11StiLimited

It was hit by a drunk driver and that's all she wrote. Everyone is ok, glad for the air bags :)

Cmax officially totaled by insurance company yesterday. Goodbye CMax, hello 2014 Focust ST.

Sorry for the delay...

In my case, a shorter burn would be required to climb 3% inclines on my way home from work. Even a little more tq would go a long way. Only a side by side hill comparison with a double blind hyper-miler vs standard driver would really show the difference.

By top edge, do to mean the front edge of the hatch? I set them up based on the front edge of the "lip". I must have misinterpreted the advice from the other thread. I will re-align them before I leave today. Thanks for the tip.

Yes, magnetic :) Thanks for the compliment on appearance. I am on the "black-out" theme and enjoy the contrast.

~Aerohance Gaspods

First HWY test trip will be tomorrow. I will try to get a feeling from that round trip (30+ miles). I usually was getting 48.X consistently when it was warm. Plummeted to around 42.X in the colder weather. If nothing else, I like the visual enhancement :) EDIT: I won't start officially tracking miles for the test program until next tank of gas, so everything from now until then is speculative, with weather being an unknown variable that will play a big factor.

I only jumped on because I have the worst time trying to get good HWY mpg. Yes, it is a gamble, but I made a couple extra bucks this months, so I figured wth? Why not? If they don't work, I will still be using them in a stylized capacity, lol.

I will be installing mine today. I feel the same way about old man winter :(

That is just SICK Jus. Great job!

Well folks, it looks like my goal of 700+ is done for the season :( The weather has cooled off rapidly over the last week. Fall has certainly arrived in Baltimore. Hoping for a new best tank with about 200 miles to go, but I fear I will likely fall short with these 45 degree mornings and 50 degree evenings. Oh well, there is always next year :rockon:

I always thought that Ford thought it was a good idea to discharge the batteries before re-loading them again. Truthfully, though, I have no idea why.

On #1 I think some of us refer to this as "battery run down". ptjones is probably right with the "why" part of it. When I leave my house in the morning, I have to climb a big hill right off the bat. It is a 30 mph road with people routinely speeding down the hill from my left at 45-50 mph, so that extra hp comes in useful for me some days. Without it, my daily mpg avg would certainly dive if my cold ICE engine had to do all the work.

Play it safe with the gas can, if you must, in order to do it safely. :)

That is what I didn't get. I wasn't trying for anything spectacular and I was getting 500 miles out of every tank, easily. I pulled it off the dealer's lot, at that point, my MTE was showing 450 miles. I filled it up (since my dealer did not). I then was reading MTE at 525. So, in the 243 "test driven" miles before I drove my car off the lot, those non-purchasers still seemed to be putting down ok numbers in relation to this forum. This is why I didn't understand how 500 miles was not attainable by everyone. Honestly, if I am not mistaken, there are a few gas only cars with a range of 400+, so my thought was we can all do better than that easy in a hybrid. To the folks who don't focus on things that give you extra miles in a hybrid, why would you buy a hybrid in the first place, if not to save money on gas? The environment? Sure, that is valid, but for that a p-zero emissions car would be just as practical. MY reason for switching from a gas car to a hybrid had nothing to do with the environment, in the traditional sense. MY reason was all about saving gas money. I was spending $225 month on gas. This broke down to 200+/- miles per tank at 14 gal fill-ups, once a week costing $55-$60 per fill. Now I go 550-660 miles in a tank, and only spend $45 once every 3.5 weeks. It truly PAYS to play this "game" ;)

The link I provided shows a RCA bass out and a RCA main out. If piggy-backing the rear speakers cut them off, or otherwise destroys volume and/or quality, I was going to reattach the rear speakers using the main RCA outs and a RCA to speaker converter. As for the amp, it uses a 7.5 amp fuse, pretty low, and the amp is only 90w RMS, so power should well clear the 150w limit on the 12v socket. As soon as Uncle Sam makes good on my amended tax return, I think I am going to try playing with this setup. Worst case scenario, I learn and share the experience, and eBay the parts to cut my losses, lol.

I have gone way OT. I will PM you Jus ;)

All I am looking for is a signal to supply to an amped sub (like, but not a, Bazzoka tube). I am not changing the original cabin speakers. I was going to try this item: http://www.crutchfield.com/p_161LC2I/AudioControl-LC2i.html?tp=2001#details-tab As for the 12v power for the amp/sub, I was going to tap the rear 12v (always-on) plug in the trunk, using the remote wire on the LC-2i to control on/off operation of the amp/sub (similar to classic always-on direct battery connections). Does this setup sound correct? Have I thought this through wrong? I miss old stereos. It was so much easier when swapping out the HU was an option.

Here in MD, I have to worry about icy and/ or snow covered roads when winter comes. Uneven tire wear will greatly reduce traction come those winter months. Aren't you concerned about tire wear and overall wet traction with the reduced tire footprint? I won't say ice/ snow for you since you live in SoCal ;)

I have never pushed past 30 miles to empty. Due to hills and traffic in my 90% city driving, I have never chosen to rely on any gauge in the car. Any steep hill, using a slow 1-bar burn because of the car in front of me could drop that :airquote: smart gauge down 5-10 miles when I only travel 1-2 miles. I rely most on the Trip 1 gal. used, then assume, that the gauge is about .5 to 1 gals off. I throw the dice based on the actual gas meter. Once the gas gauge stops bouncing back and forth between yellow and red (stabilizing in the red), I start watching my miles very closely. Once my gas gauge flatlines, I start getting super cautious and consider every trip before making it. Will there be a lot of uphill in my next trip? Will I get a good chance of EV mode for the next trip? How far are gas stations from my route, or destination? All those factors help me decide how far to push it. FWIW, I have never seen MINE read 0 miles. I get such remarkably consistent mpg's for my daily driving that my smart gauges estimate my miles to empty fairly well near the end of the tank. I am buying a 2 gal gas can to use on this tank. I want to know what happens when MINE reaches 0, lol.

Alrighty, that was a naive assumption on my part.

Do we have anyone NOT making 500 miles?

lol, I wish I had the time to push it a little further, but my wife was at home with a panic attack, so being gingerly on the gas wasn't going to happen. My next tank should be even better. I am still aiming for that 700+ marker before winter arrives:)

Hey Jus, don't forget to update my new PB ;)