Excellent work, Joe! Nice to see your Ridge is performing well. I've only got 4,000 miles on my RL, and 20.5 is the lowest I've gotten on the highway. Highest I've gotten is 25.5. I'm hoping the mileage will improve as I approach the 10,000 mile mark. I'd like to think I'll get the kind of mileage you're getting. Thanks for posting your results.

 

I agree that you can get better mileage with your right foot than with the cruise control. Give yourself a +/-5mph window to keep from downshifting. The cruise is more like +/-2mph.

 

Great to hear.... I also have made some serious driving habit changes and have seen decent improvements.

I too try to stay within 5 mph of the speed limit. I also have tried to slow my acceleration, within reason. I changed my air filter a month ago and changed to synthetic oil a couple of weeks ago and just saw 19.6 mpg filling up yesterday on my regular commute that generally sees 17 mpg per tank.

I guess my only difference is that I still try and use cruise control when traffic allows. Maybe I should try and cut that out if what I'm hearing is it doesn't help.

Anyway, thanks for sharing csimo...

 

It takes more work and concentration to keep the transmission from downshifting. Sometimes I just don't feel like it, so I don't do it.

 

On really long trips, I use the cruise and control it... It does take less concentration to use the cruise buttons instead of your leg... Try it out....

I find the RL sweet zone is around 69mph. Less then that and it will downshift more often then it should.

 

I have seen about a 40 miles per tank improvement by setting the cruise control @ 79 mpg instead of @ 85 mph. On flat ground like here in Illinois, the cruise control keeps the rpm's steady over what I could do.

 

csimo...was this on E10??

 

Yes, E10... that's all we have in my state (unfortunately).

 

I didn't expect to get above 22.5MPG so the results were a pleasant surprise (especially since I was burning E10 fuel).

csimo...was this on E10??

Happy to help...

 

Happy to help...

Wise a$$!

 

I tend to have better luck with the cruise set on the Interstate. When I'm on 2-lanes, the foot seems better for keeping "Grade Illogic" from kicking in.

On the E10 front, I got 21.7 mpg on a 320 mile run using "normal" Chevron (at least no E10 sticker on the pump) & 21.4 mpg on the same trip using labeled Chevron E10. There are too many "confounding variables" involved for me to attribute the 0.3 difference to 10% ethanol. But read on...

I've found that A/C is the biggest difference. The driving I just described was early morning & I didn't need to run the A/C. With the air on (same trip this past weekend), I got 18.8 & 19.3 mpg on the same drive. Ironically, E10 got the higher mpg on that trip!

As they say, YMMV!

 

I had an immediate loss of 2 MPG when A/C went on 2 weeks ago. On my second RL and both have almost identical mpg performance so I can assess that it is the driver and not the RL that causes good or bad MPG. My 90/10 local/highway is at 16.0 mpg (A/C impact included).

 

I'm still only getting between 15 and 16 MPG on my truck and it's got over 13,000 miles on it so I know it's broken in. I've adjusted my driving habits, keeping the RPM's under 3000 as much as possible, using cruise control set a couple of miles under posted limit for long drives and tried my best not to enjoy the sound of my magnaflow exhaust by putting the pedal to the metal. Outside of daily use of the A/C (give me a break, it's 115 degrees outside) the only other thing I can think of is that rear speaker system may be a lot heavier than the stock rear seat configuration. I'll know better in a few weeks when I get it out and reinstall the stock seats. (Of course, I'm also heavier than the average driver, but I'm working on it.) The airbag suspension could also be adding some extra weight, but I don't think it's enough to cause my mileage to be as low as it is compared to other trucks.

 

If you can keep it under 2500 for all shifts you should save another 2mpg.

 

Crap....I'm already getting the finger from other drivers trying to keep it under 3,000.

Oh well, it's worth a try.

 

I'm thinking of making a bumper sticker for my truck that reads...
"Leave me alone... I'm Hypermiling !"

 

LMAO!!!!!!!!

 

One of things about mileage that I really resent is the implication by some on the forum that any low fuel economy figure is exclusively the driver's fault. In my case, nothing could be further from the truth. This vehicle is the first one I have ever consciously and concertedly applied the techniques that Joe lists in his post. They do work, helping improve my fuel economy by 1-2 mpg to 16-17 mpg today from the 19mpg at less than 20k miles that I used to get. Long Live the Ridgeline Lottery!

 

Long Live the Ridgeline Lottery!

I 100% agree that not all mileage is equal. It's extremely hard to compare 2 different driving scenarios to two different Ridgelines. The differences could ainclude load in each truck, road conditions, tire pressure, outside temperature, oh heck, there could be a million variables to take into account. That's why at this point I've stopped comparing what others are getting and and using my historical mileage as my baseline for improvement. What my commute is compared to your commute are probably two entirely different things so why would we compare mileage? How could we compare mileage?

I'll just take info like Joe provided in this thread and apply it to my own data. I won't expect to see 20 mpg but if I also recognize a 1-2 mpg increase, I say it's a success....

Now as to why your mileage has dropped that much over time, there has to be a reason. We just don't know what it is.... I know, I'm brilliant when it comes to stating the obvious...

 

Thanks Joe, finally a positive MPG thread!!

 

geotech, I'm 100% with you. It can't all be the driver. It just can't.

Some guys have consistently gotten 24.x and 25mpg on the highway. I've never done better than 22.

The lottery lives.

 

I get terrible mileage around town. Can't get out of 3rd gear due to speed limits and traffic signals. Have seen 14 a few times. Out on the road I usually see in the 20's. Best was with the '06 I saw 24 one time. The new '08 has shown me 23 two times, all road miles with A/C.

 

I keep the RPMs in the 2500-3000 RPM range during acceleration and it's respectable for a 4500 lb truck.

Where I find the vehicle lacks giddy-up is when you are in tight highway traffic and you get the accordian effect. The truck takes time to catch up unless you mash the pedal and cars gap me and then people pull in front of me unless I play the game. Makes fuel coservation next to impossible.

 

Where I find the vehicle lacks giddy-up is when you are in tight highway traffic and you get the accordian effect. The truck takes time to catch up unless you mash the pedal and cars gap me and then people pull in front of me unless I play the game. Makes fuel coservation next to impossible.

I aggree, the truck lacks that certain "jen a sa quois" when it comes to stop and go, keep up with the pack performance. Since I try and keep a good distance between me and the driver ahead of me, I'm well used to cars and trucks thinking a single car space in slow traffic is an invitation to jump in line.

 

I just finished a little experiment this past week. Not real lab type scientific or up to par for the Mythbusters, but pretty controlled and easily repeatable.

1 - I put my tires at 35 psi cold (a little hard but not dangerous)
2 - ran without the A/C when possible
3 - Did all city/urban driving (45-50 Mph max)
4 - Kept the RPMs at or below 3000
5 - No jack rabbit starts and no panic stops
6 - When sitting at a stop light, or drive through more than 10 sec, turned the key off to acc position

No coasting in neutral down hills or anything too drastic or scary!

Before I started I let the low fuel light come on, then ran it dry. I had exactly (measured from the local shell station pump) 10 gallons of unleaded regular 87in a plastic gas container. I dumped the 10 gallons in, and ran it again until it ran out.

Results: 173 miles on 10 gallons = 17.3 MPG!

Not too bad. The Ridge is a new 08 with 3500 miles on it.

I think I can tweek that even a little more, probably to 18. Next chance I get it's the same test but on the interstate at 65 to see what the highway MPG will be. This proves to me that if you drive reasonably and occasionally run the A/C,and save a little of the idling gas, you can do pretty good.

I wonder what it will get when it's broken in at 10k or so?

 

Seen 22.4 once.. next closest is 20..

I'm driving around a F250 diesel that's averaging 17.1, which is about a one mile over my last tank in the ridgeline.. Kinda depressing that it gets similar milage, considering I could pull a house of it's foundation and not even turn the a/c off and my ridgeline is pissed off if I pull a car on a tow dolly.

 

Just drove up and down the Garden State Parkway here in NJ over the weekend four times and averaged around 18.56 MPG (mostly highway driving). Used Cruise Control as much as possible, unless traffic conditions made it not feasible to do so. Factoring in traffic congestion, under perfect conditions, assuming closer to 19 MPG.

Still driving my leased '06 RTS. Oil life indicator 60%. Just passed 32K miles. Haven't checked tire pressure in awhile. Beginning to think this RTS is "broken in" since the mileage seems to be getting better. I do mostly city driving to work, so to be fair, I am hurting at 15.6 MPG most of the time, but just wanted to contribute to this thread; haven't done a lot of highway driving in awhile.

 

My return trip did not yield quite as good results. I "turned and burned" my way back home. 23.1 MPG.

Total trip was 1068 miles.

 

I have yet to head home - I am in NC total trip 1480 miles tires at 37 psi cold
1st tank 22.8 mpg (100 miles into the trip )
2nd tank 23.3 mpg
3rd tank 22.7 mpg ( this included driving around Dublin )
4th tank 23.4 mpg
5th tank 21.8 mpg ( mountains of W VA on I 77 scangage showed 7 to 99 mpg)
6th tank 22.4 mpg

we stopped for gas about every 250 miles ( bladder relief distance )

Used the cruise control whenever possible and did the speed limit ( never more than 2 mph over ) Average speed was 62.4 mph

 

I've had two 24+ mpg this summer. I think my dealer left my tires a little over inflated because I just checked and they were 37 psi cold. I don't think this last 24+ was a fluke because the two tanks before it were 23.1 and 23.6 mpg.

 

With 5 fill-ups to and from the national meet and the local driveing around Dublin ect. all mileage checks were 23+ MPG.

 

Finally home 2588 miles

tank 7 22.1 mpg ( includes 100 miles in Raleigh )
tank 8 21.9 mpg ( going up the mountains on I 40 NC )
tank 9 20.9 mpg ( 100% 70mph on I 40 in TN e10 gas )
tank 10 20.7 mpg ( 100% 70mph more mountains AR e10 gas)

cheapest gas 3.67 Joplin Mo
most expensive 3.98 Dublin, Oh
average cost 3.85

the 10% ethenol gas did get 2 mpg less that then 100% gas gas.

 

Thanks Larry, long way across Tennessee!!

 

I've decided to reveal the secret to high miles per gallon. What I do is open the back window and then turn the fan on to maximum. The open back window reduces drag and the fan pulls the Ridgeline foward through the air.

 

Have you been hanging with Voices ?