Easing the Pain at the Pump....

The past weekend trip to Minneapolis proved to be a fun time. I didn't doubt that it would, but I wasn't looking forward to the money that would be spent in travel. Well, here is how it broke down, and actually wasn't a painful time at all.

I made it my goal to run some tests with renewable fuels, and the efficiency of two things:
1.) Fuel with 30% Ethanol, and
2.) Reduced speeds to conserve fuel.

Background Info:
I drive a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer LS 4x4 (very similar to the one in this stock photo here). It has the standard Vortec 4.2 Liter inline 6 cylinder engine.

The Results:
On the way out, I stopped in Clark, SD to put in a 30% blend of ethanol. I love stopping here, and I think I've mentioned before that my vehicle seems to run far better on this blend of fuel than any other. So, I fueled up and set off, with this part of the journey also testing the milage at 55 mph the entire way from Clark, SD to Minneapolis, MN. The journey ended up taking between 1 to 1.5 additional hours because of the reduced speed. When we arrived just outside the Cities, I found that in that distance covered, 220 miles, I had gotten a personal record with the Trailblazer, 24 mpg. My friend Alan, who made the trip with me, did the math for me and figured that opposed to normal mileage calculations of around 20 mpg, this was a savings of about $10.00. We both agreed that this was good, yet the money and the time was not worth the trouble if I could average 20 mpg on the way home at the speed limits. (It should also be noted that the entire way, I was dealing with a light cross wind, which probably did reduce the milage some.)

So, after the weekend in the Cities, it was time to return home. Alan had done some driving around Minneapolis, so he had put an additional 160 miles on, and had gotten an impressive 19.5 mpg driving in the city. Alan also decided to attempt to be a blender pump himself when refueling, and screwed up (or in his version of the story "enhanced") the ratio, so we ended up having closer to 40+% ethanol blend instead. He did not tell me this however until we were about half way home, and it was evident that no warning lights or problems were going to occur, so I had no basis for being upset. On the journey home, we abided by speed limits (or close to, as I was somewhat anxious to just get home) and found that milage from Minneapolis, MN to Clark, SD was higher than I expected: 21.5 mpg. I was quite impressed by this, and was fighting a much stiffer cross wind than on the way out, and I was very pleased by the results.

Conclusion:
Overall, we ended up on the entire trip of approximately 770 miles, we got 23.5 miles per gallon average. Anytime the milage climbs over the 20 mpg mark, I'm happy, so I was extremely happy. I was extremely impressed with the higher blends of ethanol, and will be continuing to use them and maybe even blend them myself if need be in the future. But, I personally also concluded that the milages saved going 55mph is not worth the savings of $10 over 250 miles and 5.5 hours.

Disclaimer:
This is not a scientific test, and all conclusions are my personal conclusions.