Hi AZCivic:

___In Hot_Georgia_2004’s case, I believe he is running ICE’less in the middle of the night on an empty road for the most part. I remember him telling us about how he is stealthing past a particular speed-trap with the officers sitting there not knowing what the heck he is doing while coasting down the slope at the speed limit Hot_Georgia_2004, please update the rest of us about your particular drives details in this regard …

___I use Forced-Auto-Stop under a specific set of conditions that might help you as well? There is an off-ramp here in IL. from I-55 to I-294 just W of Chicago where there is a single lane, 30 miles per hour limit, ~ 50’ overall elevation drop by the time you hit the toll-gates from the start of said off-ramp. If you hit the off-ramp at ~ 50 miles per hour, when you hit the single lane just a ½ block or so away, you have already shut down the ICE and rebooted and you can coast all the way to the tool booth ~ 1/2 a mile away without burning a drop. When I hit the peak of the ramp, I am traveling ~ 30 miles per hour and coast into and through the Toll-booth at ~ 18 miles per hour which is perfect for my I-Pass transponder to get the toll gate open as I pass through it without touching the brakes. A turn of the key and I am back on the ICE to accelerate down a small hill and onto I-294 another ½ mile or so away. You can imagine the fuel savings vs. regen which would slow you down well before getting to the gate and you would have to again reaccelerate or simply coast w/ the ICE running for that length of time while in neutral. A description as to how everyone else takes this ramp … Everyone has to coast some amount through this ramp but most run 55 miles per hour up to the sharp end of the turn and hit the binders down to 20 miles per hour or so and then accelerate up to the small peak and coast into the toll-booth with a hard set of binders again just at the booth. You cannot stop those that do not know better but you can follow the speed limits while burning nothing with careful timing.

___The real place that Forced-Auto-Stop works extremely well is in a traffic nightmare of crawling stop and go when your Auto-Stop logic is not been made up. HCH’s in particular can take advantage of this given Honda’s skewed logic for them. If you are on top of a hill/overpass/whatever and Auto-stop hasn’t been invoked, force it using the methods described and simply coast down the shallow hill with a large enough buffer from the car(s) in front of you to barely use your un-assisted mechanicals if you need them at all. There are many places out on I55 with these long down slopes and anytime I get caught in the numerous back-ups on the morning or afternoon commute home, I use this method with stunning success right into the troughs and start the ICE up again for the slow climb to the next peak. You are usually coasting along at < 10 miles per hour and you have full brakes and steering although not-power assisted. I also use it in heavy stop and go on the flats when the logic is not quite made up as well but with the buffers, I do not have to use it that often. This is only to be used in warmer temps (> 50 degrees F) as the coolant temp loss on a long coast is awfully burdensome to high FE afterwards as you can well imagine.

___The above is not to be used in a situation where “Driving w/ Load” is the more appropriate technique but only if you are crawling with an elevation potential to take advantage of, if you will be stopping due to traffic or obstacle after some reasonable coasting distance has been traversed, if you are literally parked in a traffic jam for a period of time and Auto-stop has not been invoked, or if you simply have a very long and slow descent with no one in the way. You might find this situation appear at a particular lengthy light that you may have missed its timing as well. I have one of these lights in front of a large mall I have to drive though every day so when I screw up, Forced-Auto-Stop saves the segment a small but significant enough amount to make it worth performing imho.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net