Now is a great time to look again at some great tips to save gas. Gas prices are creeping back upward again, although thankfully not yet close to where they were 6 months ago, when the price of regular gas was around $4.50 per gallon in some locales. If that was enough to make you want to ditch the F-250 and go scouting around for a Prius, you definitely weren’t alone. If you are still driving a rig that doesn’t know the meaning of “sip” when it comes to gas, here are some tips you can use to help reign in your runaway gas or diesel bills.

Gas Saving Tip – Clean the Lid
If you don’t need to display your new Cannondale, get it the heck off the roof of your car. The same goes with that Yakima rack or Thule car top carrier. Although the roof top carriers may look pretty streamlined, they can still cost you 4% – 7% fuel mileage at freeway speeds. Besides that, they make it impossible to get into the garage. The faster you go with an obstruction on the roof, the more gas you waste, so if you don’t need it, remove it.

Gas Saving Tip – Pack up the Truck and Move to Beverly
Well, you don’t have to go through the trouble of moving, but if you live somewhere that you don’t need to run the AC, or just plain gut it out and keep it off, you’ll save about 3% – 5% on the freeway, and up to 8% in town. You get a larger gas mileage penalty in town when you run the AC because the AC compressor uses about the same amount of energy no matter how fast you go. That means you use less energy per mile to power the compressor the faster you’re traveling.

Gas Saving Tip – Keep the Pressure On.
Make sure your tires are properly inflated. President Obama’s solution to our fuel importation situation actually does save fuel, but only about 2%, unless you’re going from driving around on tires with just about no air to properly inflated ones. Check the sticker on your driver’s door jamb for the manufacturer’s recommended tire inflation pressures. Often they are different in the front and back. Most tires are normally inflated to the 30 – 34psi range. Be aware of using the gas saving trick of over inflating your tires. The saving is minimal, a percent or two at best, and you’re compromising safety, handling, and tire life to get it.

Gas Saving Tip – Remember, You’re Not Danica Patrick, So Don’t Drive Like Her
If you’re a guy, you may well wish you knew her better, but she’s already married, so cool your jets. Your driving has just about the largest impact on your fuel mileage that anything else you can do. Use the orange squeezing trick. Pretend like there is a ripe orange under the gas pedal, and you’re trying not to squash it.

So many people accelerate much too rapidly away from lights, only to have to stop again in a few hundred yards at the next red light. That constant quick acceleration, followed by hard braking just kills your fuel mileage. Every time you use the brakes, you’re turning the gas you burned to get you moving back into heat that just gets dissipated into the air by your brake rotors. If it sounds like a total waste, it is.

The way to avoid excessive brake use and maximize gas savings is when the light to anticipate. Look ahead at traffic, so that you know well in advance when you’ll need to stop. That way you can let off on the gas and coast. Most modern cars completely cut off the fuel when coasting at speed, so that you’re getting infinite MPG at that point. With luck the light will turn green before you have to completely stop, saving the gas you would have used to get going again.

Another driving related gas waster is driving too fast. This is especially true on short trips. The extra 10 miles an hour you go driving 75 over driving 65 wastes about 10% of your fuel, depending on the vehicle you’re driving. On short trips, you’ll save very little time with the extra speed, and all those short trips getting better gas mileage will add up, big time. Be that as it may, I am by no means a fan of the government legislating slower speed limits for the good of our environment, or any other reason. It should be up to us as individuals weather or not we want to trade some of our irreplaceable life time for a few extra mpg, not the Federal Government’s. If I, or any other American, want to spend an extra $5.00 or $10.00 to save an hour or two on a long trip, we should be free to do just that.

Gas Saving Tip – Don’t let Your Car Turn Into a Rolling Junk Pile
Proper maintenance is key to keeping the best gas mileage. You’ll save gas if everything is your car is working as it should. Things like dragging brake calipers, old spark plugs, worn plug wires, old oil, and clogged air filters all degrade your car’s performance and fuel economy.

Many people think that because their new car doesn’t need a tuneup for 50,000 miles, they can neglect maintenance altogether. You can, but it will cost you a lot more than a few trips to Jiffy Lube in the long run. Your gas mileage will suffer, and your ride will be your money pit before you know it. Modern cars are very reliable and well designed. They run forever when well maintained.

Forget the maintenance however, and you’ll get the shock of your life when your mechanic hands you a bill for 5 grand to put in a new engine. Some engines are even more expensive than that. So, it’s not only the extra gas money you’re costing yourself, it could be much more than the cost of fuel.

Gas Saving Tip –  Haul Gas, Not Everything Else
Take an hour and clean out your trunk. If you can do it in 15 minutes, so much the better. The fact is that hauling an extra 100lbs of crap in your trunk costs you money at the pump and when it comes time to get your brakes done, which you’ll have to do more frequently the more weight you haul around. If you rig isn’t one that requires a full set of Snap-Ons to keep running, get those tools out of the trunk. They’re heavy. Same with the sand bags, old Christmas presents, bottles of antifreeze, tire chains, and golf clubs. You can save 1% – 2% by lightening the load.

Gas Saving Tip –  Check Your Feet
Really, make sure you’re not “riding the brakes”. Many people keep their foot resting on the brake pedal even when they have no intention of stopping. You can tell those folks by the way their brake lights glow merrily as they travel down the road. That brake drag obviously wastes gas, so please don’t do it. Besides, people can see your incompetence, because your brake lights are on all the time.

Gas Saving Tip –  It’s Summer Now, So Act Like It
Get those snow tires off your car. If you live in snow country, you may put dedicated snow tires on for the winter months. They have higher rolling resistance than normal tires, so they cost you fuel. Modern radial snow/ice tires are much better in this regard than the snow tires of yore, but they are less efficient to turn.

Gas Saving Tip –  No Holes
Keep your sun roof closed on the freeway. The extra drag created by that gaping maw up top makes you guzzle about 2% – 4% more fuel than you need to, so keep it shut over about 30mph.

Following all the tips that apply, most importantly the ones relating to driving style, can save you up to 40% on your gas bill every month.

If the Waxman “Cap and Trade” bill passes, count on your gas bill going up even more.

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