I just spent a fair amount tuning my truck (6.0l Chevy 2500) to improve towing performance and gas mileage. I put a new chip in and also put a new air filter intake in. This helped my gas mileage about 20% on the highway and considerably less in town.
One of the other things I did was make sure all the crap was out of bed. I’d been driving around with folding tables, chairs, probably a couple hundred pounds of stuff. I could save even more by taking away the snow chains, but with winter coming I think I’ll leave them in.
This chart, from a Ricardo study shows what each 100 pounds removed will do for a vehicle’s gas mileage:
So my 200 lbs should improve my mileage by 1.4% in the city. Since I’m getting about 13 there that means I now get about… 13 )-:
But I’m sure it helps over a really long time, and it cost me nothing but a little sweat.
Alas, I think I may have made offsetting compromises. To help reduce wind resistance I put my Tonneau cover (weighing about 100 pounds) back on. This helps highway mileage but hurts city acceleration costs.
By comparison, though, just skipping one 100 mile trip would save me about 12.5% of my typical 800 mile driving in a month.
But that would cramp my style, so until buying gas hurts more, I probably won’t change my driving habits.
H/T Greenlings via Instapundit
October 31st, 2009 at 8:12 am
Another partial analysis. What would your savings be if you lived farther away from work/school/shop? Are you anywhere near the minimum cost of driving point? Sell one of three vehicles?
October 31st, 2009 at 8:29 am
4 vehicles! My main interest is doing stuff to save money that costs no lifestyle change. Lugging around less weight meets that, except for the winter chains (for instance).
Sure, I live 1/2 mile from work. No accident there. But not done to save money. Just to save my most valuable thing.. time on earth.