We need more MPG's!

I'm starting this post because i would like for members to post any idea's and proven methods to get more mileage out of our cars in the growing gas crisis.

things in the way of:

Weight Reduction-
Aerodynamics-

etc-

basically anything and everything from a weekend DIY project, to thories that some of us with time and money could test.

because i believe most of us are really not in a position right now to go out and buy a brand new tiny gas saver. i know alot of people are selling the big trucks and SUV's for little used cars, but there has to be a way to get more.

thank you

KB-

Mod Edit: All Caps – Please Review This Link.

Motorcycle

2nd

Try hypermiling.

here

For me I just pretend my brakes are on their last legs. Plan ahead and use them sparingly.

reply to post by BadBoYeed


yes a motorcycle would be good. would have to find a kids trailer for one though

reply to post by Kingbreaker


My V-8 ~ 1976~ 5 speed Cutlass S got 26 MPG and my 1981 VW pick-up got 52 MPG

What we really need is a better energy source.


Think about it.

How can the Elite like the Rockefeller control us and charge huge prices for oil and scare us into poverty with things like "Peak Oil" and the "population explosion" If we have acess to a good cheap energy source?

Energy is a prime requirement for civilization. Any where from animal muscle power to oil we depend on energy. We have had the solution for PEAK oil since the 1950's!

If you do a bit of poking around you find the Rockefellers aka Standard oil, funded a lot of the research on the medical problems from radiation poisoning. Also SOMEONE funded all those nuclear protesters here in the USA A Want Ad I saw in the 1985 Boston Globe said "Nuclear Protesters $10/hour"

The result: Everyone is scared to death of Nuclear especially the long term storage problems.

Again do a bit of poking around we find:

In the 1950s and 1960s, U.S. scientists ignored thorium, and went with uranium because uranium produces plutonium the key ingredient in nuclear bombs. Link

The Basics
.... This thorium fuel cycle carries with it a number of important natural properties some of which contrast sharply with the uranium fuel cycle:

-At no point in the thorium cycle – from mining to waste – can fuel or waste products be used as bomb material in any way;

-The thorium fuel cycle is inherently incapable of causing a meltdown according to the laws of physics; in nuclear reactor parlance, the fuel is said to contain passive safety features;

-Thorium-based fuels do not require conversion or enrichment – two essential phases of the uranium fuel cycle that are exceedingly expensive, and create proliferation risk;

-Thorium fuel cycle waste material consists mostly of 233-uranium, which can be recycled as fuel (with minor actinide content decreased 90-100%, and with plutonium content eliminated entirely);
-Thorium-based fuels are significantly energy efficient;

-Thorium fuel cycle waste material is radiotoxic for tens of years, as opposed to the thousands of years with today’s standard radioactive waste;

-Thorium fuel designs exist today that can be used in all existing nuclear reactors;

-Thorium exists in greater abundance and higher concentrations than uranium making it much less expensive and environmentally-unobtrusive to mine;


These facts have many serious implications for the efficiency and security of energy delivery in the United States, and the world. SOURCE

A Chronology of Nuclear History

Reintroducing Thorium: Chem & Eng News

...Even smaller reactors might be built. The molten salt may have a temperature of around 1,400°F, but as long as it can be contained by the best alloys, it is not really a threat. The small gasoline explosions in your automobile today are of a similar temperature. In the future, personal vehicles may be powered by the slow burning of thorium, or at least, hydrogen produced by a thorium reactor. Project Pluto, a nuclear-powered ramjet missile, produced 513 megawatts of power for only $50 million. At that price ratio, a 10 kW reactor might cost $1,000 and provide enough electricity for 10 persons/year while consuming only 1 kg of thorium every 5 years, itself only weighing 1000kg - similar to the weight of a refrigerator. I’m not sure if miniaturization to that degree is possible, or if the scaling laws really hold. But it seems consistent with what I’ve heard about nuclear power in the past.... www.thorium.tv...

ok i have a thought
i always wondered y they dont put batterys in the drunk of cars
use like 10 batterys an then use the 4 wheels on the car as generators to charge those batterys

or attach alternators to the wheels
an use the centrifugal motion spin the alternators to charge the batterys in the trunk
then the car would run on its own power an be electric

my thought anyways
an if someone invents this off my idea i want a percentage of the profit

i also saw a video about a guy that made a car that runs off of compressed air
looked like it was a great idea
but its still not taking off yet

reply to post by samkent


yeah i've read up on hypermiling, wish i had a manual car lol. but as far as death turns and such.. i would have to listen to the screaming of my wife all the way home after one such turn lol

reply to post by Kingbreaker

a good side car

reply to post by crimvelvet


yes, i know all about the standard oil thing, but obviously if the rockafellers/rothschilds ( i believe at some point their blood lines crossed) are worth 500 trillion i dont think anyone has the power to overthrow a family that can buy the world.

sooooooo thats why i ask about what us lowly peons can do to beat the pumps

another thing i was wondering about, a friend of mine owns a lawncare business, so gas is top on his mind of course. he was telling me how he managed to find a GS selling non-ethanol gas and that his mileage actually went up a couple points.

can anyone confirm or debunk this?

the "MythBusters" say if you learn to draft a semi truck you can increase mileage by almost 40%
Just make sure your life insurance policy is up to date before trying

reply to post by DaddyBare


yeah haha, really all you need is a CB and tune it to 19, find a company looking truck and ask him if you can borrow his slip stream for a little while. truckers can tell when a vehicle gets right up behind them, and they hate it.. unless they know your gonna do it.. then they can brace for the characteristic's change of the truck.. oh and company drivers dont have to pay for there own gas so you wont get a response like " hell i dont have anything in front of me to to get th same effect, why should i let you!?" then he proceeds to switch lanes lol

reply to post by Kingbreaker


back in the day when I was still a driver... and caught someone slipping in...
I would just tap the breaks and slow way down.... give them a close up view of my ICC bar.
(Trailers dont have bumpers so they use a bar to keep cars from going under)

reply to post by DaddyBare


yup, my dads a trucker, rode with him on a few runs, maybe because he was a trucker and knew what to say and how to say it was why a lot of truckers had no problem when we slipped in while heading to the beach or some other place lol

reply to post by Dyax-

i always wondered y they dont put batterys in the drunk of cars use like 10 batterys an then use the 4 wheels on the car as generators to charge those batterys

The first problem is WEIGHT. Batteries weigh a lot.

The Second problem is deep cell recharge. Depending on how far you discharge you may get about 2 years of life. see www.windsun.com...

The biggest problem is physics.

Energy exists in many forms, such as heat, light, chemical energy, and electrical energy. Energy is the ability to bring about change or to do work. Thermodynamics is the study of energy.

First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. The total amount of energy and matter in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form to another. The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation) states that energy is always conserved, it cannot be created or destroyed. In essence, energy can be converted from one form into another....

Potential vs. Kinetic energy Potential energy, as the name implies, is energy that has not yet been used, thus the term potential. Kinetic energy is energy in use (or motion).... www.emc.maricopa.edu...

What you are suggesting is to turn the kinetic energy from the moving car (rolling down a hill for example) into potential energy stored in the battery and then taking the potential energy in the battery to move the car back up that same hill.

There is just one little problem.

EFFICIENCY OF ENERGY CONVERSION

The efficiency of an energy conversion device is a quantitative expression of this balance between energy input and energy output. It is defined as follows:


.......................................................... Useful energy output
........................ Device efficiency =......Energy input


The key word in the above definition is ‘useful’....

................................................ TABLE 4-2
.....................Efficiencies of common energy conversion devices
Typical
Energy Conversion Device ........ Energy Conversion ....... Efficiency, %
Electric generator ......................... Mechanical/Electricity ............. 95
Electric motor (large) ................... Electricity/Mechanical ............. 90
Battery .......................................... Chemical/Electricity ................. 90
.
.

Electric motor (small)) .................. Electricity/Mechanical ............ 65
.
.

Gas turbine (aircraft) ................... Chemical/Mechanical .............. 35
Gas turbine (industrial) .............. Chemical/Mechanical ................ 30

In other words you will always lose energy as heat to the friction of the wheels and the friction in the motors and in the heat given off during chemical reactions.

There are no perpetual motion machines because of this.

In the 1980's Buick came out with the T-Type 2 door muscle car with a little engine with a turbo charger.

It had aluminum rear brake drums fitted with steel sleeves for the brake shoes to apply pressure against. This innovative design was HYPER cheap, got rid of heat quicker than any brake set up even today. The brake shoes also lasted longer since heat was dissipated so well.

GM ditched the design. They were losing money selling brake shoes, they make money selling parts...not automobiles.

Factory automobiles are NOT made to get the most MPG's. They are hobbled together to last just the warranty period, comply with Federal mandates, and give profits to investors.

If you want MPG's you have to modify the vehicles yourselves to get it. There are "races" that go on in America to see who can get the most MPG's from Prius's right now. I think 150mpg is the top recorded miles per gallon achieved thru modifying those vehicles and driving methods.

All Toyota Prius's sold globally have a button on the dash for "Electric Only" operation which disabled the gas engine. The United States mandated Toyota remove that button before they were allowed to export those vehicles to the United States.

You know why.

reply to post by Kingbreaker

another thing i was wondering about, a friend of mine owns a lawncare business, so gas is top on his mind of course. he was telling me how he managed to find a GS selling non-ethanol gas and that his mileage actually went up a couple points. can anyone confirm or debunk this?

It is true.

...34% less energy per unit volume than gasoline, and therefore in theory, burning pure ethanol in a vehicle will result in a 34% reduction in miles ... en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by Kingbreaker
another thing i was wondering about, a friend of mine owns a lawncare business, so gas is top on his mind of course. he was telling me how he managed to find a GS selling non-ethanol gas and that his mileage actually went up a couple points.

can anyone confirm or debunk this?

I can confirm it, I do the same thing. Ask any small engine mechanic and they will tell you business is way up since ethanol became widely used. I have a local station I use, they have ethanol free premium. It costs a bit more but the improved mileage makes up for it though. It is pretty common knowledge that if you burn e85 fuel (15% gasoline / 85% ethanol) your nifty "flex fuel" vehicle that gets 30mpg on gasoline will get about 20 mpg on ethanol. Cool huh?

It's actually pretty simple, here is a comparison of energy contained in a gallon of gas & a gallon of ethanol:

Ethanol energy content = 75,700 Btu/gallon
Gasoline energy content = 125,000 Btu/gallon

The best part is this:

David Pimental, a leading Cornell University agricultural expert, has calculated that powering the average U.S. automobile for one year on ethanol (blended with gasoline) derived from corn would require 11 acres of farmland, the same space needed to grow a year's supply of food for seven people. Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion into ethanol, 131,000 Btus are needed to make one gallon of ethanol.

Basically ethanol is GOOD for politicians, lobbyists and those receiving subsidies to produce it (that's right, you pay for ethanol even if you don't use a drop). But it is BAD for everyone else. Remember that when you are at the grocery store and see prices going up. About 70% of packaged food and drinks contain corn, don't take my word for it though. Read the labels and see for yourself.

The technology is there. And the automakers have it it's just the government not allowing it here in the states..

European Subaru Legacy 50+ mpg

UK Jaguar 47 mpg diesel

65 mpg Ford Fiesta. Not for sale in US

There are many more auto's sold in the UK that get far better fuel economy, although a majority of them are diesel's, they are not and most likely not going to be for sale here in the US..

this is why we need to come with ways to get better mileage, because us everyday people are getting the shaft from every side. and we dont get the cars running 40+ mpg anymore.. if ever geo storm and metro wasnt jacked up in price right now id buy one lol

i have a 04 dodge intrepid 2.7L DOHC ( definitely not my first choice of car) ... its SAD that this vehicle is getting about the same mileage as my 95 ford f-150 with the 5.0 so i understand how auto makers are not building cars the way they could