Quantum Leaps

Grumpy Bear · August 28, 2018

Part 9

I never know what the next 350 miles are going to be like. I might cover that distance in a few hours or it may be over several days. Only God can predict the future...even five seconds from now with absolute accuracy. I keep that in mind. I also keep in mind that my concentration will wain badly the longer I drive and it gets worse the older I become. I'm loosing that 'machine' like ability to ignore distraction and boredom in favor of steadiness of pace or even recognize subtle changes in my surroundings that should be setting off fireworks. A shift in wind direction or an up tick in traffic. So I rely more and more on building an early bank balanced against a reasonable expectation and a strong finish and just make peace with the soft center of the run.

It's a numbers game. A game of averages and partial sums. If you start your tank poorly then you spend the remainder 'catching up'. If you build a good early bank and have a reasonable target you have some to give away to the unexpected and errant concentration periods.

Your driving along a highway whose limit is 55 mph and come into a small town with a 45 mph limit. When and how to you slow? At towns end the speed limit rises again to 55 mph but it is a 3 percent grade for 500 feet followed by alike 2 percent decline over a two mile stretch. When and how to you get back to speed?

You can drive 150 miles and increase your average only two or three tenths of a gallon at tanks end. You can loose a five tenths with one angry stab of the pedal in five hundred feet. You have to game the game to win the game.

swathdiver · August 28, 2018

I press my cruise control + button 10 times as I enter the decline! I've noticed lately that the mileage lost going over a bridge/overpass does not come back on the descent, not all of it anyway. However, that depends on the speed and my wit has not been sharp enough to tell without writing it down whether it is more or less when driving faster or slower.

Grumpy Bear · August 29, 2018

22 hours ago, swathdiver said:

I've noticed lately that the mileage lost going over a bridge/overpass does not come back on the descent, not all of it anyway.

If it could what you would be describing is perpetual motion. It's not an illusion...you don't get all the energy back. The goal at best is to minimize the losses. Great observation!!! And to the point of post Part 9. Thanks.

swathdiver · August 29, 2018

I remember now. There is a particular grade on the highway I was doing mileage tests on, seven miles each way. Heading south first and then north, here's how the truck performed:

65 MPH = 18.9 and then 20.2

70 MPH = 17.8 and then 18.5

75 MPH = 17.3 and then 17.1

I've seen this before. Whereas previous runs showed better mileage numbers in one direction are reversed at a different speed. Traversing that grade at 75 there was less coasting, less time for coasting which resulted in the poorer mileage.

CadillacLuke24 · August 29, 2018

I know it should occur to me automatically, but it never ceases to amaze me how well a speed drop improves fuel mileage. If I'm cutting close a drop from 70 (highway speed limit around here) to good ol' 55 nearly instantly results in a mileage reward of 1-2 miles per gallon. Factor in a tailwind and a general elevation decrease and it may even be more.

I usually try to slowly roll up the grade, then I can coast down the following hill. With small towns I'll just disengage cruise and coast down to the speed limit, trying to time it so I hit speed when I pass the sign. My only problem is often when I see the sign to return to speed that's like the Christmas tree hitting green at the drag strip

swathdiver · August 29, 2018

I get 21 at 55. But I'd also get run over around here if I tried to run that speed, even with my truck! That's also an extra 14 minutes behind the wheel every sixty miles and a 1/2 gallon less fuel used. Being diabetic, I gotta time my stops! LOL

KARNUT · August 30, 2018

I just came back from a trip to Myrtle beach back to Texas. While out in the open I can travel 72 MPH ok, but in cities when the speed limit goes down the speeds go up. You better go with the flow or you will get run over. Except for Orange Texas for some reason people have a hard time going the speed limit or staying to the right. Atlanta Georgia during rush hour if you don’t go 85 MPH you’re going to die. I avoid hitting there at rush hour at all cost. As far as advertised HWY gas mileage I hit it at 70 MPH in my trip car Camry. Every MPH up it seems I lose a MPG.

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Grumpy Bear · August 30, 2018

One of those fellas that's always complaining how slow I drive. He's much much faster.

KARNUT · August 30, 2018

He probably parked close to an open field, and his soy based wire covering attracted little furry creatures that ate his wires.

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Grumpy Bear · September 18, 2018

Part 10

When Pepper and I first shook hands we struggled. I’ve never owned a vehicle where I couldn’t beat the EPA numbers with a fair amount of ease by just following the laws of common sense. Evidently Pepper goes to the same schools I did and knows there is no such thing as common sense, only common experiences. In Peppers language that was a fair number of miles driven for her brain (computer) to recognize my habits and learn my preferences. It was a happy coincidence then that the previous owner and I, a gentlemen older than I, were on the same page so she didn’t have to unlearn much of anything.

This truck has more bells and whistles that any vehicle I’ve ever driven and that’s saying a bunch for a base model. I had a steeper learning curve than she ever had and she’s a better student evidently. I’m still getting acquainted after 76,000 miles and learn something new every outing.

I started to wander if GM even had this truck tested individually or if they get a blanket certification for a group of like types of vehicles. The K2** models were quite new yet so Fuelly.com hadn’t a deep well of examples to judge performance against and what they did have was/(is) dismal. Far below the post EPA numbers. That in itself didn’t surprise me because I know a bit about the test and know there isn’t a person in a thousand that drives anywhere close to the that test sequence. Government is slow to catch on sometimes.

I, on the other hand, am that guy in a thousand. More conservative perhaps and why I normally have little trouble exceeding government generated fuel economy test results. Yet Pepper resisted vigorously. Oh I could get her to top those figures but I had to treat her like she was glass and with the sort of consideration the EPA never expected. She could wear me out on a day’s drive giving in to her demands. Demands that needed meeting if I expected ‘MY’ preferred results. I’m suborn like that. I can win a blink contest with a stuffed cow. I’ve spent over 40 around the clock days a year behind her wheel and that brothers and sisters is a long time to contemplate anything.

Argument over technique challenging everything including my sanity abound. I freely admit they are not everyone’s cuppa nor can her exact results be mimicked by the large majority of configurations. Results duplicated? Likely not but GOOD improvement in general is within anyone’s grasp that can stair down a live cow in their dreams.

The last 1364 miles consumed 42.61 gallon of fuel netting 32.0 MPG.

That is 33.33*% above the EPA highway number of 24 mpg for this truck. Her lifetime average is 59% above the national lifetime average. She will remain 25% over the EPA highway 24 mpg mark running 60 MPH!!!

Something she wouldn’t do at 45 mph when we started this journey. Major improvements just this year.

Edited September 26, 2018 by Grumpy Bear
Chart Update

Grumpy Bear · September 26, 2018

Performance is something everyone measures differently. Quarter mile times. Hill climb time and distance. Pulling distance. No idea how rock crawling is judged. Desert circuit times and distance. Circle track. Road Race. Whatever the test it's a race to be the best. In each endeavor there is the human element that directs development of the program and platform. The truck is just he score card for how those engaged execute their knowledge to the highest degree.

Guys will spend their entire life's means in pursuit of an incremental measure of improvement. No one laughs...this is serious business. Skip sleep. Ignore family, friends and health. The reward is never equal to the cost....ever.

There are two orphans that live in this house . Fuel efficiency and equipment longevity. The only two that have a payout that in the long run stand a snowballs chance of giving more than it takes. People are just wired weird.

KARNUT · September 26, 2018

I drive with an eye toward fuel mileage, I’m semi aggressive too. Add to that a little OCD. I don’t like to hold people up behind me a stop lights. I go a couple MPHs over on the freeway. Sometimes I still burn rubber. If my life revolved around maximizing my gas mileage I go bat crazy [emoji12]. One of the new features I’m seeing on some vehicles is after a trip you’ll get a display of fuel mileage, trip time, and average MPH. After you turn off the key. I have to close my eyes for a few seconds, or the competition with myself would drive me crazy. That’s leads me to wonder, is there anything you drive for pleasure? Or is everything a competition with oneself?

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Grumpy Bear · September 26, 2018

2 hours ago, KARNUT said:

I drive with an eye toward fuel mileage, I’m semi aggressive too. Add to that a little OCD. I don’t like to hold people up behind me a stop lights. I go a couple MPHs over on the freeway. Sometimes I still burn rubber. If my life revolved around maximizing my gas mileage I go bat crazy . One of the new features I’m seeing on some vehicles is after a trip you’ll get a display of fuel mileage, trip time, and average MPH. After you turn off the key. I have to close my eyes for a few seconds, or the competition with myself would drive me crazy. That’s leads me to wonder, is there anything you drive for pleasure? Or is everything a competition with oneself?

What a truly wonderful brace of questions. Thank you!

Well, I find my quest as pleasurable for me as a new personal best low ET did when I was drag racing or a low circuit time did when I road raced or a best in show when I did that sort of thing. They are the same challenge are they not? Extraction of perfection? But that doesn't answer your first query does it.

My Buick. I've never owned anything quite like it. A Caddy or Lincoln has nothing on a big Buick for cross country comfort. Matter of fact we leased a Rolls for a very short while and I don't see it as any more comfortable than Daisy. The Lacrosse is named, yes. That's pleasurable indeed.

My Electra Glide in the fall season traveling the back roads of our northern states during the leaf turn. Winding up the backbone of the Rockies. Crossing Canada's central plains in summer. Oliver does the eastern seaboard swimmingly. Ever see a bagger do the Dragon at full song. 318 curves in 11 miles. Trees to the pavement. Breathtaking. Who says you can't road race a bagger. (and live).

I love go-karting and small formula cars.

When I drag raced, for instance, I found that the other lane is irrelevant if you wish to win. Your competition IS with yourself. No one thing about a drag race has the other fellow a thing to do with. He didn't design it, build it, prep it, tune it nor is he behind the wheel when it's raced. He can't effect the outcome with his mouth or staging tactics. If one focuses on the relentless pursuit of "better" then eventually you will be the winner.....or not. I won my share but I admit I got more of a thrill from a new personal best ET or 60 foot or MPH than I even did holding a trophy. More than driving I loved the dyno room or the flow bench. The machine shop. The win is anticlimactic. If you win you did so before you left for the track that day. (baring a bone headed driving error).

Winning a race, even at a stoplight, is pure ego. But building the machine the wins them is pure creative bliss. Exploration of what matters and what doesn't...….now that's a felling. A very pleasurable one. As I age and my resources abate the hobbies become more cost effective. They have to. The focus changes as well to things more important than momentary pleasures.

Matt 5:3 “Happy are those who are conscious of their spiritual need.”

BTW Stan....you can't be any good at these sorts of things if you're not a little OCD now can you?

KARNUT · September 26, 2018

What a truly wonderful brace of questions. Thank you!

Well, I find my quest as pleasurable for me as a new personal best low ET did when I was drag racing or a low circuit time did when I road raced or a best in show when I did that sort of thing. They are the same challenge are they not? Extraction of perfection? But that doesn't answer your first query does it.

My Buick. I've never owned anything quite like it. A Caddy or Lincoln has nothing on a big Buick for cross country comfort. Matter of fact we leased a Rolls for a very short while and I don't see it as any more comfortable than Daisy. The Lacrosse is named, yes. That's pleasurable indeed.

My Electra Glide in the fall season traveling the back roads of our northern states during the leaf turn. Winding up the backbone of the Rockies. Crossing Canada's central plains in summer. Oliver does the eastern seaboard swimmingly. Ever see a bagger do the Dragon at full song. 318 curves in 11 miles. Trees to the pavement. Breathtaking. Who says you can't road race a bagger. (and live).

I love go-karting and small formula cars.

When I drag raced, for instance, I found that the other lane is irrelevant if you wish to win. Your competition IS with yourself. No one thing about a drag race has the other fellow a thing to do with. He didn't design it, build it, prep it, tune it nor is he behind the wheel when it's raced. He can't effect the outcome with his mouth or staging tactics. If one focuses on the relentless pursuit of "better" then eventually you will be the winner.....or not. I won my share but I admit I got more of a thrill from a new personal best ET or 60 foot or MPH than I even did holding a trophy. More than driving I loved the dyno room or the flow bench. The machine shop. The win is anticlimactic. If you win you did so before you left for the track that day. (baring a bone headed driving error).

Winning a race, even at a stoplight, is pure ego. But building the machine the wins them is pure creative bliss. Exploration of what matters and what doesn't...….now that's a felling. A very pleasurable one. As I age and my resources abate the hobbies become more cost effective. They have to. The focus changes as well to things more important than momentary pleasures.

Matt 5:3 “Happy are those who are conscious of their spiritual need.”

BTW Stan....you can't be any good at these sorts of things if you're not a little OCD now can you? [emoji12]

Right on brother, with the exception of motorcycles, pretty close to my past. I was not disciplined enough to ride.

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Grumpy Bear · September 26, 2018

6 minutes ago, KARNUT said:

Right on brother, with the exception of motorcycles, pretty close to my past. I was not disciplined enough to ride.

Best decision you could have made then. I have a deal with Oliver. I go out and we shake hands. If it doesn't "feel" right that day....

Keeps you alive and in one piece. I've ignored that feeling a time or two and broken bones and lost summers in a halo was the result. Nothing wrong with a "man knowing his limits".

One of these days I would like to take a summer and tour the USA in a 29 Model A.