6th gear and Scangauge

Just FYI, even though it may boost your mileage, drafting is a bad idea. At 70 mph, you're travelling about 103 feet per second. The average reaction time is about a 1/2 second from when you see something to when you actually decide to hit the brakes plus another quarter of a second to physically hit them. So you're looking at about 50-75 feet of travel when you start to apply your brakes. If you're within 40-50 feet of the truck/bus and it has to slam on it's brakes, you'll close that a lot of that distance before you can even hit the brakes.

It also doesn't give you time to get out of the way of any road debris or potholes or any of the crap that the truck may hit or let loose (e.g. a tire coming apart). Mythbusters did a test on a tire fragment coming off a truck and it flew through the air with enough force to go through the windshield.

The few dollars you'll save aren't worth the risk to your life.

 

IIRC, they had to aim the tread fragment at the windshield in a controlled test because the tire fragments never flew far enough to hit anything when the tire blew apart. Centripetal force or whatever keep the tire in the wheel well until bits just kinda tumbled out the side.

I saw that episode too with the pickup half buried and a single axle trailer sitting on the wheels. They couldn't even get the blow out to take out a guy on a bike next to the tire if I remember correctly.

Although I did have a laugh about their drafting episode where grant was terrified to be less than 50 ft back from a trailer. I had flashbacks to that one on the way to work the next day when I looked around on the highway and realized NO ONE left more than 1 car length between vehicles.

 

Good info PT. While commuting, I can over-gear (like 6th at 40mph) on the downhills and no-load situations, and pull 20 mpg consistently tank to tank now. Another tidbit for summer traveling is the 20 mpg barrier on the hwy seems to be about 67mph/2400 rpms, at least for me. Of course below that, can pull low 20's.

 

Despite my larger tires I can go to 6th @ 30mph. I'm usually in 6th on 79 coming out of Ithaca once I hit 30 and can accelerate up to 45 without down shifting. (I'm guessing you're familiar with how steep that hill is.)

I average 20mpg on the commute from NV to Ithaca each day too and I'm usually pushing 60-65 except for the small towns in the middle and a couple stops.

But then I didn't start noticing 20mpg until after I switched to an AFE Pro Dry filter. Before that my truck NEVER hit 20mpg for an entire tank, and only hit it for an entire day once driving out to Rochester and back along 96. Long, mostly flat, and able to do 60 most of the way. But now with the AFE I get 20 each tank unless I'm towing or running the AC a lot.

 

They were testing whether or not a motorcycle riding beside the truck was endangered by a sudden blowout. It wasn't as dangerous to the motorcycle beside the truck because the rotation of the wheel tends to send debris out along the plane of rotation. As for the size, you can see large chunks of tire on most freeways that didn't break up so there's no guarantee it will disintegrate. Even if it didn't go through the windshield, it could scare the crap out of you causing you to overreact with an abrupt maneuver.

Sitting one car length in traffic isn't as difficult behind another car because you can usually see through the windshield of the car you're following. So if something did happen, you'd have a greater chance of reacting to it because you could probably see the third brakelight of the car in front of the one you're following through the glass. You couldn't do that behind a truck. It's still dangerous though even behind a car. Bottom line, you severely reduce your ability to react when you follow too closely. I ride motorcycles so perhaps I'm just overly sensitive to it. Seeing some vehicle riding my a$$ at 70mph knowing he/she won't be able to stop in time is rather nerve racking.

Here's a summary of the Mythbuster's episode. They noted that 75% of all truck/car accidents are because the car driver was following too closely in the truck driver's blindspot.

 

I can fully understand that, and try to give bikes their space and pass when possible because I hate being behind them. One patch of gravel or whatever and they could be meeting my skid plate.

The thing I hate is the a$$holes on crotch rockets weaving through traffic with just a few feet or inches to spare, come up in the blind spot, and then pull an attitude when you don't see them. I realize they have the right of way and all that, but when I could run them over without stopping maybe they should drive a little better? (So I can resist the urge to run them over for real.......)

 

Unless he puts his turn signals on, it'd be an illegal lane change in most states. You'd probably hate California. Here it's legal to ride between two cars in adjacent lanes (called lane splitting). I believe it's the only state where it is specifically permitted.

It's great for getting through traffic jams.

 

I was thinking more like "good for getting squished". No offense, but if it's illegal for my car/truck to drive down the shoulder or median to get around traffic, then the same should be true for bikes. But then I think too many bikers think they own the road. Riding down the yellow line instead of the middle of their lane, riding between cars, etc. Doesn't help my road rage.....

 

It is illegal to use the shoulders or the emergency lanes, even for bikes. Believe it or not, studies have shown that that you're less likely to get squished riding between the lanes than you are sitting in stop-and-go traffic (rear-end collisions). I usually only split when the traffic is dead stop. When it starts moving, I get back in the lane. Most drivers out here are used to it, so it doesn't present too many problems. Many drivers will move out of the way to let you get by. It has to be done safely, of course. CHP will ticket you if you're going faster than 10mph above the flow of traffic.

Generally on a bike you don't want to ride down the middle of the lane. That's where all the oil and other slippery stuff usually resides.

 

I have an 08 4x4 i4 5 spd. First three tanks: 24, 24, 27 mpg average mileage. To answer your question, I'm sure I'm getting better than 26 mpg at 55mph.