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Weight and fuel economy?

Hi everyone, first post here. Glad to finally see a good driver's forum, it took a while to find this place.

I'm looking for a credible source that has done research on weight and fuel economy on trucks (cube/cargo vans, straight trucks, and semis). I know theres a huge range of variables there. But at this point I'm looking for general figures. For example loosing 500 lbs on a straight truck will improve fuel economy by 5%. You get the idea.

I searched on here, but couldn't find the information I was looking for. And if this is posted in the wrong section, please feel free to move it.

Thanks and Merry Xmas everyone.

welcome to cad, IDS!

at the moment, this is the best i can do.....

smartway transport partnership and then within that site is an article on weight reduction although with general statistics, not the tables like i think you're looking for.

if you're so inclined, search the department of energy's database

somewhat related is a search of the national academies press the first 2 books posted look promising, and you can read them for free.

also found office of heavy vehicle technologies but couldn't search it as it timed out on me.

good luck!

Excellent start, thanks very much Vavega. I'll start digging through your links.

And thanks for the welcome :)

i swear this will be the last :wink:

dust off your phd for this one

Quote:

The tare weight of a typical combination truck can be reduced by as much as 10,000 pounds by using lightweight
materials and eliminating unnecessary components (12). Most trucks will not be able to achieve reductions this
large, in part because of the need for certain accessories or more durable components.We assume that trucks could
achieve a weight reduction of 3,000 lbs. while still maintaining desired durability and features. A 3,000-pound
reduction in vehicle weight improves fuel economy by approximately 0.11 mpg at 65 mph (12). This would reduce
fuel use by 296 gallons annually for a typical long-haul freight truck.

from Energy Efficiency Strategies for Freight Trucking be sure to check out the table on page 14.

and from the canadian's.........

Quote:

Vehicle mass is a critical variable in determining fuel consumption. While the exact relationship varies from one situation to another (truck configuration, relevant weight range, road surface/condition, tires, wind, speed, road vertical geometry, etc), the relationship is probably within the range of 0.02 to 0.06 km/L for every tonne of weight (tare weight or payload weight). For example, a typical heavy diesel truck probably decreases fuel consumption (increases km/L) by one to three percent for every decrease of one tonne.

from the potential for ghg reductions.....

I'm very impressed Vavega, definitely more than I bargained for. I got some time off over the next two weeks, so I got some reading ahead of me.

Thanks again, much appreciated it.

I'll try to make a summary table from all the readings once I'm done. Very interesting stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammeir (Post 515754)

Does it matter if your car is old? What is the the best way in reducing fuel consumption?

push your car off the cliff don't drive it off.