Caravan Roof Rack Delete
I was browsing the ecomodder forums this morning an found a good little aerodynamic mode, a roof rack delete, that someone had done there. Check it out:
I didn’t take pics of the whole process, but I can describe it pretty well…
- Move both of the cross-beams as far apart as the rack will allow, one front, one back.
- You’ll need a Torx, Star, or whatever bit they’re being called this week, not sure of the size at the moment.
- There are 6 screws on each side… remove them in any order.
- Once you have one side done, move to the other side, and repeat.
- Once all the screws are undone, while standing on a sturdy surface with the van’s roof approximately level to your chest, grab both cross beams, one in each hand.
- Lift the assembly away from the roof of the vehicle, tilting it up over your head.
- The assembly weighs approx 30 lbs, be careful.
- Once you’ve removed the rack, you’ll need to either cut the screws, get new (shorter) screws to put back, or get some chassis plugs (the annoying plastic things you can never get out w/o breaking) to fill the holes.
- Best you should put some light sealant under the caps of the plugs you use, to avoid water seepage and eventual corrosion.
Below are before/after shots, a shot of the roof rack hanging on the side of the van, showing it’s size relative to the sliding door, and and a shot of exactly what could be hiding beneath those rack ends… (Those are Japanese Beetles, for those who can’t identify them.)
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Gas Up Tips
There are a couple of big don’ts when you’re filling up your gas tank. You need to keep this in mind every time you take a trip to the pump in order to avoid wasting gas.
First of all don’t bother topping off when filling your car’s gas tank. Any additional gas is just going to slop around or seep out. Why waste your money paying for gas your car won’t use? Stop pumping at the first indication that your tank is full when the automatic nozzle clicks off.
You also need to be sure to tighten your gas cap all the way when you’re done refueling. Gas will evaporate from your car’s gas tank if it has an escape. Loose, missing or damaged gas caps cause 147 million gallons of gas to evaporate each year, according to the Car Care Council. So be sure to tighten up that gas cap each time you fuel up your car.
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Hypermiling - A Sport?
In some places, hypermiling contests have been held to see who can get the highest mpg on a selected course.
The most recent Maximum Fuel Economy contest was held in Elkhart, Indiana at the Fuel Economy World Championships, where world records for the Honda Insight (213 mpg round trip), Toyota Prius (136 mpg round trip) and the Ford Escape Hybrid (76 mpg round trip) were achieved. However, these numbers were achieved using illegal and dangerous techniques, including rolling through stop signs, turning the vehicle off, and inflating the tires well beyond specifications.
Another contest is the Tour to the Shore, held in New Jersey, which evaluates drivers of cars and trucks.
Gerdes and a team of six hold the current record for the most miles achieved out of a single tank of gas with 2254 miles from the 13.7-gallon tank of a Honda Insight, and average of 164.53 mpg for the entire distance.
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Hypermiling Myths
I thought I would debunk a few popular hypermiling myths, as there really are a ton of them out there.
First of all the myth that starting your car uses as much gas as idling for a minute is absolutely untrue. It uses a very small amount of gas to start your car - whenever you’re stopped for more than a few seconds you should turn her off.
Another myth is related to filling up your gas tank. Many believe that when a tanker truck is there it stirs up all of the sludge so you should go to another gas station. This is false, gas stations are required to have good filters and pumps are regularly inspected. The gas that you waste driving to the next gas station far outdoes any tiny reduction in quality of the gas that you are going to get here.
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Automatic Transmission Shifting Technique
We all know that cars manual transmissions can sport some extra gas mileage by having a driver who shifts early. Did you know that there’s a pretty simply hypermiling technique to coax your auto car into shifting early? Check it out:
Some automatic transmissions can be coaxed to upshift sooner when accelerating by briefly releasing some throttle pressure, then re-applying to continue accelerating.
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Auto Transmission - Shift to Neutral at Stop
Shift automatic transmissions to neutral when stopped (assuming you’re going to leave the engine running). Remaining in drive wastes fuel as the engine continues to try to creep the car forward while being held back by the brakes.
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Think About Wind Resistance
Headwinds can really drag down your gas mileage. A good practice is to stay behind another car, not too close, in order to allow them to ‘break’ the wind for you.
Headwinds aren’t the only winds that increase fuel consumption - cross winds can have a large negative effect as well. In crosswind conditions, choosing a route with a barrier (trees or buildings) along the edge will save fuel compared to a road in the open.
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DIY Vacuum Forming
Here’s the dude’s website :
Vacuum Former Plans
For smooth racing disks, I am *guessing* that you don’t even need the vacuum part, because the wheel cover shape is so uniform and simple. I think the only question is figuring out how thick you want the wheel cover to be.
But, for other things (like a side view mirror delete cover), the vacuum would become a must.
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Tips for Cheapest Gas
Depending on where you live there is most likely at least one gas station that has something special going on which allows it to offer gasoline for around $0.10 a gallon cheaper. The easiest way to save money on gas is, of course, to buy cheaper gas in the first place.
An example of this, here in Oregon, is that you are not allowed to pump your own gas and the state taxes you an extra $0.10 a gallon to have people working to pump your gas for you (economic stimulus job creation thingy). What I do is go to the casino, its tribal land so you can pump your own gas and knock off this ten cent tax.
A more universal saving tip is to look for an Arco gas station. These guys don’t accept credit cards which allows them to offer gas for $0.10 to $0.15 a gallon less. This is because credit card companies charge a base charge plus a percentage to the merchant on every transaction. Eliminating credit cards means that this is about how much they save from not having to pay fees and they pass it on to you. There is a myth that their gasoline is cheaper because it is lower quality, this is simply not true.
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You Think You’ve Got it Bad?
If you think that gas prices are getting out of hand where you live then you need to put a little perspective on things. As an example, in Sierra Leone gas goes for around $18.40 USD / GAL. Could you imagine paying that much?
The thing that we need to start doing is looking to these countries that have experienced unbearable gas prices for a long time now. What kind of things do they do? More mass transit, more walking, small compact (very compact) cars. Take some hints from them if you really want to save on gas, they’ve been practicing gas conservation for a while now.
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