Carrying an extra person

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Sun 19 Feb 2006 21:10
Carrying an extra person - johnny
Hypothetical question .. Would there be a noticeable difference in fuel consumption on a long journey, carrying one, two, three or four people ? ( say a 1200 kg car carring an extra 75 / 150 / 225 / 300 kg.
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Sun 19 Feb 2006 21:32
Carrying an extra person - Civic8
yes,higher capacity in weight being pulled by engine increases fuel consumption ie takes more fuel to drive engine
--
Steve
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Sun 19 Feb 2006 21:32
Carrying an extra person - Big Bad Dave
Having my mam and dad in the car with all their holiday luggage added 2mpg on a 100 mile trip that I do every couple of weeks at the same speed on the cruise at the same mpg in fairly traffic-free conditions. That would be a 1500kg car carrying an extra 220 kg or thereabouts.

Not very scientific I grant you but it gets the ball rolling.
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Sun 19 Feb 2006 21:39
Carrying an extra person - Pugugly {P}
All depends on the power of the car, find little difference in the
(old) five when loaded to the gunnals on a holiday trip. I would imagine that a 1400cc petrol hatch might consume more than normal.
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Sun 19 Feb 2006 21:54
Carrying an extra person - Big Bad Dave
This question reminds me of one we were set in A-level physics. A man in his van together weighing 2000kg are delivering 100kg of live pidgeons to a client when they come to a bridge with a 2000kg weight limit. If he startles the birds so that they are all in the air, will he be able to cross the bridge?

I remember the answer but not the explanation.
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Sun 19 Feb 2006 22:09
Carrying an extra person - buzbee
Answer = No. The pidgeons must generate lift to stay in the air and that presses down on something which, in this case, is the inside of the van.
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Sun 19 Feb 2006 22:03
Carrying an extra person - johnny
Having my mam and dad in the car with all their
holiday luggage added 2mpg on a 100 mile trip that I
do every couple of weeks at the same speed on the
cruise at the same mpg in fairly traffic-free conditions. That would
be a 1500kg car carrying an extra 220 kg or thereabouts.
Not very scientific I grant you but it gets the ball
rolling.


Good. I knew someone would have worked it out from experience. Although shouldn't it be subtracted 2 mpg? ;-)
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Mon 20 Feb 2006 07:00
Carrying an extra person - NowWheels
I guess it depends partly on the journey. If you drive the whole journey on a perfectly straight, flat road with no other traffic, then the weight won't make much difference -- the issue is wind resistance.

However, if you are stopping and starting a lot, or going up lots of steep hills, then extra weight will make the engine work much harder. If the car has huge reserves of power, it may not make that much difference, but a lower-powered vehicle it could be significant.
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Real MPG enables you to register the fuel economy you are actually getting against your make and model of car, its engine and type of transmission.

Every time you enter an average consumption figure against your car, the overall average automatically adjusts to reflect it.

Real MPG