2010FX4F150GILROY

Ok so here goes nothing:
I had a trip to San Diego SDSU ... 450 miles oneway so I thought I would test Ethanol MPG and see if it is all its cracked up to be. I want to start by saying I dont care how many miles per gallon it gets I care about how much money if any can be saved using it. I dont work for a big oil company or corn farmer in Iowa and really dont care whats best, just want to know in a real world test what I can find.
A little background on my truck 2010 F150 FX4 replaced tires and wheels with 295/70R18 tires and 18 inch Vtec Raptor wheels, 2.5 Lift and front reciever hitch. I am telling you the mods that can effect gas mileage so we all know what I am working with. My speedometer is off about 7% give or take a percent... I drove around for a week prior to the test to drive on ethanol to help get me closer to just Ethanol in the fuel tank.
So on May 19th the trip begins, I have driven 33 miles to this point since filling up to get from the fuel station to home to pack everything. There is not a ethanol station on every corner like a gas station so to me this already starts as a draw back..
I drove to LA and put on over 393 miles plus 7% for speedo error.
I filled up in LA and put in 30.5 gallons of regular 87 octane gasoline.
To this point I figure 393 X 1.07 = 420.51 miles 30.5 gallons fuel for a total of 14.01 MPG on Ethanol... If anyone has any input please let me know if I am not doing this correctly... I drove to SDSU and spent 3 days there before filling up again on gasoline to drive home... Tomorrow I will get gas again and have the comparable MPG for gas... stay tuned....


May 25th filled tank with gas again... Miles shows 421 X 1.07= 450.47 total gallons at fill up 27.2 = 16.56 MPG
How I drive seems to be relevant also so I add that speedometer I maintained 67-75 indicated which is
71-80 MPH more towards 71 then 80 most of the time. My trip was HWY 152 to I-5 .. At the grapevine I encountered almost no traffic until downtown LA... Yes I get better gas mileage with 87 octane gas, but the day I filled the tank with Ethanol at that station gas was 4.299 and Ethanol was 3.459 giving me a price of 84 cents per gallon difference. That station is not however the cheapest fuel around. Lowest price I found was 4.099 per gallon.
For me in my test there are of course factors such as wind that I did not measure, weather otherwise clear and dry. Traffic was relatively light both directions except for downtown LA going about spent about an hour stuck in traffic and comming back only about 30 minutes stuck in traffic. This thread was really for cost per mile so here it is :
Day I left *___cost *___Todays cost
Gas --______.2595-____.2366 Per mile
Ethanol E85- .2508 ----- .2415 Per mile

As of today the cost per mile for ethanol is actually slightly more than gas, on the first day of my trip it was slightly lower. The problems locating flex fuel stations makes it really not cost effective unless there is one on the corner. Even then it will probably be a break even if they keep the same realtive price to one another. A large drop in gas historically will not reflect a large drop in ethanol price so gas can quickly and easily become much cheaper. Since my trip the first day and last day 6 days total prices on regular unleaded dropped about 20 cents per gallon and ethanol only dropped 12 cents, this tiny difference is enough to make it not viable in my pocket book.
To those later in the thread that want to debate the hows and whys of ethanol subsidies, food impact, etc.. This was not what this thread was started for... See your congress people for that......
Thank you....

Remsen

Do you have data on your speed? The 14 mpg is not bad at all but the speed definitely matters. My truck's mileage really starts to decline from about 70 mph up, so if you were doing 75 to LA and got 14 mpg that would be outstanding; doing 60-65 and getting 14 mpg is ok but not impressive.

NorCal-09

Thanks for the info!!

We are both on the same sheet of music, with respect to what you opine here. I will be interested to see how your return trip on unleaded pans out? The only other thing I would add, is I like the way my truck performs with the high octane E85.

I will be doing the same test in my leveled '09 with 35" Toyo's on 18" rims and will also run with E85 down, and then reg. gas on the way back home. We are headed down to L.A. (LAX) on Saturday but my return home to the north state, will be a full month later, due to our vacation in China.

Did you go down 101 or I-5 from Gilroy? The run up the Grapevine on I-5 can really screw the mileage to the negative, compared to the relatively level central valley. I have no other option than I-5 due to the distance/travel time to cut across to the coast and down 101.

transmaster

The bottom line on this issue E85 reduces your fuel mileage by 25% to 30% go here for the info: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/current.shtml

hunterjr81

Well I switched over to E-85 for two full tanks and really the only thing I noticed was my mpg dropped from 16 to 13 just driving back and forth to work each day. Mpg's were calculated by hand. Can't say I noticed any performance increase on the ethanol. I'm in Houston and with ethanol only 30 cents a gallon on average cheaper than regular gas here, E85 just isn't worth it right now. I drive a 2010 fx4. All stock still with almost 5k miles.

NorCal-09

I do not want to pollute the OP's thread in response to this comment, as this issue has been beat to death in other related threads over the past two months.

However, I will state, as one who has had first-hand experience with E85 in my own truck for a few months now; this is not the "bottom line" and that figure of 25-30% is an average, which is somewhat dated (older model engines in a 2006/2007 report) and offered with the caveat ("usually experience").

BTW, in my area the price differential is between .60 and .69 cents for the Propel brand E85 vs. reg. unleaded.

Jmfalcon1

The cost savings NEVER justifies the mpg reduction of E85. Itis more powerful though.

SultanGris

i can definitely tell there is more power. No stations local to me either so i havent got to play with it much, seems to get 3-5 mpg less in a small test for me, though those results may not be accurate due to different conditions at the times of testing, more testing needed for more accurate results.

EricTheOracle

Anybody, anybody at all with a job with wages high enough to rate paying income taxes who thinks that they are saving money running ethanol, has been duped. I kid you not: that one gallon of ethanol you burned was subsidized by nearly $10.00 of tax-payer money and then you forked out even more money to pour it into your tank. As a nation, we'd literally be better off buying anybody who wished to purchase a gallon of ethanol two gallons of premium fuel and telling that person to put their three bucks toward their retirement and invest it.

Thankfully, here in Minnesota, a place where ethanol was rammed down our throats for years, we're beginning to fight back and now our former Governor is telling people how it really is: America can no longer afford to subsidize ethanol and he hold it to Iowan farmers.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/201...hanol-edition/

Kaborkian

Ah, the voice of reason. This man speaks the truth.

Ethanol costs more energy to produce than you get from it. In order for a corn farmer to come out positive, the government pays him subsidies to grow corn and sell it for ethanol. Where do you think the money to pay that farmer's subsidies comes from? Yep...YOU!