Jus-A-CMax

Wish I had that luxury, these miles are just killing me...thank goodness for the mileage I am getting in my CMax, if it was my Camry, I would be going broke at $4 a gas (still) here in LA....ssssh. Good to hear you're WINNING on the fuel front :rockon:

Garden? Hee....I dare you to grow a single tomato in the CMax..seed to fruition.... ;) He.... :drool:

Hey...welcome to the forum! AFAIK, no owner has installed one but I may have missed someone so I'll let them chime him....just wanted to say "welcome :) " and a congratulation for tomorrow as well :rockon:

zhackwyatt...lol, that was the weird thing...and it was a nice white BMW coupe as well, looked new...so why would he want to buy a CMax. Huh. But the weirdest thing was that he was driving even slower in the fast lane behind me and I was doing the speed limit....gotta p*ss off the traffic behind him... :runaway:

So I just finished some light gym work and decided to head down to the golf store to regrip my putter. Windows was down since it was a gorgeous 66F here in the San Fernando valley and I was just P&G along Victory (a 35mph street). Next thing I knew I heard a "Hello!" or something. So I turned my head and he was this guy in a white BMW cruising next to me and he yells out "What's the real MPG?". Wow. what do I do here? I was stunned...this has not happened to me before. So I took my left finger and pointed at my dash and yelled out "47"...technically it was 47.5 MPG. Then I yelled out at hiim "640 miles on a tank" and then continued my drive. I noticed he was driving considerably slower on the fast lane behind me and I was going 35-40mph (good ole P&G). We met again one last time about 30 seconds later and I looked over and yelled out: "Go check out the net". I didn't have time to spell out this forum as I had to make a right turn down Whitsett. Never had this happened before. I was thinking to pull over but I thought - nah, I gotta get to the golf shop and get my stuff done. Who knows that guy might be reading this thread in a few days.... ;) Anyone else have other interesting CMax stories?

Yes, that happens. From my experience, typically, you won't reach the 47MPG tank until about 3/4 tank and then it's a game to maintain or take the MPG Avg higher, I suspect that because by resetting the Avg with each tank, it's slowly gather data again and the more gas you use, the more miles you clock, the more "stable" your true average MPG will be. I don't see an stability really until 1/2 tank or less where it's less sensitive to yours and my lead foot whims which may creep up.... ;) Keep going :shift: & :rockon:

Thanks, not making a whole lot of sense to me right now but I'll look into it further. How does one get to plotting out such a chart, scangauge?

I think.....mtb has GOT IT :yahoo: Congratulations.

Not all downhill. Airport to the CalTrans yard before Crowley. Past Crowley up to Tom's Place are a bunch of up and down till you reach the lookout of Sherwin grade and then it's truly downhill. Last time I tried this, it was way over 100+ before the airport and then it slowly sucked the MPGs out. By the time I clocked the mpg just past down Sherwin, it dropped like 70 something. So no, not truly all contiguous downhill but it was fun though...better in a hybrid than a gas guzzler :) By the way, whats a BSFC chart?

Nice summary wamba, thanks for sharing :)

fixored :) Yes, we can all get along...C-Maxer....ooops....FotoMoto ;)

Being OH and based on whats reported here, I suspect the temps played a big part of the lower MPG on fuelly last few months. However, it should have warmed up a wee bit and this should make some difference - based on the reports from others in the north east posting here their numbers. I didn't see any comments on the weather factor on that last drive so I presume weather was not a factor, iyo. At this point, I would say keep a good eye on what happens with your battery, making sure it goes high when u eco-cruise (take a look at the last "explain the ICE High" thread if you need to get am idea of "how high"). Might even be a good idea to take the CMax for a spin on a freeway and do some ice high mpg runs (its dead simple). Side question, what kind of MPGs is being reported back when you driive surface or highway, those "little" 7 to 10 milers? JohnnOhio is from your state - might even be a good idea to PM him and see if u and him can compare notes since you're both from the same state, access similar freeway speeds and hes getting good mileage.

Nah...too much hard work. I'll drive to The Mill and take it EV all the way down just past Sherwin Grade (after bypassing 10 CHP and their lasers)....that ought to do it...and not a drop of sweat ;) ps it was not quite 109 but a good 70+ and thats a fair stretch of road as well...

Ok, good start, at that load, u should be getting the 40MPG - this route - is it all flat, or are there severe grades or mountainous areas? Head wind/ Tail Wind? If u recall, did you observe the battery charging, going up to 70% or above before it starts to discharge while in eco-cruise? Typically, if you say you do not touch the pedal when eco-cruise is on, this will really regen the battery to a high enough level to where the EV will assist the ICE, your instant MPG should be 38MPG or 40MPG at least. I would even suggest to you to take your CMax out again to some freeway and verify the battery is charging high enough in the eco-cruise mode, and then even throw it into ICE High MPG (which is basically double tap down on the "-").

Jim, it might help the forum if you can elaborate how you drive on the freeway - whether you have it on manual pedal or if you use standard cruise or eco-cruise. I don't think you should be getting those numbers myself as my 5 trips to Mammoth Lakes and back (560+ mile return) average above the 40s and thats with the car packed and loaded. Mine is an Oct 2012 build. As you might have seen some recent threads, ICE High MPG (using eco-cruise) may be the solution here. But lets start with some description of how you're driving, if you want us to help, that is :) Also, you might want to take your car to get a second opinion..just to make sure your current SA is not giving you the run around...

As Ryan said - speed is key but also consider the people behind u, don't hit the brakes just cause u want to regen and thereby throwing the drivers behind u off with your red lights. Another choice is that grade assist - doesn't give u as much batts as the brakes but more than just coasting. Could be best of both world but experiment with that.

Huh....staff could have done a name-change...I think. Anyway...if this works for u, have at it... :)

Thats the "manual" ICE High MPG. I posted a thread on this months ago, and yes its dangerous - but it is useful, if you are able to feather the pedal and do it by feel, while keeping your eyes on the road. It's like drumming, it takes a while to get the co-ordination. Now, doing the ICE MPG at or around 60mph is more difficult as the CMax wants to go to EV...trickier than the higher speed ICE High MPG aka > 65mph. Good stuff for trying and posting your results...keep it up :rockon:

Pinned!!!! Ya! :)

NOTE: Move thread to Hybrid Driving Tips & Techique section since its more revelent here. :)

wab - the sweet spot appears to be between 65 and 70. It will last as long as the road stays flat (or at worst a wee bit upslope). We don't have those speed limits here in CA afaik, may be 70 for some stretch and I am relunctant to go at those speeds cause of CHP. Try it out at higher, worse you can do is 40MPG using eco-cruise and anything else is a bonus. The trick is the battery - keep that high, avoid the temptation of going full EV that sucks the batt. Give that Gen thread a good read - there may be some subtlety involved here with where to set the initial and then double tap down. 9/10 I would hit it, sometimes it doesn't -but the worse I've had is 40 and the best is a dancing instant MPG between 40 and 60.... :) Let us know how you go with those higher speeds. :rockon:

Hey Oxnard - thanks for the confirmation...u know what I mean :rockon: The picture was going south as I was coming from Oxnard that day and heading to Westlake Village (I think). Yeah, the grade going north is a huge battery charger. Luv it! I have done both....I appraise all around your area and also TOaks and as far south as Malibu and Santa Monica...spending too much time in the Maxine but its a JOY with the music and I :wub2: the beach jobs, with my Hawaiian music and EV mode. Tell u a story - I was all set to clock another 600 mile tank and then I get a call to go from Cam to TOaks. So I see a Prius before I get to the grade...silly me had to race to the top and spent a ton of gas clmbing that steep grade (but I did beat the Prius....yes.... :rockon: ). That tank, I barely made the 600...that was on fumes for sure. Moral of the story, tuck my balls back in the pants & just the FE up these hills.... ;) I am sure the ladies here will be amused...got to be good for a laugh at least.

I coined the ICE High MPG (or mode) so let me explain this CMax phenomenon. In my view, its a bit of both but let me start from the start. The CMax we all know, 90% of owners, is either full EV or ICE so you're either doing great with 60+ blue MPGs or 15-20 white MPG when the ICE is on. However, what I noticed and someother too starting back when I joined this forum last Dec....is that the CMax really does amazing things when it has a really high battery. A high battery is either 90% or full. Now, this is not a normal battery state for the CMax unless you are doing down a long 5+ mile grade with brakes on (ala Box Canyon here in Los Angeles or Kanan Rd). When the battery is so high, the Ford engineers - in their wisdom - allowed the EV engine to assist the ICE. To see this, use the ENGAGE screen and you can see a blue and white power bars when you step on the accelerator with some decent battery. Going back to your question - at 64mph or greater, we all know that the ICE is on full time. But what we didn't know or realize is that the Ford engineers allow the EV engine to "assist" the ICE even at this great speed. We are all told, anything more than 63 mph, you cannot drive full EV...but they did not say the EV could not assist. So, instead of poor ICE mulling along at 20MPGs all by itself, when the battery is high enough, the software allows the EV to assist in the propulsion of the car - this kicks in additional power and the instant MPGs goes to 40MPGs (thanks EV engine). Then somehow or another (and this truly is a gray part of ICE High MPG), leave the engine and battery charging long enuf and you "double tap" the eco-cruise "-" at say 68mph, this will drop the speed a tad to about 66mph but it also then starts to dance the instant MPGs from 40 to between 40 and 60. I showed this photo today but I'll post it here: This was taken on a flat 101 freeway, and you can see my eco-cruise on and the instant MPG. Now - the easy way of doing ICE High MPG was attributed to "The Gen": I have found the illusive MPG sweet spot You can do this manually as well by feather the pedal but I consider it more dangerous as your eyes are more on the gauge when they should be on the road. This was my original thread comparing the P&G, eco and ICE High MPG: Eco-cruise vs P&G vs ICE High MPG I use both but more the Gen way, both have their merit. By the way, the ICE High MPG is good for flats only or downgrades. Going up steep hills or grades require additional power, which drains the battery back to a 50% state and you cannot run the ICE High MPG with this level. Do note that "The Gen" says to allow the eco-cruise to run for a few miles and this is because this allows the car to charge the battery up to the higher level. I always said the secret sauce to the CMax is the high battery but its hard to get it up there and keep it there. Hope this explains things... :) PS zhackwyatt...good explanation too, didn't realize u posted as well :rockon:

I use a S100 but it's my work camera. But I also use my DroidX. The trick is to get the lense close and snap it. The default setting on your camera phone should be good. PM me if u need help...lets not clog this thread with how-tos ;)

It works, even with a fully loaded CMax...the secret sauce is the high battery. Let eco-cruise regen the battery as much as possible before double clicking down, the best thing is that it works > 65mph! This was taken on the 101 between Las Posas and Carmen drive...note the speed, note the battery...note the high instant MPG. Used this many times with my trips to Mammoth as well.