My FEH and the Blizzard of '06
 

No matter where you live, you know Denver, and Colorado has been in
the news lately, and you know why.

2 days ago I was stranded due to heavy snow.
No, my FEH did not get stuck, but the Interstate I was traveling on
was closed, and I was 100's of miles from home.

I ended up sleeping in my FEH, in a (deserted) church parking lot, in
the middle of a near record snowfall.

Outside temperatures were in the 20's.

I slept for 5 hours with the car running... or should I say,
"cycling". I had the heater on, with blower set to low ( #1 ).
My FEH would run for 3 minutes or so, then turn off for 3 minutes or
so... all night long. With heater on a gentle setting, and passenger
seat fully reclined... I was VERY comfortable. I slept soundly. And I
felt very safe. You need to be careful of carbon monoxide in such
situations, but #1 there were 20-30 MPH winds outside, blowing away
any tiny amount of fumes this very clean car produces, and #2 my
engine was turned off every 3 minutes, creating zero emissions for the
following 3 minutes.

Best of all, this 5 hours of "idle" time used up only about 3/4
gallon. When I parked for the night, my MPG was at about 30 MPG for
150 miles of previous driving. When I woke up, my MPG only fell to 26
MPG. ( still 150 miles since I hadn't moved )

150 miles / 30 MPG = 5.00 gallons ( before parking )
150 miles / 26 MPG = 5.77 gallons

This was a very practical use of "Hybridality" .
At a rate of 1 gallon per 6 hours, this car can provide a safe winter haven for a long time if you have a nearly full tank. Also, and
equally important... with inverter technology, this car could provide
electrical power also for a similar number of hours. (6x15= 90 hrs)

FYI, I was driving from Los Angeles back to Denver after the
Holiday... and the 1200 mile trip took me 45 hours. I had snowy
conditions from Las Vegas to Denver. While it didn't stick there, it
did snow in and around the Vegas area. By the time I was to Cedar
City Utah, there was 15" of snow on the ground. By the time I got
home, there was 30" of snow on the ground. Oh... I did have to use
'cable' type chains on the front drive wheels ( I have 2x4 ) for about
100 miles of black ice... and once, when the WIND pushed me off the
black ice and onto a grassy shoulder, the chains pulled me out
effortlessly.

Just thought you'd like to know about my Winter Hybrid Adventure.
-John

P.S. The figures are just "best guesses" but relatively close. I wasn't keeping notes, and I was in a semi-stressful environment. The "sleep" time may have been 4.5 hours, not 5, the miles could have been 160, and maybe, just maybe, the car was off for longer intervals than it was on. ( Maybe 3 on, 6 off, since I was not using any battery power other than the blower on #1, and perhaps the water pump... )

Re: My FEH and the Blizzard of '06
 

Neat, very.

Re: My FEH and the Blizzard of '06
 

Excellent story gpsman1.

The only thing I would caution readers about is that in some circumstances and in heavy snowfall, it's very important to make sure the tailpipe does not get buried by the snow. This could cause a backup of CO into the vehicle.

Good job.

Re: My FEH and the Blizzard of '06
 

Very cool.

Re: My FEH and the Blizzard of '06
 

HI JOHN

I had the opposite experience in a '92 EB Explorer going to the Florida Keys on Memorial Day that year. It was a split second decison, but we thought we could find a hotel to sleep along the way at Key Largo. It turned out, every hotel we stopped at in the Keys was booked up, all the way to Key West.

As we started our trip back home not finding a place to stay, we decided to park near a bridge where people were fishing to sleep. You could not sleep without A/C and roll the windows down because of mosquitos. We put our gear under the Explorer and layed down the seats for my two kids and one 8 month old baby (NOW 15YRS OLD) to sleep, and my wife and I slept in the front folddown seats with the A/C and engine running all night long. Like in your case, the wind was moving good, so the windows were up and we slept till early morning with the A/C on low.

The gas gauge had dropped overnight, 5/8 of a tank, nothing like your FEH. As I loaded things up and headed for Big Pine Key for breakfast at I HOP, we were not eat up by mosquitos and slept fine that night.

We survived and learned not to take a trip without a reserved hotel.

GaryG

Re: My FEH and the Blizzard of '06
 

Wow - thanks for sharing.

Re: My FEH and the Blizzard of '06
 

Hi Gary

next time let me know and we will find you a place and you can teach me how to drive my feh.

Ralph

Re: My FEH and the Blizzard of '06
 

Hi Ralph

Before I go down there, I will make sure I have a place to sleep.

The funny thing was, I didn't tell you about this happen to a coworker that same weekend. He had just bought a new SUV the week before. I had no idea, but when he started telling me about his experience, he started out telling me the same things that happen to us. It sounded like this. Me and my wife went to the Keys this weekend and we stopped at this hotel to stay at, and do you know what happen? I said, they were full. He then said he drove a little further and stopped at this other hotel, and he ask me, do you know what happen? I said, they were full also. He looked at me funny and said, how did you know that? I said it was not a good time to go to the Keys without reservation on Memoral Day. He then said he stopped at just about every hotel all the way to Key West and then ask me if I knew what happen. I told him he had to drive back home. He said yea, how did you know that? I just smiled. He said, do you know what we did then? I said you slept in the car. He said, yea with a very puzzled look on his face, he said we pulled into a campgound and paid to sleep in the SUV. I said did you leave it running all night for the AC to keep the mosquitos out? He really looked at me then and said, how did you know? I said did you stop at the I-Hop on Marathon Key (I remember it was not Big Pine Key as I stated earlier) to have breakfast? He said yea and fell out laughing saying how did you know all this?

I was his boss and didn't want him to believe I was that stupid also, but I went a head and told him.

As far as me showing you how I've learned to drive my FEH, no problem if you want to let me behind your wheel. Do you have the FWD? I go down all the time to fish and dive for lobsters, but I drive my '02 Explorer to pull by boat. I really want to get down there before lobster season ends April 1 this year.

GaryG

Re: My FEH and the Blizzard of '06
 

I was stuck in that same blizzard but in Clines Corners, NM. Driving back from Atlanta, GA to San Francisco, along I-40. Interstate was closed because the semi's couldn't get up the icy hill. Fortunately, I heard all this on the CB and knew it would be several hours. My dog and I kicked back and watched some movies and took a nap. I was worried about leaving the FEH running all night (I only had a half-tank of gas) so I would turn it off every once in a while but then leave the hybrid do it's cycling. I think I burned almost a quarter of a tank though (but there's that whole non-linear gas burning thing).

Good thing I had plenty of blankets and food and DVD's with me.

The thing I thought was amazing was that the state troopers were pulling people over that tried to cut across the median and go the other direction to get out of the snow. And I had a hotel reserved, but I couldn't get to it since the interstate was closed.