mtb9153

Thanks Laurel your a sweet heart and a person with a good heart. I do think SalsaGuy is right and I need to put them up on the roofline behind the Nav antenna. I relocated one on an attempt to cover as much as possible of the dent left in the old location. But since there is now a depression in the sheet metal from the damage I caused, there is no longer a flat mounting surface for the GasPod to have a good flat mounting surface so I'm afraid it might blow off while driving so I think I have to mount them on the roofline as suggested. I don't like hurting my baby so I'm not handling this self inflicted damage too well especially since it's less than a year since buying her.

I'm an old fart and just fine with the stock head unit and display. Good Luck with your upgrade though. Be sure to share pics once you get it finished. I was an audio geek back in my 30's and 40's. Now I'm living with poor hearing in my soon to be 60's next August.

Well now I'm just trying to do damage control as best as I can by covering the dents as much as possible even if it is not in the best position. I have to live with my costly mistake now.

CatSailor, nice going and sweeet you have a Platinum White SEL. So got you covered here on the west coast in an identical ride. 3.5.1 is proving to being a good upgrade for me I've been getting low to high 40's regularly and into the 50's at times with my city driving. Before the upgrade I struggled to maintain 40.0 and often fell into the high 30's. CMax Life is much sweeter now.

Forgot to mention my editing platform is a MacPro 8 core processor using Final Cut Pro editing suite. Not bragging just letting everyone know in case there's any Video business floating around out there in Cyberspace.

Since I'm a video geek with all the equipment, I have a professional Canon XHA1 HD camcorder with 20x zoom and now my GoPro. I have a design rolling around in my head to mount the GoPro using a new attachment I just bought yesterday for mounting it to the handlebars of my mountain bike. I'm going to buy a piece of wooden dowel or possible a rod of clear acrylic. Fabricate notches in either end so it will hang horizontally with a compression fit between the two front seat chrome head rest posts which slide the head rest up and down. This will point the GoPro forward and capture the MFT screen as well as the view out the windshield and possibly get the screen in front of the drivers seat as well because the GoPro is a wide angle fixed lens with no zoom ability. Or I could even mount the GoPro down on the passenger side floor or on the center console and point it at the drivers seat with my pro camera pointed forward using my tripod. Then after the shoot, edit all the footage between the two cameras and punch it up on YouTube. I could post a link to the finished Vid so everyone could take a look at a typical day and drive with me and Max.

Yes I think this would be just the ticket to do a tutorial video. Especially for lefties living in a right handed world like me who don't understand clearly from verbal or in this case typed instructions. Jus do you have access to a GoPro or equivalent camera? I wish I lived nearer to SoCal I'd drive down and direct this video shoot myself using my GoPro. Could you do this for the forum's mentally challenged owners like myself. Pretty please, Oh master of infinite mileage, help us Obi-wan your my only hope...sorry got carried away with the scripted line from Star Wars. :worship: :camera: :salute:

Well I've decided to try the magnetic tape option now that I removed them from the first installation position. However I don't know where to find tape strong enough to stay on the car. I found some small pre-cut thin magnetic tape with adhesive on one side for mounting business cards. But they aren't strong enough to secure the GasPods. The reason I opted to not mount them directly onto the roof behind the Liftgate is I thought it would be too close to the Nav antenna which might not allow for proper airflow to the GasPods. I don't know just seemed to me to be better placing them on the liftgate metal.

I wonder if the cab drivers are driving as deliberately as needed to get maximum AvgMPG? If I was a fare in the back seat I'd be telling the driver to step on it, which would throw the MPG out the window? Curious.

Yup didn't read the included instructions and never figured there would be clearance issues. Oh well learned the hard way and will live with it as long as I own the car. Was planning to reinstall them with clearance this time using magnetic tape material. After removing the super strong adhesive they put on the backside I was going to use magnetic tape and I bought some, but after putting it on one GasPod it is not strong enough to remain on the car while driving. I don't know where I can by stronger magnetic tape with an adhesive on one side. I have a sheet of mag tape I have left over from another project but it does not have an adhesive on one side. If it did it would work great since I've used it on some door advertising decals I fabricated for my job. They have never blown off

Wanted to share pictures I took of my new GasPods I ordered from a place in Santa Barbara, Ca. called AeroHance, Inc. If they do help with aerodynamics and gas mileage as they advertise it will be sweet. Haven't had a chance to really give them a work out yet, stay tuned. I do want to warn anyone who might choose to buy these and install them. Don't do what I did and damage their sheet metal in the roofline on the rear spoiler Ford incorporated into the liftgate. I stuck the GasPods in place across the full width of the Lift gate as shown in the supplied literature. But my placement was a bad choice because later last night I went to open the lift gate and it opened almost all the way open and suddenly it reversed to a point about 6 inches lower before stopping. I tried to manhandle the liftgate which turned out to be a bad choice. I placed the GasPods too close to the edge of the liftgate where it couldn't freely open because the GasPods were preventing free range of movement. By manhandling the liftgate it caused 9 indentations into my sheetmetal underneath each GasPod. I quickly removed each GasPod which are attached through using some real strong 3M foam tape strips supplied on the bottom of each pod by AeroHance. But the damage was so very visible, 9 dimples bent into my sheet metal across the full width of the liftgate. So learn from my error.

Very interesting I'll have a try at this

Ok back and I think I know what happened. When I opened the lid on the armrest and looked st the SD card it was not inserted, somehow it got pushed and was released from lock position. I was fiddling with one of the USB ports to hook up my GoPro for recharging with the supplied camera. Could that of hurt anything while being released from lock? BTW it said A4 update

I'll go out in the garage and check, be back in a second with my findings.

should "A4" be physically written on the SD card somewhere?

Power and Glide possibly?

Jus what is meant by P&G? Sorry not familiar with that term and I'm too lazy to look it up in the acronyms list

Today was running around enjoying some great mpg numbers and suddenly up on the MFT screen I get a yellow triangle telling me to insert a different SD card. It said insert SD card in the upper right hand corner as well. What gives? A trip to the dealer might be on the horizon?

After todays driving it is very clear that I can do my best numbers in town on surface streets. I seem to lose allot of ground (surface street numbers) on the freeway driving at 55-60mph set on cruise.

ok everyone just filled up today and here are the first screen stats at the end of todays driving. I think I've found the sweet spot and my braking sca ore today was at 100% which I've never been able to record. Loving it and heading for a 600mile tank, at least now I think it might be a possibility? Enjoying the ride...

RaPieR, thanks for sharing I'm not sure I understand what you are saying to try, but no I haven't tried that. Not sure what you mean by bars?

Just wanted to share some exciting news which won't be anything new for most of you but might be to others who have struggled with low Avg MPG as I have from the beginning. First of all I attribute most of the mileage increase to getting 3.5.1 installed since my MPG seems to have stabilized since getting it. I know that doesn't make much sense since most of what 3.5.1 was all about was directed to the MFT. I have been working real hard this week to make sure I brake slow and gradual and plan out my stops when approaching an intersection. Also when pulling out from a light or stop sign I give a burst of throttle, enough to get me moving forward and once I get up above 20mph I pull on the left paddle to resume the cruise control which then gradually brings me up to my preset speed. I find that trying to activate the cruise control below 20mph doesn't work. Cruising in the 35-45mph range on flat roads gives me the best results and I see the most increase in Avg MPG while allowing me to keep my numbers within the 43 to 45 range. This is probably not news to most of you but for me it is great news since I have for some time seen only 32-40mpg. On the freeway I set the cruise control to 58 mph in the slow lane and this gives me the best numbers. On the freeway my AvgMPG usually drops to the 40-43 range but once I get off the freeway and back on surface streets I can get my numbers back in the 43-45 range. In conclusion the biggest improvement I've seen since putting all this into affect is that I've been able to maintain a steady AvgMPG level for over a hundred miles in the 40-47 range which is something I've not been able to do since buying my Max. For once I feel I'm in control of my MPG instead of my on-board computer. But the REAL key I've found is by making sure to brake long and gradually which is essential to getting results in the 40-45 range and staying in the 40's numbers. I've not been able to maintain my numbers in the 40's up till now. I also find that setting my MyKey to show power + threshold on the left side and fuel history on the right side it helps me to maintain my numbers in the 40's or higher.

Hummmm...well it was a thought to help this person make up their mind.

I could do this by setting the camera on my tripod while straddling the center console, if I had a roll bar it would be a no-brainer to point it at the 8-inch screen. Improvisation and fabrication is my challenge. I love to make things happen. Oh and yes it is the suction from GoPro, bought it Monday.

My Platinum White factory color, I'm thinking of adopting the name "Maxus"