July's Mileage Totals

This is the monthly totals for July of 2014
Total Chevy Volt miles for July, 1452.
Electric miles for July, 961.6
Gas Mileage average for July 122.7 MPG
July beginning monthly kWh Reading 1915.6, Aug. 1st reading 2158.5, 
243 kWh used in July @ $.10 / kWh, $24.30 (electricity  to recharge)

 The highest lifetime MPG reading for July was 100 MPG, and that was at the beginning of our trip to the Anderson Family Reunion at Alturas Lake.
When we returned home the Lifetime mileage was down to 99.3 mpg.
Today we are up to 98.8

June 2014 Mileage Totals

July 1st. 2014

Volt miles, 14654

Today's Kw Meter 1915.6
June1st Kw Meter 1698.9
Kw used in May, 216.7
Monthly Ev Miles 808.2
Electric cost $.10 X 216.7 = $21.67
Information from Volt Stats my vehicle #4116
Gasoline MPG for June = 139.9 MPG

Twin Falls, Id to Farr West, Ut Round Trip

today we drove to Farr West for Emma's Baptizm.
We made the trip Via Logan to pick up a stitchery.
Leaving twin Falls, we had 47 Miles anticipated electric range, I drove with the drive selector in LOW and the performance on Normal.
This looks to be the best gas mileage that I have been able to achieve so far, on such a long trip.
We drove at 65 mph with the cruise on, we did not draft any trucks for any distance either.
We added $10 of prem. fuel at Snowville Ut. on the way home @ $3.79/gl.

May Mileage Totals

 

Here we are at June 1st. 

Volt miles, 13443

Today's Kw Meter 1698.9
May1st Kw Meter 1447.6
Kw used in May, 251.3
Monthly Ev Miles 1046.4
Electric cost $.10 X 279 = $25.13
Information from Volt Stats my vehicle #4116
Gasoline MPG for April = 93.1 MPG

The tire has broken cords and has separated.

I took the tire in to Jacks Tire and Oil, they unmounted the tire and found that the steel cords had broken and separated from the casing.  They have ordered a new tire for me that matches the OEM Goodyear tires that came with the Volt. The new tire will be here tomorrow afternoon. This makes for an excellent time to rotate the tires.

South Hills Trip to see Humming Bird Migration Feeders. Right Front Tire Punctured

We shortly after driving away from the Hummer Feeding area.

I noticed the low tire indicator showed the Right Front tire at 16 Lbs.
We pulled off the road at Bear Gulch Campground.

This is what I found...

It appeared as though the tire was punctured.  I put a plug in it to get us home.
I will take it in the the tire shop in the morning for a permanent repair.

The Icons on the pump and sealant settings was not familiar to me. The Volt Owners Manual needs a picture that shows the pump and tire sealant selector positions with matching the icons. Has any one felt the same?

Twin Falls to Declo, ID on a full battery charge.

Today, we went from our home here in TF to Declo and decorated our family graves.
We started out with a full battery charge, 37 miles anticipated battery range.
We drove the old Highway 30, with the cruise set at 55 MPH, or the speed limit.
I made the whole trip with the Range selector set in LOW, to maximize the regeneration when coasting and braking.
I started the trip, in the Normal Mode, and drove in this Mode until the Battery Range Meter said that I had 12 miles remaining.
At this point I switched to Mountain Mode, the engine is now running powering the car AND recharging the HV battery.
I continued driving at 55 MPH with cruise control on for about 10 minutes in Mountain Mode.
I have found that the Mountain Mode typically builds the HV battery back up at 2 miles for every 5 minutes of driving.  This recharging rate of the battery is not set in stone because of radiations in road elevation.

I now switched back to the Normal Mode and observed that the HV battery had been recharged to an anticipated range of 13 Miles.  I now drove in the Normal Mode until the HV battery was again down to 10 Miles remaining, where upon I switched back to Mountain Mode.

I did this several times in the 45 minute drive and I did not make my switch into the Normal Mode if I was driving up a hill or on a stretch of road that had a visible elevation increase.
I am not sure if this holds true if the elevation is dropping, if it is better to stay in Mountain or to go back into Normal.  I don't know precisely which Mode, MM or NM will give me the most regeneration.
At this time I feel that going down hill in MM gives the best HV battery recharge for the same period of time.
But, I need to try this several more times to be sure.

Okay, here are today"s results.
I arrived home with 1 Mile remaining on the HV battery, which is what I wanted to do.
I wanted to use up (as much as possible, with out the gas engine coming on this last time) all of the HV battery charge as possible before I arrived home.
Nice! We squeaked in with 1 Mile remaining on the HV battery.
The 239.4 Miles on the trip odometer includes the miles from our fuel fillup in Snowville, UT on our way home.
The main point of this display is to show that we arrived home today with 1 mile remaining.

This display is showing the information on this HV battery charge.
We have driven 127.1 Miles on this charge, 83.6 on the Hv battery and 43.5 Miles on gasoline.
We used 10kWh of electricity or $1 ($.10/kWh) and we used 1.78 gallons of gas.
The display says that we achieved 71.0 MPG!
This gets complicated, to me anyway, because we are using gas to drive the car and recharge the battery that  both get you down the road.
But, this looks pretty impressive!

52 MPG, 143.6 Miles on Battery, round trip Snowville, UT to Twin Falls, ID (Home)

This is the total for mileage from Snowville, Ut to Twin Falls, Idaho (home)
We filled up in Snowville, Prem. $3.83 / Gallon and this is the totals for the drive home from there.

This is the trip totals, for the round trip, Twin Falls, ID to Logan, UT.

OH, and I forgot to plug in the car last night, so we started on our trip this morning with only 11 miles available on the battery.
I tried a different way of driving using the Normal and the Mountain Modes in combination.
Look at the trip mileage on this beginning with a partial charge!
52 MPG for 452 Miles!
This looks very promising!
I will do this again beginning with a full battery charge and see how it comes out.

Finally, 50 Miles Anticipated Range!

This is a first for us in our Volt!
50 Miles Anticipated Battery Range!
We have been hanging around 48 to 49 miles for several days, finally made it to 50!!

60th Birthday in Farr West, Ut.

We went to Farr West, UT. for my 60th Birthday.
Here are some pictures of the trip display.
We arrive in Farr West, better put some fuel in before we head back home.

The Kiddos put on a real fun birthday for Grandpa!
Thank you for the sweet and thoughtful cards!

Thank You!!,  Daryl and Nicole and Kids!
We got home and this is the display for the trip home all on gas.
44 MPG
and 49 MPG for the whole trip.

April Mileage Totals

Here we are at May 1st.
Volt miles, 11633
Today's Kw Meter 1447.6
April 1st Kw Meter 1168.7
Kw used in April, 279
Electric cost $.10 X 279 = $27.90
Information from Volt Stats my vehicle #4116
Gasoline MPG for April = 105 MPG

April 1st 2014 Readings Update

Another month has past and the warmer weather is nice.
The Display "Stated" Battery EV range has been as high as 47 miles after a full charge.
Here are today's numbers...
1814 Total Miles for March, 894.5 EV Miles, 919.5 Miles on Gas, Electric KW used 269.4 or $26.94 to Idaho Power.
That works out to 116.2 miles for the price of 1 gallon of, $3.50 Premium gasoline.

Twin Falls to Idaho Falls Round Trip

We need to take the grandsons back to Idaho Falls to meet up with their daddy, so he can take them back to Jackson.
This is the photos of the dash display at the beginning of the trip.
Battery is fully charged and we are ready to go..........

I ran the car in "Low" and Mountain Mode until about 12 miles of the Surplus Store.
Then switched to Normal.
This is where we met at the Army Surplus store and gave the boys back to their daddy.
We fueled the car up to head home.
Here are the Screen Shots, at the Luvs Fuel stop.

I drove most of the way home with a head wind, and was able to follow a semi at a safe distance for must of the trip back to Twin.
Upon arriving home this is the total trip miles on this charge and the other display indicators.
Notice how our total MPG has dropped.  But, it looks like we did around 45 MPG @ 65 MPH following the semi. home.  It would have been better if not for that headwind.

Mirror Chrome Wrapping Vinyl Applied to OEM Painted Aluminum Wheels

I got tired of the Silver Painted OEM Aluminum wheels and decided to apply some "Silver Mirror Chrome Wrapping Film" to the wheels.
I purchased 2ea. 6"X60" sheets on Ebay. I didn't think one would be enough and I was right! I could only get 19 Films for the spokes of the Volt wheels and I needed 20, 5 per each wheel.
Here is the process:
I made a template out of paper and then traced it onto plastic sheeting and cut it out.
Then test fit the pattern on the OEM wheel spokes.

I transferred the pattern to the film and cut out one for a test fit.
I made a few adjustments and then cut out the 5 spokes for each wheel, for a total of 20.

 Here is the first wheel completed.

A couple of closer looks.

And complete...........

I think it looks good, will just have to see how well that they last.

Monthly Update for Febuary 2014

Another month has past, here are the MFD screen displays.
Notice that the Lifetime mileage is down.
The trip back form Idaho Falls last weekend against the wind sucked the fuel!

Volt Door Sill Plates and Clear Film

Today was a beautiful 54 Deg. and I took this opportunity to wash and vacuum the Volt.
And, to put on the Cost-a-Plenty, $75, OEM "Volt" Door Sill Plates.
I covered the "Volt" Door Sill Plates with a 3" wide pieces of Clear Vinyl Wrap.
The wrap extended down over the edge.

Round Trip to Boise

We went to Boise today to our grandson's basket ball game, put spark plugs and wires on our sons Dodge Caravan. These are the mileage results when we got home.
299.5 Total Round Trip Miles.
37.6 Miles on Electric using 9.4kWh ($.94 of Electricity @ 4 Miles/Kw)
261.9 Miles on Gas using 6.8 Gallons of gas (38.5 MPG)
With Gas and Electric the Display says that we got 44.0 MPG.

 We stopped and filled up in Mountain Home, that is why the drivers display reads 86.2 miles since that fuel fill.  35.7 MPG with the headwind on the way home.