What are YOU paying for diesel???

[cetane]

My farm fuel merchant came to fill up the farm diesel tank on Friday. These days his visit isn't much looked forward to
When he dipped the tank he said it wasn't worth unrolling his hose and putting any in. This made me deliriously happy as usually I get an invoice for $700 or so every two months.

Why??? I reckon it's because these days I always think twice before starting any of my tractors up. And when I do, I pick the smallest of them that I can get away with. In days gone by I'd leave the motors running from start-work to finish-work even if I had to jump out or off for considerable lengths of time and do other things. I guess the old philosophy was, "Diesels are made for it....and....keeps the battery charged....and....gets the motor fully hot" etc. Also, if using the loader I'd hand throttle up to 1750rpm and leave the revs up there but now I use the accelerator peddle.
I used to hop in the 4WD to buzz around the farm whether I need it or not. I used to say, "Saves time....and....saves the old body". Now as I save every drop by walking, using an ATV or combining trips.

So how do you translate this to road vehicles? With difficulty but it can be done.
Car pooling's going to save you at least 50% on your fuel costs, (but having done it in a former life it isn't convenient and if you're like me you spend a lot of time thinking when driving or stuck in a traffic jam so somebody jabbering away in the car may not turn you on).
Combining trips works if you can do it. I only go into town now if I really have to and I make sure that shopping, bill paying etc is done in the same trip. No more hopping in the car to go and buy a loaf of bread (only).
But try driving for economy. It works! Don't leave braking until the last micro second. Be Captain Slow and accelerate gently. Drive smoothly. If you can, drop 10kph off your cruising speeds. This makes a huge differnece, especially in a diesel.

A neighbour of mine said to me that it wouldn't matter how much fuel went up by, people wouldn't change their driving habits. I reckon from what I'm reading he's been proven wrong. Even in the US people are driving their cars less and fuel inventories are rising. Hence the price of fuel (driven by supply and demand) is falling.

And my fuel merchant tells me that diesel has come down by 10c/L in the past week......

[gregozedobe]

Good post, cetane.

We have been doing what you describe for years, but with the recent price increases for fuel we've been a bit more diligent in application, and it does reduce your fuel costs. Each particular thing doesn't make a huge difference (well actually, driving gently does for some people ), but doing all of these can really add up to significant savings.

A couple of things I'd like to add.

Anticipate traffic movement - if the vehicles ahead are stopping or slowing down or you know that traffic light is going to change to red; back off the accelerator pedal and coast to the stoppage (many modern engines use no fuel at all while decelerating, the momentum of the vehicle keeps the engine turning over).

If you have a trip computer that will show instantaneous fuel usage, monitor that and try to keep the figure lower.

For most people using cruise control will help (good drivers can do better, but it takes a lot of cencentration).

Choose your trip times for when traffic is flowing more freely. This can be difficult, but sometimes you have a choice. I drive to Sydney from Canberra fairly often, and I try to time my arrival in Sydney for outside of peak traffic times.

Keep your tyre pressures up near the maximum (but check for excessive wear in the centre of the tread, in which case you may need to reduce it slightly).

Remove any excess weight from your vehicles - all those extra kilograms take fuel to lug up the hill, more than you gain from from coasting down the other side.

As an a side benefit, if you drive gently nearly all the time then when you do put your foot down hard your engine will feel more powerful

IMHO if you are driving on a busy highway it is unsafe to drive too slowly (say less than 20 Kmhr slower than prevailing cruising speeds). Drivers coming up behind are just not expecting you to be travelling so slowly, and because so many are on cruise control and not paying attention they are likely to rearend you before they wake up enough to -
A realize there is a problem, and
B do something useful about it.
I've tried driving at 80Km/hr in fairly light traffic on a dual lane freeway, and while the improvement in fuel economy is large, it is just too dangerous (even if it is legal)

[gldgti]

IMHO if you are driving on a busy highway it is unsafe to drive too slowly (say less than 20 Kmhr slower than prevailing cruising speeds). Drivers coming up behind are just not expecting you to be travelling so slowly, and because so many are on cruise control and not paying attention they are likely to rearend you before they wake up enough to -
A realize there is a problem, and
B do something useful about it.
I've tried driving at 80Km/hr in fairly light traffic on a dual lane freeway, and while the improvement in fuel economy is large, it is just too dangerous (even if it is legal)

this fact alone annoys me more than almost anyhting else.

i have to drivw the deaded F3 from gosford to hornsby every day, and although its an easy run of traffic most times and very reliable, everyone drives SO FAST!

the average cruise is a little over 120km/h as far as i can reckon, and so many commuters are zoned out, that its very dangerous. as a consequence i tend to try to stay with the traffic to minimise the amount of risk - but its gotta hurt the fuel economy.

ots not so bad on weekends, since there arent so many trucks. but during the week, the trucks use left lane up all the hills (of which there are many) and hence if you want to cruise slowly in the left lane, you would end up holding up truckies on the uphills - something i think would waste more fuel than driving slower would!

[cetane]

Yeah.. I guess I'm privileged in that I don't have to drive in traffic very often, so it's easy for me to say, "Drive 10kph slower....". I remember commuting only too well and I'm very pleased to be out of it. On the occasions that I need to go on trips to the city I try to stay close to the 110 limit but if the opportunity arises I'll drop to 100kph. Trucks are speed limited to 100kph anyway so I don't get in their way.

I can recall when I was doing my apprenticeship (early to mid '60s) that we bench-tested a few of the direct (BMC, Rootes, Gardiner) and indirect diesels (some Perkins) and found that there was a huge (and I mean HUGE) increase in fuel consumption once out of the top of the torque band. Basically, diesel was being blown down the exhaust because the motor couldn't burn it fast enough! I don't know about the efficiency of modern TDI motors at these high speeds however I would guess that being computer-controlled they are much better.

Going back to my previous post, the cost of fuel to you is dependent on 4 things:
* the fuel consumption efficiency of your car
* the price you pay for fuel
* how far you drive and in what conditions
* your driving habits

So....if fuel goes up by 80% (as it has done in the past year) you can:
* buy a 80% more fuel efficient car or;
* make your own fuel or;
* drive 80% less or;
* drive more economically.

I guess the easiest of these to achieve is the last one. One thing's for sure and that's fuel will never go down to '05 prices and reserves are rapidly depleting so we must change our habits in order to aid or own financial survival and the survival of the planet.

[Golf Loon]

I paid $1.88 in sydders the other day.
Its now $140 to fill the T4 from empty.

Can I use B100? Where can I get it??

I`m not complaining about the economy and you are right its all about how nicely you drive the beast.

[THR]

$1.889 at Shell yesterday (although I did get a 4c discouht thanks to those stupid vouchers).

[Mischa]

I paid $1.88 in sydders the other day.
Its now $140 to fill the T4 from empty.

Can I use B100? Where can I get it??

I`m not complaining about the economy and you are right its all about how nicely you drive the beast.

matt want some vege oil from my dad's restaurant?

[Golf Loon]

matt want some vege oil from my dad's restaurant?

Yeah and a chemist to cook it up for me.

[Mischa]

Yeah and a chemist to cook it up for me.

im gonna give it a go. nice knowing you if i blow myself up.

[Preen59]

$1.889 at Shell yesterday (although I did get a 4c discouht thanks to those stupid vouchers).

You know, you're just getting ripped off for your groceries to get that voucher. Stupid Coles and Woolworths. I say bring on Walmart etc for some competition. Screw em.