Useful fuel savings tips

On a recent tour of Volvo’s New River Valley truck plant in Dublin, Va., I had the chance to listen to truck expert Frank Bio discuss aerodynamics and fuel efficiency. He gave a 10-minute overview on the subject in front of a Volvo VN. Here are four quick tips (all of them easy and inexpensive to implement) that I thought were worth sharing:

Slow down: When travelling down the highway at 65 mph, 30-50% of the energy generated by the engine goes towards simply moving the vehicle through the air, Bio noted. A lot of customers are beginning to slow down to improve fuel mileage. Bio said many customers that used to gear to run 72 mph are now reducing their road speed down to 67 mph, which causes a 3-5% fuel economy improvement. There’s just one caveat, Bio says, you must also keep your rear axle ratio set where it will allow the engine to continue running in the sweet spot...more tips click here
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

msaks@ectts.com -