Recumpence

I have run 51 to 55 psi in my tires from the beginning with no problems. I still have PLENTY of tread left. I have always run high pressure in the tires of all of my cars and I always get far more miles out of them than the factory says.

 

I have seen -15f without a problem here in Northern Illinois.

 

Oh, today was 44 degrees and I averaged 55.9mpg.

 

I could not be happier!

 

Matt

Yes, the lower grille covers the inverter radiator. You need to make sure there is airflow to it.

 

Understand, however, that these components generate FAR less heat then the engine, however. So, very little airflow is needed.

 

Matt

The tires are still in great condition. It looks like I am about 1/2 way through their life.

 

Once I get close to requiring replacement, I will look into it. Too much can change in teh next year or so.

 

I can tell you, however, that I definately LOVE these tires. I have found that cheap tires are generally crap. I would hate to put cheap tires on a $30,000 car.

 

Matt

It was mid twenties the last two days (I averaged 50.7mpg) and it is supposed to be mid to high 30s today. I am not doing much driving, though. It is my office day.

 

It is supposed to be around 40 for the next couple days.

 

Matt

I agree. There may be a threshold below which my mileage drops like a rock. That is a definate possibility. Still, I used to have a saying "50 dgrees sees 50mpg". I could not hit 50mpg until the temp went above 50 degrees. In the 20s, my mpg was 42 to 43mpg. The last couple days have been in the mid 20s and my mpg is above 50 for those two days. So, I am a very happy camper. That being said, it may be that when the temp hits the teens, my mpg may go back to 42. We shall see......

 

I still think it will be far higher than my annoying 42mpg it used to be in the winter. Heck, I had a number of tanks in the 38mpg range in the worst part of last winter.

 

Matt

Hello All,

 

First off, I know Ptjones has a couple thousand miles more than me at this point. However, I wanted to share with all of you my personal experience as I rolled over the 40,000 mile threshold yesterday.

 

As you can see by the picture, my lifetime MPG (indicated) is 49.4mpg. That is figuring in an average of 42mpg over last winter. This summer was 56 to 57mpg, bringing it up to the current 49.4mpg mark. I expect that to stay through the winter because my aero mods have brought my winter mpg up from 42 or 43mpg to 50mpg.  :)

 

Next you will see that my EV miles are over 23,500. That means that over 40,000 miles, my engine has only run 16,500 miles. So, the engine should last the life of the car.

 

Now, for those who say "Yes, but your battery costs the same as an engine and will need to br replaced somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 miles." True, but I did the math, with our current gas prices, by that time my C-Max will have saved me $24,000 in gas versus my old minivan and the battery is $3,400. So, I am still over $20,000 ahead when I get to the point of needing a battery.

 

At any rate, I have to say, I am 100% thrilled with my car. I could not be happier. Even with the darn Sync issues and the MPG controversy, I still love this thing.

 

I have to say, also, that my MPG crept up continually as I added miles even before the aero mods began. So, for those who stuggle with their MPG, stick with it, it will improve both from extended break-in, and from increased driving skill.

 

So, that is my story (a shortened version of it, anyway).  

 

Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.......    :)

 

Matt

I am seeing 150 go 190 degrees. I could close off one more hole.

 

Matt

The average temperature today has been 26 degrees F. I rolled into my driveway after 125 miles of driving with an indicated 50.7mpg! This is 6 to 7mpg higher than stock at this temperature.

 

Matt

Yes, I have all updates.

 

The remaining mods I have planned are;

 

--Upper grille block

--New radiused air intakes in all grilles

--Wheel spats

--Lowered chin spoiler (lowered about 2 inches to match the lowest point of the pan)

--Complete the belly pan at the rear between the rear wheels to fill that HUGE open area.

--Block heater for winter mileage

--Window tinting to reduce interior temp in the summer. This should reduce the need for open windows or AC and help MPG accordingly.

 

I am hoping to gain another 2mpg with all changes combined. Basically what I am trying for is a consistant 60mpg every day in the summer and 50mpg every day in winter. That is 8mpg overall above my stock numbers.

 

Matt

Here are a couple pictures of the nose of the car.

 

Basically, I realized I had a super thin flexible piece of carbon fiber laying around the shop and decided to cover the outer two openings in my lower grille and cover the fog lights.

 

I think I have about 45 minutes of time invested in these changes.

 

Matt

I have some very interesting observations regarding the fog light covers. Here is what I did;

 

I covered the fog light openings and I reduced my lower grille block openeings from 4 openings to 2. Now, here is the interesting part;

 

I am seeing a 2mpg increase with these changes. That is almost ridiculous. This is only one day of driving. So, it is tough to make a judgement. However, up until noon today the weather has been consistant the last few days and my mileage was up 2.5mpg for the first half of the day. At noon the temperature dropped into the 20s with rain and blowing snow. Even with this horrible weather, I ended the day at 50.2mpg! Last year I would have netted 42 to 44mpg for this kind of weather.

 

I have a theory about what may be going on;

 

The lower grille, fog lights, and wheels are roughly at the same height. I believe on the stock car, air flows from around the grille, over the fog lights, and accross the wheels. All of these add turbulence. When I added my wheel covers, I did not see a huge mileage increase because the grille and fog lights were dumping turbulent air to the wheels. However, now I have a smooth grille, smooth fog light covers, and wheel discs. So, that entire section of the car is seeing decent laminar airflow with attachement throughout the length of the car.

 

This is the only thing I can think of as to why my mpg went up so high by merely making fog light covers and decreasing the grille openings.

 

I remember Ford stating that they gained 1/4 of a mpg by eliminating fog lights on the older focus. So, that is what I was expecting, not this HUGE increase........

 

Matt

I just came in from making some prototype fog light covers. They are extremely thing (maybe 1/2mm) carbon fiber. I found that the outer bezel comes off the outside of the car very easily. Removing the bezel provides enough clearance to use a flat cover over the opening.

 

I will post pics and results as I have them.

 

Matt

I know there is a lot of pressure on these covers because even with 5 stainless bolts per 1/4 inch thick cover, I see vibration marring on the wheel paint where it touches.

 

Oh, keep your eyes peeled here for grille block updates. I already have my lower and center grille block panels installed (have had them for many thousands of miles already). However, I am redesigning the lower grille and fabricating a new one, making inlet opening changes to the large center grille, and fabricating an upper grille to cover the upper most grille.

 

I have done some research and I believe I have made a couple somewhat critical design errors with my grille blocks that is reducing the gains that are possible.

 

Oh, also, I have some flexible carbon fiber that I plan on making fog light smoothing covers out of. I may relocate the fog lights to the lower grille, or I may leave them where they are and make carbon fiber covers for them that are slighly opened up where the lights bulge out. The direction I take on them is dependant on how it looks and how much labor I am willing to put into relocating the fog lights. Heck, I never use them anyway. But, I have a hard time completely eliminating something I paid for.........

 

Anyway, my guess is the redesigned lower grille, revised center grille openings, new upper grille, and covered fog lights should be good for 1 to 1.5 mpg, conservatively.

 

1 mpg may not seem like much. But, if you can gain 1 mpg on 4 or 5 different things, it adds up. Multiply that by the 40,000 miles per year I drive, the savings really stack up.

 

We shall see. I will keep you all posted.

 

Matt

I have had my lexan wheel covers for about 20,000 miles so far and I have to tell you they are really taking a beating. They are scratched, nicked, and overall, in rough shape. I taken them off every few thousand miles to clean the wheels and the covers. It is a pain that they are always dirty on the inside and the wheels are much dirtier.

 

I plan on either painting these silver or black, or I may remake a new set from black G10 (epoxiglass).

 

Matt

Recompence  are you having any rubbing problems on the spokes? The wheels don't seem to be same with some rubbing on the inside and others on outside spokes.I'm getting dust on wheels too.

 

Paul

My spokes have paint scuffs where the lexan vibrates against them. The silver paint has turned black there.

 

Here is my experience with the aero mods so far;

 

The center grille block made roughly 1.5mpg increase. The lower grille block has made no improvement (though I know why and will correct it soon). The wheel covers helped another 1.5 To 2 mpg.The Gaspods seem to be roughly .5 To 1mpg or so with my driving.

 

I can tell you today was 53 and rainy but I still averaged 57.2mpg for the day. That is far better than the 51 or 52mpg I would normally see last year without mods.

 

Matt

I have all four wheels covered.

The transmitter has end point limitting as a programmable feature. I typically run with the limitter set at 80%. I set it at 40% for my boys.

 

My 10 year old prefers sitting on the board rather than standing on it.

 

Matt

 

Oh, the board is 40 inches long and 10 inches wide and weighs 20 pounds.

Oh, I use an RC pistol grip transmitter. This thing is basically a very powerful RC car with lean steering.  :)

 

Matt

Hello All,

 

This is just a fun thread I decided to start about a toy I just built for myself and my boys to have fun with.

 

This is a scratch built electric skateboard (longboard) running two brushless motors and lithium batteries. The batteries are in the floor, invisible, like a Tesla model S. It peaks at 5hp and around 26mph. Of course, it feels downright hazardous above 15mph.

 

It accellerates really hard! It is good for about an hour of playing around before it needs to be recharged.

 

Anyway, I just thought you would get a kick out of seeing it.

 

Matt

Savings account.

I find the comment about wheel covers to be very telling. When I installed mine, everyone pretty much assumed they would help and they do. I see a 1.5 to 2mpg increase with them installed overall. On the highway that number is higher, below 30mph there is nearly zero increase. No-one argued with me, though I did not do any scientific testing, just my before mod mpg and afterward mpg report. Yet, these little pods get knocked everytime someone decides to post anything positive about them.

 

For those who wonder how adding something to the frontal area can improve mileage, allow me to illustrate by pointing out that nearly evey major airliner now uses wing tip fins. Those "Added" fins should increase drag. But, they do the reverse by reducing the wake vortex. This is somewhat similar to what is going on with the gas pods.

 

I would hazard a guess that some body styles will see a drastic benefit while other body styles will see no benefit what-so-ever.

 

I, for one, plan on ordering a set. After all, I already have the aero mods on my car to increase mpg, I may as well go all the way.

 

Oh, my lifetime mpg is currently at 49.2 with my daily average at 54mpg. Maybe I could up that by a couple mpg?

 

We shall see.   :)

 

Matt

Hey All,

 

I wanted to let you know how my mileage is doing since the updates.......

 

Last winter I averaged 42mpg. This summer, I average 56mpg. My current lifetime mileage is 49.2mpg with nearly 38,000 miles on my car.

 

Now, since the updates, my summer mileage is not changed (or not enough to comment on, except an increase in highway mpg). However, my cold weather mileage has definately changed. Here are my findings;

 

Last winter, I had a general prinicpal that seemed to be 100% correct everytime I drove. That principal was simply this;

 

My in town mileage was 40mpg at best when the temperature is 30 or below. 50mpg is doable at 50 degrees F. However, anything under 50 degrees, would put me soundly into the mid to lower 40s. Well, the last couple days have been cold here. Today started at 31 degrees nad never got over 41 degrees. However, my mileage ended at 53.7mpg! That would not have been possible last winter. At best, I would have seen 44mpg according to my mileage log.

 

So, one of two things is happening; either my car is further broken in, or the updates are making a huge difference. Either way, I am happily expecting some decent mileage this winter.  :)

 

Matt

Lithium batteries have a very flat voltage curve. In other words, the voltage shows high when the battery is at 100%, and low when it's near empty, but between 90% and 10% there's almost no measurable change in voltage. You get voltage sag from high current draw, but again, that doesn't correlate much with state of charge. So while it may be mildly interesting to know the voltage, it's probably not useful for measuring state of charge.

Not true. I work with lithium batteries all day long in my ebike drive system business. They actually follow a very linear voltage drop from 100% to 20% (they should never go below 20%).

 

I can say that is true for lithium polymer batteries.

 

It is Nicad batteries that have a very flat discharge curve. They are strong right untill they are at around 10% SOC. Then they fall off tremendously.

 

Matt

Hey All,

 

I do appliance repair with my Max (37,000 miles so far) and, though I see many C-Maxes throughout my work day, I have never met another owner until yesterday.

 

I pulled into a driveway and, behold, there was an Ice Storm Max in the garage. So, I began a dialog. This was a former Prius owner and a first time American car owner. We spoke at length and I was able to teach her a few things about her car. It was a very good conversation, overall, and she was VERY impressed with the car. She even called Ford to thank them for the $550 check.

 

Anyway, I need to return to her house with a part for her washing machine. I plan on talking more about the Max then.   :)

 

Matt

I saw 49mpg for 500 miles round trip at 75 to 80mph from home to Michigan and back.

 

About 3mpg is due to my wheel covers and grille blocks. That trip was done with three adults and a full complement of camping gear.

 

I do think some cars are inherently better mileage than others.

 

Matt