How to Hypermile and Save Gas

This article will explain how to hypermile and increase your car's miles per gallon. Simply put, learning how to hypermile will help improve your gas mileage by reducing the work load on your automobile engine.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Automobile or truck (4 or 5 speed preferred)

How to Hypermile and Save Gas

1. From a dead stop, slowly accelerate your car through it's gears until you reach the highest gear possible. Accelerating slowly will reduce the amount of gas that your car uses during this period.

2. Once you've reached the speed limit, or speed that you'd like to travel, shift the car into neutral and let the car coast. At this point the engine is only running at idle speed and you'll be surprised at how far you'll coast.

3. When you start to slow down, shift the car back into the highest gear possible and use the engine to provide a short burst of acceleration to increase your speed. Once again, when you have reached a speed slightly higher than your desired speed, shift back into neutral and coast.

4. Repeat this process as you drive and it will soon become a natural progression. Each time you shift into neutral and coast, you reduce the amount of gas your car uses to travel the distance until you have to re-accelerate.

Tips & Warnings

• The brake is not your friend. Each time you have to slow down, you have to use gas to accelerate.
• If you're close enough to a stop light or sign to see it, you can probable coast that distance.
• Think of your car like a 10 speed bike. When possible, only use the higher gears to reduce the rpm of your engine.
• Try to plan your trip to utilize only right-hand turns. They usually don't require you to stop and re-accelerate.
• Avoid down-shifting, as this only revs then engine and wastes gas.
• Over-inflate your tires by 1 or 2 pounds to increase your coasting ability.
• Manual transmission vehicles work best for this concept. Exercise caution when attempting with an automatic transmission vehicle.
• Pay special attention when coasting. If an emergency arises, you will need to shift back into gear to regain full control of your car.
• Don't tailgate people. This is a dangerous practice and will cause you to brake and accelerate more often.

Resources

• another article on how to Hypermile