Quote:
Originally Posted by bosspsd
... The wind had to be over 30 and gusting to 45 and we were driving right into it. We had things to do so just slowing down and extending the trip did not sound fun. The only thing I could do was was get up to 70 mph set the cruise and then drop the shifter down to third to keep the trans from hunting like mad. ... the tach read 3000 rpm and the mpg meter said 7. ... Hand calculated the mpg's and we had only been getting about 6 mpg so we got a whopping 170 miles out of a tank of fuel. The next leg from west fargo to Alexandria, Mn was just as bad. I was wishing I 4:10 or 4:30 gear.
Spent over 400 dollars in fuel to go 800 miles, what a drag ...
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Yup, drag is precisely what it is. At an airspeed of 110 mi/hr, (70 mi groundspeed plus 40 mi/hr headwind) the power dissipated by aerodynamic drag will be more than triple what it is at 70 mi/hr.
There are really only three options when you're facing a strong headwind:
Slow down
Burn a lot more fuel
Wait for more favorable winds
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Douglas Campbell [drcampbell ot engineer dat kahm]
November 5, 2008: The fat lady sang. Back to actually working for a living.
1986 Isuzu P'up, 177,673.8 miles. Hella headlights, (highly recommended) DOT C-2 back end. (also recommended) R-12 air conditioner converted to R-406a. 4.1:1 rear axle converted to 3.4:1.
9/22/2007, age 21: Still running well when reluctantly sent away for reincarnation, due to body & frame rust.
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