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Against the wind

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azthegame

Ready to race!
So, who has any data in wind effects on your personal driving experience with your TDI?

For me, on the way to work, with wind, i can get 54 to 56 easily on trip computer, highest ever was 63. Against the wind? 46 Max.. If lucky..

On the way home same route reversed, i Max at 47 with wind and struggle to get 40 against it.. Highest ever with wind I got lucky with 50.

Wind does some ridiculously devastating damage in my case..

Anyone else?
 
whitewolf33

whitewolf33

Go Kart Champion
the wind always blows in the same direction?

I check mine often but I play around too much to get any kind of accurate MPG reading
 
A

azthegame

Ready to race!
Of course it doesn't always blow the same direction, sometimes it's with me to work, sometimes against. I can tell from flags blowing. Then I check my weather app to see wind speeds. For me it's pretty solid at a 7 to 10 mpg difference from with to against
 
C

Chris@Revo USA

Go Kart Champion
As speed increases the air resistance goes up but the difference that wind makes goes down.

For example in cycling if you are headed north and you are going 15mph with a wind from NNE at say 5mph you will be more affected by this than someone going 25mph because the speed differential is greater. In cycling this is YAW and it affects what type of equipment you should use. In some cases equipment has negative drag at high yaw but the faster you go the less yaw (so it is kind of deceptive marketing)

While wind can have a roll in hurting your mpg at highway speed things like elevation are going to more greatly effect your MPG unless you are talking about constant 25+mph winds. normal 5 to say 15mph winds won't do much.


How long is your commute? what is the elevation change? how fast are you going? how fast is the wind?

On my commute I generally get at lest 5mpg better on the way home since it is net downhill.
 
GoodysGotaCuda

GoodysGotaCuda

Ready to race!
drphil said:
If you drive as fast as I do wind effects do not affect anymore
Click to expand...


Huh?

Not quite, if you have a tail wind, say 10mph, the wind in front of you is going the direction you are, reducing the aero load on the car for a given speed. So if you are going 10mph, there is no apparent wind with a sustained 10mph tail wind, assuming a zero yaw angle. 20mph will have a frontal aero load of 10mph on the car, and so on.
 
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Shutaro

Ready to race!
drphil said:
If you're driving at mach1 it don't matter anymore :p
Click to expand...


No one is impressed. Stop trying to boost your post count with drivel on your second day.

/derail

I suspect that Chris is right (and he certainly backed it up with some good info). I've never found wind to be much of a factor personally. My commute is 40 miles each way with an average speed of about 55mph. I usually average 2-5 mpg better going to work than returning; I've always chalked this up to elevation change.
 
M

MotMot

Passed Driver's Ed
Doesn't the impact of wind resistance increase to the square of the velocity - so a 10mph wind will make next to no difference if you are doing 30 - bit a big difference if you are doing 70.. (In effect the same as doing 80 in work done). The effect of non direct head or tail winds can be the resultant velocity or the square route of the sum of the square of the velocity in the direction the car is moving and perpendicular to that (easy to explain with a diagram - not so easy in words!).
 
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azthegame

Ready to race!
There is slightly more downhill on the way to work, not very much though. The main reason I get so much better mileage going opposed to coming back, is that there is less traffic in the morning. I start it, and drive off. Almost zero stopping except maybe two lights if I catch them. On the way home, the work parking lot can prove to be a chore getting out of with so many people leaving at the same time. Lots of bumper to bumper getting out the lot. The rest is free flowing usually but that beginning is horrid for me.

My main observance for this thread was the difference in against vs with going in same direction. So in my case, 54-57 with and 46ish against. Usually the wind is 8mph from north or greater when it affects me most. Average speed is usually 60 or so
 
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Shutaro

Ready to race!
I actually lol'd, but you didn't deserve it ;)
 
Draz

Draz

Ready to race!
I only see a decrease in MPG on windy days, about 15MPH or higher.
 
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