Observations: 700 mile, 10 hour trip

Below are some notes from a recent trip from S CA to S OR. For those unfamiliar with the route on I-5, it includes the “Grapevine” over Tejon Pass, ~4100’, hundred of miles of relatively flat terrain through the San Joaquin Valley, ~100 miles of moderately mountainous driving in N CA and a final climb over the Siskiyou Summit at ~4400’.

With 2 exceptions noted below all driving was in HV Econ.

Starting EV range was displayed at 60. After 25-30 miles of driving, EV range dropped to 52. I believe the gauge dropped one bar at this point. Up to Tejon pass EV range fluctuated from 48-52. The lovely bride drove this portion and her shoes are a bit heavier than mine. There were some audible high revs from the engine. Speed was 60-65 and I’d say we passed more cars than passed us.

We crossed the pass with EV showing 49 and the gauge now down 2 bars. We switched from HV to EV. At the bottom EV was 64, however, no bars were added to the gauge.

Through the SJV, EV range stayed between 58-62. Engine drive was engaged ~60-70% of the time. It would disengage during accelerations and on some uphill sections. It would engage again, sometimes after a moment of off-throttle regeneration, or, what seemed to be random, unpredictable conditions.

By Redding, EV was now 55, perhaps due to 3 quick fuel/rest stops. Through the N CA mountains EV range stayed between 50-55. It was 50 at the Siskiyou Summit when we switched back to EV for the second time. After gaining 15 miles of range going down the Grapevine, we both underestimated what the EV range would be by the time we reached the bottom. It displayed 80. Oddly, only one bar was added to the gauge. After an overnight charge, EV range showed 102. See photo. Of course, we managed to get about 50 actual miles the next day.

Cruise was set to 80 through most of the valley with ACC set to the shortest following time. Speed was around 65 on the mountainous portions. Trip computer calculated 40.5mpg. Actual miles and fuel consumption came out to 36mpg. No AC or heat was used.

I drove over the final pass and made an effort to keep the power gauge needle below the 12 o’clock position. The lowest speed was 57-58, which is pretty much the flow of traffic up that grade. Engine noise was audible but less so than the previous pass.

We made the trip south with the car in Sept and will be headed south again on Sunday. I’ll take more notes.

 

The Clarity is safely out of SoCal for good. In another thread, I’d mentioned making this trip again at a lower speed. Here are some details.

The wife drove the car, completely in HV, while I towed a ~4400lb trailer with the diesel Grand Cherokee. Speed was kept to 62mph or less, up to and over the Tejon summit, then 62mph to the first stop at 245miles. The car took 4.74 gallons and averaged 51.7mpg. Jeep was 19.1mpg. The second stop was after 250 miles, most of which was through a solid cross headwind and a cruising speed of 64mph. The car took 5.1 gallons for an average of 49.0mpg. Jeep was 17mpg.

We haven’t fueled up since the final 200 miles. I’ll post those numbers later. The Jeep averaged 15mpg through the N Cal mountains and over the Siskiyou pass. There was light rain along the way, less wind and some snow flurries over the pass. The last diesel fill was 15 gallons of B20 in a 26 gallon tank. I believe the B20 may have contributed to the reduced fuel economy. We generally avoid it whenever possible.

I realize that no sane person would voluntarily drive a car at 62mph for 12 hours. Such was the situation. Under those conditions, the car exceeded the claimed highway mpg estimates by roughly 20%.

 

The Jeep gets 27mpg at 80mph. At 65ish it will get 30-33mpg. Around town, about 24mpg. I’ve towed and hauled with my 6.0l, 12-14mpg gas 3/4-ton truck, the 3.0l diesel is a beast. It is an option in the Ram 1500 line. The Jeep weighs 5500lbs and it was loaded, including suitcases on a roof rack. The Clarity was also fully loaded.

 

A couple of other notes. The trip computer calculated 47.4mpg for the last leg. When I moved the car this morning I noticed the battery gauge was down to 15 bars and range showed ~30miles. This seemed low based on previous trips. I asked the lovely wife and she did say that she departed the second fuel stop in EV and used 10 miles of range before realizing that the car was not in HV mode. Additionally, the last ~100 miles were in temperatures of 30-40’s F.

 

Indeed. Not sure what truck and engine you have. I had a neighbor who drove a pre-2007 Ram with the 5.7l Cummins B-series, he got 23mpg when not towing and 15mpg when towing a 26’ fifth-wheel that probably weighed more than 12K lbs.

 

We’ve done most of the rim drive on our road bikes. The kind you pedal. When the 3’ wall of snow and the bulldozer blocked the road we turned around. The next day we approached from the other side and met a similar fate. In all there may have been 4-5 miles of the 33 that we couldn’t cover. That was mid-June. We stayed at Mazama campground which had just barely opened and they were clearing downed trees and branches to open more spots.