With my Edge, I display Instant MPG along with Average MPG. I notice that when I get on the gas to accelerate from lights and such, my average does not take as much a hit as I would think. But when I fooh fooh it and try to feather the throttle easy to get to 60 mph my average takes about the same hit.

So, my question is - What is your experience? Is it better to use some throttle to get the truck moving or to barely touch it and try to idle up to cruise speed.

In other words, use a lot of gas for a short time - or - use a little bit of gas for a much longer time?

Let me know your results.

 

ampg is based on a much longer milage maybe as much as 150miles so it will change VERY slowly unless it was recently reset. A light foot is always better.

 

+1

Phil

 

This is what I believe also, that a light foot and gradual acceleration is the key.

However, my son has the SAME truck as me (5.4 SCREW) and averages 1.5 mpg more than me. And he gets into the throttle on just about every occcasion. He even has slightly larger tires, 285/75 vs 265/70

What gives?

 

Many people, me included, think that a "brisk" acceleration to get it up to speed and into to OD lockup (or 3rd lockup) ASAP, then off the throttle, is the better idea. A more open throttle has better BSFC than a less open one, so you are getting a little more work from the fuel that way. It's really hard to quantify, so I haven't gotten out the chisels to engrave it in stone yet, but I seem to slightly get better mileage that way (having tried it both ways). I drive mostly rural roads without a lot of stops, so I think a city driver might notice more improvement than I do (assuming I am correct).

BTW, I don't use the average MPG readout much. If I do, I reset it often (at least every tank). Long term, the mpg readouts never seem to match with my numbers from the conventional MPG checks. According to a programmer I know, the input data kinda "stacks up" and reads less accurately as time goes on, but even if I reset often, the programmer reads about 15 percent higher than the old mile/gal=mpg method. Yes, my tire size is accurately (and I mean ACCURATELY) entered into the unit.

I drive by the instant mpg and my "brisk" acceleration attempts to keep the readout above 5 mpg while I do it. If you watch, you'll see the mpg improve with each upshift at the same throttle position, so the less time you spend in the lower gears, the better. I back off a little at each shift too.

Deerhunter: The reason your son gets better mileage may be that he hasn't recalibrated the odometer to read correctly for the larger tires. With no odo correction, the truck will indicate fewer miles than actually travelled. That will cause any method of MPG monitoring to read higher than actual (electronic or the old fashioned way).

 

Duh...I should have caught that. I feel much better about the whole thing now. Thanks

 

Shouldn't the word higher in the last sentence be changed to lower?

 

To read higher MPG than actual is what I meant to say clearly, but didn't. If you divide the gallons by fewer miles, you get a higher MPG reading. And vice versa.