I drive for a living, in my GS-R. Ever since the beginning of the year I have been driving mostly 60-65mph instead of 70-75mph, due to the high rise in gas prices.
If I want to drive 55mph, then I follow behind a semi truck. [/I]
"Using higher gears won't give you lightning acceleration but will save fuel. Keeping your revs low (but not so low that your engine starts to struggle) is a good habit to get into when cruising."
Not to sound like a jerk, pick on you, or anything else but please don't follow semi's. Also when you say follow, I don't know how close you are talking so if I'm singling you out or falsly accusing you, please forgive.
I'm a truck driver and I was actually googling something else and came across this statement on a google search. Maybe I'm bored which is why I'm giving out this "safety" speech. Oh well, take it for what it's worth.
I know in rush hour traffic it's easy to just get behind somebody and just cruise....which is fine to me because we are all kinda crammed in there like sardines anyway. However, on the open road, please don't follow semi's. Few reasons.
1. After a long day driving, it's pretty annoying especially at night when the headlights bouce from one mirror to the next.
2. If something comes along where I need to move into the next lane quickly, the car behind will almost always shoot over in that lane and block it from me.....that normal happens at the worst possible timing. Even when the car shoots over to my cushion lane and is trying to allow me to come over....I often times can't judge my rear distance and or assume he's letting me over in a quick enough fashion.
3. If you rear end me, I still get either a "non preventable" or sometimes a "preventable" accident report on my record. The reason it is sometimes stated as "preventable" is because the trucking companies figure that I should know you are back there and either pull off to let you around or expand my following distance from the vehicle in front of me, so that I leave enough room to allow BOTH of us to slow down without you hitting me, in the event that something would cause me to need to stop or slow way down....like an animal, road contruction, or accident ahead.
4. There are a lot of good truckers out there, but there is also a lot of crappy one's out there.....you might be following the crappy one out there.
5. When a 120lb trailer tire blows, it could easily flip up into your windshield and cause you to get hurt.
6. My insurance rate for the year (excellent record) with out Hazmat liability is over $8000.00. With hazmat liability it's almost $12,000. There are attorneys all over the place looking for an easy buck from a truck driver which drives up my insurance rates.
The sweet spot for taking advantage of a semi truck is very close. If you look at a semi truck from a distance in the rain you can see where the sweet spot is, and where the very turbulant part is....which the turbulant part would probably reduce your fuel mileage.
Having said all that, there are a lot of crappy truck drivers out there that tailgate cars so I'm not trying to single out car drivers. In rush hour traffic you don't always have good options, but out in the middle of nowhere some truckers will tailgate the crap out of a car trying to bully him out of his/her way. I can't stand drivers that do that. We all share the road is the way I look at it.
Anyway, that my safety speech for the day. BTW, I don't own an Integra, but those are sweet cars.
Take care....from a bored truck driver waiting for my next load.