coasting vs. gliding

If your car is warmed up and you are truly "gliding" (no arrows), you are using no gas and no electricity...should show "99 MPG". Coasting is green arrows which are charging your batteries and slowing you down slightly. Gliding is no arrows and no use. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.
Sonya

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dulcimer @ Jul 27 2006, 09:47 PM) [snapback]293610[/snapback]</div>

Coasting is 99 MPG and charging your battery. The energy removed from your coast is sent to the battery, but you have lost some energy due to friction in the motor, and you've lost more due to friction in the wires, and you've lost more due to the chemical makeup of the battery. Now you get to a point that you need that power again and you press the accelerator to go faster, but you loose some energy in the battery, more in the wires, more in the motor, and still more due to wheel bearings, and finally more due to road friction.

Glide is 99 and doing nothing. You maintain your glide longer since there is no power generation friction. You go further longer and use less energy, and use the ICE less.

Conservation of Momentum: A.K.A. "Pulse and Glide Baby! Pulse and Glide!" B)

 

The "best" way to feel this in action is when going down a prolonged hill.

Shift into Neutral and glide fpr a while .... and then shift back into D. You will feel the difference (the car feels like it is being held back, like you have downshifted).

Now if you tried this with gliding down the entire hill you would see that you will continue to travel very far at a great speed with no use of the motor.

If you try going down that same hill coasting in D, eventually you start to loose too much speed, and have to use the motor again. The gains you have received from being in D, do not carry you as far as just gliding alone.

It can be pretty tricky learning how to glide...and sometimes the car just won't cooperate...that's when I use NEUTRAL to force it to glide. Since the transmission is not hurt by doing that it is no problem (although most of the time I am able to get it to glide without using Neutral)

 

True gliding should always return 99.9 MPG. Coasting will return 99.9 MPG but your travel distance will be much shorter than gliding unless your going down hill. Are you sure you are really gliding? At what speeds are you traveling when this happens?

Wayne

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(FireEngineer @ Jul 28 2006, 08:21 AM) [snapback]293763[/snapback]</div>

Gliding

While going:
1 to 40 mph - No arrows at all they just blank out. Car feels like it is in neutral in turns and accelerates down hill.

41 to Whatever mph - A.K.A. Warp Stealth - Release the gas petal completely arrows go blue. Press ever so slightly, and I mean ever so slightly the arrows go to yellow as if your running on electric only at those high speeds. Actually you are coasting and no gas is being fed to the engine. The electric motor is kind of just spinning the drive train to keep up with the wheels. You can coast a long time this way.

I normally use Warp Stealth to exit the freeway. Driving 55 mph I start to glide with the yellow arrows, slowly slowing down to 41 mph. Then I don't change a thing and at 40 mph the yellow arrows go away and I keep gliding to the next traffic stop. (Hopefully I catch the green.) On the outskirts of Houston is can be over a mile from the off ramp to the next turn.

 

I had Prius Nirvana this morning going 49-51 mph with NO arrows! This only happened for about a tenth of a mile and then the yellow arrows came back. This made up for the fact that I was running 20 minutes late for work.

 

oddly enough, i've been getting no arrows between 45-55 extremely often lately (my commute is almost entirely 50 MPH speed limit)... they usually don't last terribly long (maybe 1/8-1/4 mile), but even when it's not lasting too long, it just tends to fluctuate slightly, giving me periods of nothing interspersed with extremely short periods of green and yellow.

Now i just need to find someplace to live thats actually on a lake so i'm not constantly putting my kayak on top of the car... it just kills my mileage.

 

Dulcimer, since you are a brand new owner, before you start to worry about the arrows and what they are doing, take the time to just drive the car for a full tank or two. Just get a feel for how it drives. Then go to John's Site and read everything he has created. After that you will have a much better understanding of what the car is doing. Don't hurry to make the glide or do pulse and glide, that can wait a little, you have a long time ahead of you to work with your Prius.

Wayne

 

Having had a really long week at work, and having just read this entire thread, I think its pretty cool that this topic, lingo, and overall discussion would mean absolutely nothing to non-Prius owners......... coasting, gliding, pulse, etc............. its sort of like we have a different language in which others can understand the words, they just dont understand the meaning. Thought its pretty cool to be with you guy and gals in this club, thats all...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(eagle33199 @ Jul 28 2006, 09:36 AM) [snapback]293790[/snapback]</div>

That can't be that tough - you're surrounded by 10,000 of them! What would really be cool is if your work was on the other side of the lake or river, then you could kayak right in! Ski over in the winter.

I'll be going back home on vacation to northern MN in a week and a half. Can't wait! Better practice up on my Minnesotan though. People here think the 'a' in flag rhymes with flack. So a fella starts to forget how to talk there then. Could get flustered trying to buy pop and end up with cream soda and forget the boughten pizza. Uff da!

Well now, did I get off-topic? Thinking about vacation will do that to you, I guess. On the bright side I'll drive my Prius there.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dulcimer @ Jul 28 2006, 04:30 PM) [snapback]293977[/snapback]</div>

Dulcimer,
I have had my Prius for four months now and I have not had too much luck with warp stealth as I have trouble finding places to use it. I know of four places to and from work where I do use it and helps to give me a 99.9% 5 min reading.
In order for it to work you need to be on a road that you can legally drive 55 or above and then are able to slowdown at least 10 mph. Here in Houston there is not too many places you can do that.

 

who cares what it is if it's 99.9 MPG?????????????

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dulcimer @ Jul 30 2006, 12:36 PM) [snapback]294661[/snapback]</div>

You love it now. Just wait until you and your husband find out how it is so easy to modify some of the little annoying things. Like the reverse beep :angry: or I bet soon you will want to be allowed full function of the Navigation system :huh: , or the phone system :blink: , from the passenger seat. Or how about anytime reverse camera, just for grins , or EV only mode so you can sneak up on your friends at the grocery store parking lot. All of these can be done for five bucks total. B)

Don't worry, with this car Christmas isn't over yet. Most likely, there is a lot more to love about this car you haven't even seen yet.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(edselpdx @ Jul 27 2006, 07:40 PM) [snapback]293604[/snapback]</div>

Sonya, Sonya, Sonya...you have not learned the FIRST lesson about PriusChatters yet have you? You really think you need to issue that sort of invitation??????

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rangerdavid @ Jul 28 2006, 05:11 PM) [snapback]294060[/snapback]</div>

Welcome to the cult! B) DH thinks I've really gone over whatever edge I hadn't yet fallen off when I start quoting chapter and verse from the Holy Book of PriusChat... :lol: