Improving fuel efficiency with heavy vehicles
I receive a publication for the heavy trucking industry's fleet operators and the current issue had an article on 121 ways to save money on fuel. Many were applicable to RV users, some are obvious and...
Forum Discussion
A couple of buddys who are engineers and I were just out of college, and decided we wanted to try experimenting around with various technologies to increase the fuel mileage on a gasoline powered Ford Focus far beyond normal expectations. We even got a small grant from Chevron who furnished some engineering help.
We over inflated the tires for less rolling resitance, disconnected the drive for the alternator, power steering and A/C...adjusted the brake pads not to drag on the disks, waited till the morning air was icy cold and dense, taped off all the cars seams, removed rear view mirrors, wipers and trim that created drag.
We also installed some air flow wings and devices and re-programmed the engine management systems.
We calibrated the fuel tank, filled it with precisly 10 gallons of un-leaded gasoline...and drove the car.
After exactly 2 miles the fuel tank overflowed!
We over inflated the tires for less rolling resitance, disconnected the drive for the alternator, power steering and A/C...adjusted the brake pads not to drag on the disks, waited till the morning air was icy cold and dense, taped off all the cars seams, removed rear view mirrors, wipers and trim that created drag.
We also installed some air flow wings and devices and re-programmed the engine management systems.
We calibrated the fuel tank, filled it with precisly 10 gallons of un-leaded gasoline...and drove the car.
After exactly 2 miles the fuel tank overflowed!
