DrBoost wrote:
I admit, it's impressive, but hypermiling is so stinkin far from anything that you'd do in traffic. What I see is this. You have a brand new truck, driven on a controlled course by a specific set of rules with one intent; to get the best mileage possible. I was driving a truck that has already driven the equivalent of a trip to the moon and most of the way back, on public roads with traffic that is not intent on letting you eek out the best mileage, I had about 7,000 lbs behind me and my route had hills, traffic lights and such. I could get in the low to mid 20's without even trying. They bested that by 30% with no load to speak of and the best possible conditions. Ok.
I'm not knocking the accomplishment, I'm glad they can prove just how efficient a diesel is. I just think "huh, I bet I could get that same ecomony out of a 18 year old truck with a third of a million miles on it if I tried. Oh, and my engine still has 1/2 a million miles left to run.
The best comparrison I have seen is an old diesel power project. They took a 2wd 7.3 superduty and got 26mpg out of it consistently(non hypermiled). It required aero body mods, a 2nd overdrive unit after the trans, 3.08 gears, and some fuel additive. These new guys can do that out of the box with way more torque.
edit: The biggest improvement is the fact that the current crop of diesel rigs on the market have a very hard time hitting 20. The 6.4 ford and 6.7 cummins are, despite what you read on the interwebs, 14-16mpg machines stock.