Road trip!

[Rusty]

With 15,335 miles on my Volt since December 28th, it's time to take old #95 on another road trip! When we first got the car we headed on a 3,500ish mile road trip from San Diego to Texas and back. Needless to say, my lifetime MPG average isn't stellar. It hasn't helped that after going through 4 EVSEs the car's had a month or so of running as a pure gasser. Adding to that a trip to the Bay Area, and many trips to LA and around the local mountains...

So starting tomorrow (Monday) we're off to Michigan! It should be ~2,500 miles out and ~2,900 miles back for a round trip of ~5,400 miles total. It's longer on the way back, because we're taking a slight side trip through Texas (and at these distances a 400 mile out of the way drive is only a short detour :- ).

How's my mileage been in my Volt so far? With 15,335 miles total distance my lifetime average is 71 MPG even with all the gas only driving. My average since we finished that first 3,500 miler is a respectable 100 MPG.

That trip odo's getting reset now...

It'll be interesting to see what range we get on the open road. I've been practicing my MM hypermiling on our numerous trips to LA, generally getting about 42-44 MPG. Our last trip to LA showed almost an exact 50/50 split between gas miles and electric miles over the 250 mile trip.

One side effect of that?

All the gas miles in the pulse, and the fuel consumption with it in MM, get averaged into your predicted gas range. So even though I've been getting mid 40s MPG, my car thinks I'm only getting low 20s on gas. So after filling up my tank tonight it thinks I have a gas range of only about 200 miles! That'll make range estimations a challenge 'till we figure it out on the open road...

[larry4pyro]

Check in and let us know how your doing on your trip!

[Jim Fallston Md.]

Hello Rusty, I am curious to know with that many gas miles have you noticed what your oil life sensor % reads. Inquiring minds want to know.

[Bob_Livonia]

Our last trip to LA showed almost an exact 50/50 split between gas miles and electric miles over the 250 mile trip.

Wow! How did you accomplish that? Multiple stops and charging along the way? (Nissan Leaf mode)

Have a good trip and a safe trip. I have 9,537 miles on Volt #2398 since April, of which 4,406 (46%) have been as an EV. My lifetime MPG is 70.1. And that's with climate control on COMFORT and no hypermiling.

I'm heading on another trip to babysit and chauffeur the grandkids, but we're going to need room for at least 5, so the Volt is staying home this time and we're driving the Yukon XL. We obviously won't get the 45 MPG we would get on a 500 mile round trip in the Volt.

[Bob_Livonia]

Hello Rusty, I am curious to know with that many gas miles have you noticed what your oil life sensor % reads. Inquiring minds want to know.

My oil life is at 76% after 9,537 miles, of which 4,406 have been EV (5,131 CS miles, engine not running all the time)

[wainair]

Have a safe trip!

[tfford]

Well, after almost 6,500 miles I'm FINALLY going to get to take a road trip this next weekend, albeit a short one, <500 miles, but that still beats just commuting to and from work. I plan on "playing" with MM and hope that my overall average for the trip is at least in the mid 40's.

We'll see.

[DonC]

Wow! How did you accomplish that? Multiple stops and charging along the way? (Nissan Leaf mode)

In case Rusty is off traveling and can't get back to you for a while, he's using MM as a form of "Pulse & Glide" on steroids. He starts in MM, then goes to Normal where he uses the battery, then back to MM. Repeat. The idea is the delta of RPMs needed to charge the battery in MM is sufficiently small relative to the gas saved when using the energy discharged by the battery. Making up numbers, driving in Normal might use one gallon of gas every 35 miles. Using his MM/Normal technique he uses one gallon for 20 miles but then gets to drive on batteries for 20 miles. That means he's using one gallon of gas for 40 miles.

I'm sure he'll give you more detail after this trip!

[Rusty]

In case Rusty is off traveling and can't get back to you for a while, he's using MM as a form of "Pulse & Glide" on steroids. He starts in MM, then goes to Normal where he uses the battery, then back to MM.

Late morning this morning, we're stopping in Vegas tonight ('cause we expected a late start and didn't want to drive all the way to St. George). First, as to oil life - 62% remaining. Of the 15,335 driven that's 8,163 electric and 7,172 gas or 53% electric overall (as reported by MyVolt).

As for MM hypermiling, that's not quite what I do. I start in Normal Mode, and drive until the SOC is down to 1 (ONE) bar (about 4 miles remaining). Then I switch to Mountain Mode for 15-20 minutes (depending on traffic, which in the trial runs to LA was... variable).

At that point I should then have 4 bars SOC in the battery (SURE WOULD BE NICE IF THE CAR WOULD TELL ME WHEN THAT HAPPENS, OR WOULD AT LEAST INDICATE TRUE SOC!), then I go back to Normal Mode. The car then glides along electrically until I get back to 1 (ONE) bar (about 4 miles remaining).

Switch back to Mountain Mode and repeat ad naseaum.

The thought is that with the engine running at higher RPMs than it normally would, it runs at a more efficient SFC. IIRC the charts we've seen on those details bare that out, and it's certainly so far been my experience. Are the higher engine RPMs annoying? Not for me, at least not at 70+ MPH (I try to avoid MM pulse below 65). The road noise covers it. Is it a much more involved driver experience (aka "PITA")? Yup. But I don't see how the car could have the smarts to do it itself.

And so, we're off. I should have network connectivity on the road once we get checked in at various hotel/motels. But even though we're staying in Vegas tonight (and very well off the strip, I might add)... I'm not a betting man.

Once we get to up-state Michigan, all bets are off. The Victorian cottages of Bayview are often barely wired for the last century, much less this one!

[WopOnTour]

OFF TO VEGAS THEN MICHIGAN!!
That's awesome.
Enjoy your journey my friend
WOT