late spring to early fall. In the summer time, I normally get about 65 mpg and get about 580 miles (+ or minus 30 miles) on a full tank before the last bar blinks on my 2010 Prius but that is still 5 mpg short of what is needed... I have to work extra hard to get +70 mpg on a tank. I drive in mainly city-suburbia slow and go heavy traffic where my top speed is rarely over 45 mph and my average speed is closer to 30 mph. My main commute takes about 60 minutes (+/- 10 minutes) over +16 miles. My cargo is normally just a lunchbox and a black cloth briefcase. To get very high fuel efficiency, I must keep my cold start short trips on the Prius to a minimum ( cold start trips which are less than 7 miles and/or 30 minutes can causes the Prius' fuel efficiency to drop like a rock ). Even with this restriction, I must also employ special driving techniques to get there collectively called hypermiling. I coast (glide) quite often and I synch my speed with the traffic lights so I don't have to stop as often. Among hypermilers these techniques are called Pulse and Glide (P&G) and Driving without Brakes (DWB). Where I drive is very hilly so I also supplement P&G with another hypermiling technique called Driving with Load (DWL) which among rocket scientists and physicists is known as gravity-assist acceleration. To get DWB to work I use a hypermiling technique called smart braking which means I decelerated far in advance of a traffic light to synch with a traffic light green lights. hope this helps Walter

 

First, don't worry about miles per tank. I normally fill up at my local gas station on my commute that takes me beyond the 0 to go, but I'll fill before then if I'd need to fill elsewhere on a longer trip.

600 miles on a tank would be cool (I've only had 593), but I think my 501 mile 63.5mpg tank was better than my 593 mile 59.3mpg tank.

Just focus on mpg, and be courteous while doing it.

0) Ensure tire pressures never drop below placard (including on cold mornings).
1a) Concentrate and anticipate the need to make maneuvers by looking ahead and using mirrors.
1b) Maintain a good buffer, 6s+, to the car in front when possible.'
Together 0, 1a and 1b will improve your fuel economy without you even trying and make you safer while you do it. 1a and 1b is something the best hypermilers do extremely well. Once you're doing these, you'll be amazed at how mindless the typical driver seems.
2) Drive to avoid wasteful braking (Part of Driving Without Brakes = DWB):
a) See 1: they will go a long way to eliminate unnecessary braking
b) Time lights: a red light is just a light that's going to turn green; you can often adjust speed to give time for the light to change and avoid stopping; rolling at 1mph is better than stopping dead; and remember that avoiding stopping usually helps traffic flow
c) Time yields: just as you don't expect to stop when merging onto a restricted highway, being aware helps you avoid excessive braking at yields, whether it's a right turning lane at a light or a left turn across traffic; 1a helps you a lot here and makes it easy for you to "thread the needle" to cross a gap in traffic.
d) Avoid creeping: often in traffic, impatient people will creep forward small distances and like sheep the people behind them creep the same distance only to stop a few feet later. It's wasteful. I have a 1 car length rule.
e) Avoid go-and-stop: in stop-and-go traffic or even busy highways you can end up with traffic in a cycle of acceleration and braking. You can often avoid this by figuring the average speed and maintaining that speed. If you get it right, you also help traffic move smoothly and safely because braking usually leads to excessive braking behind you and leads to more accidents. (If you can learn to pulse and glide effectively you can actually use the stop-and-go to your advantage, but maintaining steady speed is easier and still efficient).

When you're doing this, be considerate of others. What may be efficient for you isn't necessarily most efficient for all traffic.