[T3] News and questions from the road

[Jim Adney]

Daniel & Jessica,

Glad to hear that things are going pretty much okay. Your gas mileage 
sounds quite normal, considering the wind and your airspeed. Few 
people realize that air drag is the main part of highway driving 
power consumption, and that a roof rack adds considerably to that 
drag. Will the roof rack fit inside the square?

As for hills, I was surprised, long ago, to find that, in the long 
run, hills didn't seem to effect my gas mileage; what I lost going 
uphill, I regained going down. And the reduced drag from thin air at 
altitude always results in better gas mileage but less power from the 
normally aspirated engine.

The squareback must be the worst of the Type 3 body styles in a cross 
wind. It's sort of like a sail back there. I've no fasty or notch 
driving experience, but I have to assume they are better, and, of 
course, the Ghia may not even notice cross winds.  

As for not starting, have you tried the "coin trick"? It's possible 
that your relay is fried, as it takes a rather special relay to 
handle the solenoid current, which can be quite high.

Yes, western Wyoming and Montana are gorgeous! Hope you get to spend 
some time with the Tetons.

Thanks for the update,

Jim

On 11 Jul 2016 at 23:05, Daniel Nohejl wrote:

> Wow, so since leaving Madison two days ago, we´ve been through Minnesota, South Dakota (including the Badlands overnight), and are now in Cody, WY which is a little bit outside of Yellowstone. We´re just shy of 2400 miles into our trip and have had no major incidents as of yet. I´ll spare you all the touristy highlights, though, and get to the T3 stuff!
> 
> Gas mileage has varied a lot. After leaving Madison, it was 24.7 but the wind in South Dakota killed us and we dipped down to 22. It´s such a big empty place (seemingly one huge farm tended by many farmers and a few towns sprinkled throughout) and the wind off the farms and prairies just pummeled the car which made it hard to drive above 65. Both hands had to be on the wheel at all times as the gusts were strong and unpredictable¦.it was quite nerve-wracking a times.
> 
> We thought that with South Dakota we´d been through the emptiest windiest place in the country and then we got to Wyoming! Almost as soon as we crossed the state line, there were signs warning us of 35+ mph wind gusts and they seemed to come from both sides. For long periods, we had to keep the speed between 55 and 60 as it felt like an invisible hand has preventingus from going any faster. The drive was slow and frustrating until we got to Bighorn National Forest. While there was a lot of downshifting into 3rd and 2nd to make the ascent up to 9,666 ft, we survived the ordeal. This part of the drive was largely windless and our MPG climbed back up to 24.7 despite the hills. 
> 
> FWIW, Wyoming is far and away the most beautiful state we´ve been through so far!
> 
> We had one small incident this evening:
> 
> -We checked into our hotel, got back in the car, tried to start it, and nothing happened. This happened the other day at Jim´s house. Everything clicked like it should (we have a hot start relay installed) but no dice so we had to push start. Last time, this was because our 15 amp fuse blew but now we have a 100 amp fuse. If that lew, then what the heck is drawing so much current in our starting system? WeTMll have to check the fuse in the AM.
> 
> A small observation:
> 
> -Once we get to Oregon, we´re going to ditch our roof rack. We stopped packing stuff on it in Ohio when it became clear that the wind was steering the rear of the car on account of what we had packed on the rack. Took the stuff off and we haven´t had that issue since. Now, all it does is whistle and given the crazy winds we´ve exprienced, ITMm inclined to hink that itTMs not helping our gas mileage. 
> 
> 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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