Interstate vs. secoundary roads?
I was wondering if driving the interstate using cruise countrol would save much gas verses the slow down, speedup of going thru towns? My truck seems to have a sweetspot towing of 63 mph.
Forum Discussion
christopherglenn wrote:
Your best mpg would be constant throttle, bleeding speed on the up hills, recovering it on the down hills. Ok constant throttle everywhere but the down hills, less throttle there to keep from speeding.
X2. Theory and personal experience on better mpg agree for me on this.
Besides mpg, if you want to get somewhere farther and faster and with less fatigue, and a bit better mpg, a freeway/highway is the better option. I only use CC on flattish stretches and if there's no buffeting winds. I keep to max. 65 mph too.
I totally love towing our TT on the secondary roads and have towed in places like through the Redwood forests in Cal., along the Oregon Coast, around the Olympic Peninsula and Hwy 2 from Seattle up Stevens Pass and on to Spokane, all of which have a lot of twists and turns, hills, speed limit changes, stop and go, and can be quite windy in spots. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess we lose up to 2 mpg at the worst. I just let T/H mode do it's thing. For me, I find that secondary roads can be a lot more fatiguing and I can't/don't drive as far and I usually try to make it a more leisurely drive and don't drive with a heavy foot on the throttle.
When I can see ahead that I need to stop or slow down, I try to gradually slow down and then gradually pick up speed again. A bit easier on brakes, drivetrain and mpg.
