What will happen going from 58 MPH to 65 MPH to fuel mileage

[TeamCaffee]

Henry Albert posted a blog asking for comments about him slowing down from 65 mph to 60 mph top speed.

Henry's Blog

We are often asked what our truck will do if we were to speed up to 65 mph and we have decided to join Henry's test.

This is going to be a huge change for all of us as we have drove 58 mph for years and while 65 mph does not seem huge it will be hard for us to go that fast.

Henry is also going to have a difficult time slowing down to 60 mph and is worried about boredom!

We are going to start our test on Monday February 27th and you can follow our progress on our respective blogs.

TeamCaffee Blog

 

[OntarioVanMan]

Slowing down isn't easy..it takes discipline..I am a 61-63 guy myself...I know for sure i am getting great fuel mileage....I'd like to say that slowing down has saved me repair bills but there is no factual evidence to support the claim other then I've experienced very few breakdowns and have had very few repairs on my 05 Sprinter...still over 70% of OEM parts with 676,000K..with that said..I've recently over the last couple weeks upped the speed to 67-68....feels like I am speeding, I don't like it....not comfortable..and my MPG have dropped accordingly..so hence my profit margins...

 

[LDB]

I'm surprised you didn't go to 63 since that's the closest to the 62.6 limit in part of Canada and theoretically a half gallon of fuel from your prior speed. Good luck with it.

 

[jaminjim]

I'm thinking .2 drop in mileage. But the question I have is what drop will cause you to drop your speed?

 

[layoutshooter]

We prefer to stay between 57-62. We get our best mileage at those speeds. No reason to drive any faster, we seldom have any problem making pick up or delivery times. Staying under speed limits relieves a lot of stress.

 

[scottm4211]

We prefer to stay between 57-62. We get our best mileage at those speeds. No reason to drive any faster, we seldom have any problem making pick up or delivery times. Staying under speed limits relieves a lot of stress.

I agree. Learning to slow down is the best thing I ever did.

 

[TeamCaffee]

That is us in the past seven years the fastest we have done is coasting down a hill.... At 58 MPH we have had no problem being on time.

The experiment is to see what will happen to our fuel mileage at this speed and to see what a T/T will do after posting all of his fuel mileage at 65 mph.

Jim it is not going to take much for us to back down to our 58 mph or we might even experiment with driving at 64 mph 63 mph 62 mph and so on to see where the truck is happiest.

 

[greg334]

What about the sweet spot of the engine?

I found that dropping to ~58 lowered my milage from 10.3 to 10 but when I run the truck at 63 which is at the sweet spot of the engine, I get back up to 10.3. These are winter numbers - summer it is close to 11.2.

I drive the same route with the same load so I can count on accuracy.

By the way Leo the canadian thing is 65 limit, not 62.5

 

[scottm4211]

Ontario is 100 km/h or 62 mph.

 

[layoutshooter]

Ontario is 100 km/h or 62 mph.

Yep, and we do 59-60 and get blown off the highway by trucks that are doing far above 100 clicks. They always seem to have either Ontario or Michigan plates.

 

[scottm4211]

Yep, and we do 59-60 and get blown off the highway by trucks that are doing far above 100 clicks. They always seem to have either Ontario or Michigan plates.

I just hang out in the right lane and get 17mpg.

 

[layoutshooter]

I just hang out in the right lane and get 17mpg.

We average 10.5mpg, no matter which lane we are in! LOL!!

 

[greg334]

Ontario is 100 km/h or 62 mph.

Yes we all know that but how about 105?

 

[scottm4211]

Yes we all know that but how about 105?

All major hwys in Ontario are 100 km/h.

 

[scottm4211]

We're talking speed limit not speed limiters.

 

[LDB]

I think it's 100kph posted speed limit and vehicle speed limiters set to no more than 105kph but I haven't been in Canada for a long time and haven't been in the truck for longer and don't recall for certain on those numbers.

 

[layoutshooter]

I think it's 100kph posted speed limit and vehicle speed limiters set to no more than 105kph but I haven't been in Canada for a long time and haven't been in the truck for longer and don't recall for certain on those numbers.

Yep, speed limiters set for 65/105.

 

[mjmsprt40]

I found that settling down to 60 or below works well. I've had a tendency to be a leadfoot, and the gas-mileage numbers haven't been good ones. Now that I'm trying to hold it down, the mileage has come up noticeably. I'm getting 14.5 to 15.5 now on my Chevy, at high speeds (in excess of 70 mph) I was getting as low as 11.5 to the gallon. Gasoline is getting way too expensive to burn up that way, so I'll try to take it a little easier from here on.

 

[tryhours3191]

It will be interesting to see how this experiment turns out.

Sent from my DROIDX using EO Forums

 

[TeamCaffee]

Today will be my first day driving at 65 mph where applicable. My day will not start out using an interstate and I will not be able to use the cruise for the first 100 or so miles. Not being able to use the cruise and keeping my speed higher then I am used to is going to be difficult for me. I will see how it goes.

Henry Albert started on his trip to Laredo yesterday with his cruise set at 60 mph. He has a dedicated run and he knows where he usually is at certain times of the trip. He is struggling with boredom and changing his habits on where he normally stops for breaks. Henry has used his cruise more than he likes due to his natural habit of running a little faster.

We will both blog about the start of our test.

Henry Alberts Blog

It's a Teams Life Blog