It took 31 tanks but I finally did it. After 800.4 miles I filled the tank with 15.59 gallons for a calculated 51.3 mpg (52.2 displayed). Despite having 240 miles of freeway driving (normally a detriment to my FE), this was my best yet. -Ed

 

Congratulations! I'm not surprised that you did it. I routinely follow what you and Nash have posted on the database. Your recent numbers convinced me that you would be the first to do it.

You said that you normally suffer from freeway driving. My best tank (47 mpg), I had 80% freeway driving. I find that a long drive on the freeway followed by 4 or 5 miles on the surface streets will consistently net me 50+ mpg.

 

Very very cool. Soon, hybrids will have a combo oil change/fuel fill at 5000 miles.

 

Great Job!!! I am still trying to reach my first 700 mile tank doing at least 80% freeway driving to work daily. I knew this would be possible because on my last tank I had the display at 40.5 mpg and I had covered 655 miles filling up with 16.3 gallons of fuel.

Did you take any pix??? Please post them up...Thanks!!

Congrats once again!!!

 

Congratulations! I hope to hit 800 miles on a tank eventually. 51 is just amazing for the TCH. I've managed to hold 51mpg for half a tank, but it seems I do enough short city drives on the weekends to hold my mpg in the mid 40s.

 

This is all insane!!
I find it very hard to believe that you get the kind of mileage.
I just finished a 3000 mile trip on intersate highways and 35mpg was about as good as I could get. In town I get about 33mpg. I've aired up my tires to 40 psi, changed to 0-20 oil. If I try real hard, I can get about 36 or 37 in town but to do that, I find myself driving like an old blue haired lady!

How can your milages be so much higher???

 

Nice. I just refilled this morning (stupid errands over the weekend dropped my FE from 43.1-2 after Friday's afternoon commute, down to 42.7 by the time I refilled!), got my highest tank yet--669 miles, 16.438 gallons. I _could_ have made 700 miles but I'm glad I stopped there because I wasn't expecting to be able to put so much gas in. And another gallon.. would be pushing it.

I've started going _off_ the highways. After I started doing that for summer traffic reasons and saw my FE climbing day after day, even over 40 mpg and well over halfway through my tank, I decided I had to try at least one tank going solely cross-country to see what I could really get for a tank going consistently off-highway. Today, gas station to work, came in at ~47.5 mpg, though that's after the warmup period.

Though today I also lost some to having one of those less-broiling days when for some reason (purely temperature??) I couldn't get it to drop right back into EV mode without either a complete stop or pushing it up to 40 mph. Wasn't until I was almost at work, at least 12 miles of driving, that it started freely going back and forth. So till that point I was wasting gas when I was stuck on a strip where I couldn't get past 30 mph, but had no reason to burn gas. I still don't understand how it happens. What I want is a manual override (or at least suggested-override? hehe) to tell the car _I_ want to switch to EV mode now, and unless you have a serious reason to keep burning gas, change now!

Anyone else in favor of this as an upgrade? Hehe.

 

The TCH will not switch over to full hybrid mode (that's what I call it) until the engine is warmed up AND it idles (idle or go under ~5 mph) for about 8 to 10 seconds and stops the ICE. Because the TCH also stops the ICE when coasting around 35 - 40 mph, I mostly stop with the ICE off. This prevents switching to full hybrid mode.

What I often do now after the TCH is warmed up, is to 'restart' the ICE at a long light to let it switch into full hybrid mode. Just blip the gas pedal while keeping your foot on the brake and the ICE will restart. About 8 - 10 seconds later it will shut back off if the ICE is warmed up.

Once in full hybid mode the ICE shuts off anytime the TCH coasts at any speed under 40mph after only 2 or 3 seconds. Only if the battery SOC drops too low, or the ICE temp drops too low will the ICE stay running.

 

Location,Locaton,Location.

I live on the west coast of Florida where the elevation differences between the freeway and the parallel roads are basically the same. Given that, I find that it's always best to take the road that lets me cruise at 45-50 mph. My fuel consumption at 50mph in the heretical mode is usually about half (.5-.6gph) compared to cruising at the same speed while not in this mode. I takes me a little longer to get where I want to go but I never sit in traffic jams.

Some other things I do are:
1. Never use the cruise control ( I do better without it). Go fast down hill and slow uphill
2. Avoid using the A/C. I have the darkest window tint allowed in this state.
3. Only use the EV mode unless I'm positive I can recharge the battery i.e. coasting, braking, going down hill. The only time I use it for the sake of using it is during the last 2 miles of the trip.
4. Freeway speeds never greater than 65mph.
5. 87 octane Shell gas works for me. Since using Shell exclusively, I've never had a tank below 47mpg. There's alot of debate on this one.

I guess there's nothing very remarkable about my list. But I must say that the single best way to obtain high mileage is the 45-50mph "energy re-circulation mode". There is absolutely no way I could get this kind of mileage without it. It will almost double your mileage for any given segment of road.

 

I will point out that brands of gas don't necessarily mean a lot. Maybe the additives going in to meet the particular brand's requirements, but my father worked at a major oil company's tank farm where ships came in to unload, and trucks came in to pick up loads of gasoline, heating fuel, etc for deliveries. And oil companies frequently provide fuel to other companies, back and forth, as needed.

And on my fantasy override button--who knew?? They have that exact capability--on at least some Priuses and (according to a board on another site) the 08 Highlander Hybrid? Where's mine?? Hehe.

Well so far current tank after 3 one-way commutes (from yesterday morning's refill) I'm down to 46.x mpg. Looking forward to finding out what I can do on a whole tank off the highways.

It's odd though how different people find their great mileage in different ways--some get it mostly on the highway (my interstates are too hilly to get great mileage but even then I can get up to 40ish either direction on a good day), some off the highways... I'm still trying to figure out the deal with "heretical mode" so not sure where that fits in.

But hoping for a tank in mid-40s! Problem is one bad day of errands could use enough gas to drop my whole tank's average. :\