PA gas good, NY gas bad

Perhaps the increase in mileage is because when one travels WEST the earth is moving EAST? ;)

mike hunt

;)

In summary: I hate greenies.

My vehicles work the other way; when traveling WEST, fuel mileage is LOWER, but when traveling EAST, fuel mileage is HIGHER. I think that prevailing wind direction may have something to do with it.

It's not the travel direction. These mileages are not observed on the highway going to and from PA; they are seen in random commute travel (my normal commute). It's a quantitative difference in the fuel blend.

Why, are you traveling in a plane? ;)

mike hunt

I get better mileage traveling south, than when I come back north. I believe is because south is ALL down hill from Delaware ;)

mike hunt

What does relative air speed (which affects forward resistance) have to do with being in the ground or in the air? OIC now, it's humor! Ha, ha!

An air speed the will hardly slow a car on the ground, can stop all ground speed for a small aircraft. ;)

mike hunt

I can't believe I'm being suckered in to this... but you're kidding, right?

I always get better MPG going east than west, for no other reason than prevailing wind.

And this is in a ground-based Taurus, 4 wheels, the typical unit.

Rob

No, think about it. The airplane is designed with a maximum _airspeed_ at a given altitude. When it's in a headwind,

a) the ambient pressure is lower (Bernoulli...), as if the plane was in still air at a higher altitude.

b) the airspeed to groundspeed relationship is different. If you're traveling at 100mph (ASI and yes I know it should be in knots), in a

Not talking about slowing the vehicle at all. We're talking about the additional power (and therefore, additional fuel) required to overcome the added air resistance that a vehicle encounters when traveling into the wind. I had a weekly commute between KC & StL for about three years and kept very close fuel & maintenance records. My one-way runs to StL averaged 31.9 mpg over the three years, and StL to KC was 28.1 mpg for the same three years. This was all I-70 traffic, with cruise set at 70 mph, and it didn't matter where I got fuel. What DID matter was the effective air speed of the vehicle - yes, it was still on the ground, but it still had an air speed, or if you prefer, a definitive forward speed as would be measured by a pitot tube device. Traveling at 70 mph on the ground with a 15 mph average wind from the West toward the East, the "air speed" of the vehicle was (70-15) 55 mph, but traveling the other way, same wind speed and direction, the "air speed" of the vehicle was (70+15) 85 mph. There are of course other factors such as rolling resistance of the tires, but I always kept them on the high side of the psi recommendations, so that wouldn't amount to anything that was a variable. OK, you can go back to talking about your airplanes again. :)

Oh, that part is right for sure - I'm talking about the effect of wind on automotive fuel economy. The car has to overcome a headwind with more power & fuel consumption.

Hunt said "An air speed the will hardly slow a car on the ground, can stop all ground speed for a small aircraft."

Wind sure did slow down my Aerostar, esp. with a Christmas tree on the roof. Cruise kept kicking out w/ the loss of speed. My father-in-law won't drive his Dodge pickup on the interstate with cruise on in a stiff headwind because of all the crazy shifting down & up it does.

Rob

But when going west the earth is moving backwards under you at thousands of miles per hour. ;)

mike hunt

What about the fact you Taurus has a lager frontal area than the rear area? Beside with all of the curves in a road you are not always going directly east or west. What about hills they are never always the same going east and west ;)

mike hunt

Are you sure your father-in-law is not encountering hills or mountains? I thought you said you drove a Taurus? Why would you have a Christmas tree on your Aerostar, going in both directions anyway?

mike hunt

Are you in college or a graduate?

mike hunt

It seem to me your parents or the government or both wasted a lot of money. LOL

mike hunt

If you're going to Pennsylvania from NYC, then you are going uphill. When you go East from PA to NYC, you are going downhill.

Could that have something to do with it?

Jeff

Only gas in metro areas of New York contain ethanol. Once you get into places like Sullivan county in NY there is no ethanol additive.