On a trip from Tennesee to Florida I achieved 57mpg by drafting. A lot of the trucks have governors set at 65mph. You don't have to follow that close either. I just set my cruise and tried to leave 4 to 5 car lengths in front of me. Just use the accel-decel buttons to keep your distance from the truck.

 

I made an 1100 mile (or so) round trip to Albuquerque from Austin last fall. I think my overall trip average was about 42. The worst mileage was the long stretch on I-10 in west Texas. The speed limit there is 75 mph, and my mileage sucked on that part of the trip, even though I lost about 2000 feet in elevation.

On fairly frequent round trips to Houston, I set the cruise at 60 and get about 45 mpg. I don't know whether it's the prevailing westerly winds or the loss of 600 ft in altitude that causes the 2 mpg difference between going to Houston and returning.
Morgan

 

The HCH excels on long trips. If it's hilly, try slowing down to around 55 and popping into cruise control on uphill climbs, then on the downhill side, you might try slipping it into neutral now and then to get that extra glide and slower RPMs than with the car in drive. I got 52 mpg on a 600-mile trip earlier this week, and 58 mpg on the return segment. (Maybe I learned something along the way.) The HCH has been doing 45 mpg or so since that trip, as I've just been driving it around town.

 

Well Just returned on my trip.

Trip up. 65mph Cruise at night with no AC. 52.3mpg. Thats with 2 200lb people, and about 150lbs of cargo. I was very pleased.

On the Return trip. 70mph cruise, AC on same load, during the day with a little more traffic. 44.2mpg. All things considered. Not bad at all.

 

Good stuff. That's consistent with what I achieve in my 2005 CVT. I notice you have 17 inch rims -- care to let us know what rims you have adorned your HCH with, and what tires (and size) you are using?

There has been some discussion regarding the effects of different rim/tire combinations, and your input would be useful. Thanks!

 

I have Centerline Wheels, they are 11.73lbs ea. Lightweight Magnesium Lug Nuts, (1/3 the weight of stock lugs), and Continental Tires. 205/45/17. Overall the same diameter, and about 3/4 of an Inch wider. I also have the tires at 45psi. I havent noticied my mileage change much, it may have gone up a little in the city.

 

Bill, thanks for the great info! :-)

 

We just got back from a trip from Northern Indiana, down to Orlando, FL, to Talahassee, FL, and back to Indiana.... 39.5mpg and we were doing 70mph most of the time. Note this includes a good amount of mountain/hill driving, and we didn't really "try" too hard to keep the mileage up. Anything was better than the 13mpg our Durango would have gotten.

We did draft behind a semi a lot... a couple car lengths and you can feel the "sweet spot".. and you'll see the mileage soar up. Many times I was able to maintain 60+mpg at 70mph!

I'm not condoning drafting but think of physics.. let's say the semi slams on its brakes. Then you slam yours on. Who will stop first? Much risk of slamming into the semi?

 

As long as the Semi is not smashing into a wall, YOUR CAR can stop far quicker, assuming you are watching the road at the time and react in time to not rear-end the Semi !!!!!

 

The risk isn't so much that you can't stop faster than the semi. I've personally seen many picture of people who've had their car shoved under tractor trailers because the car behind them wasn't paying attention and slammed the leading car into/under the semi. The worst I saw was a WRX that was smashed under the back of one semi by another semi. The cab of the following semi was almost all the way to the trailer of the leading semi. Probably one of the worst wrecks I've seen pictures of. The guy in the WRX was on TV a few times because no one can figure out how he survived without a scratch.

Original thread when it happened last year