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I must have a lead foot or always drive into a major headwind. Let me explain. I have had 2.5td, 2.8 tdi's, 2.8jtd and can never get the mpg other mh's claim to achieve.
Ok, all motorhomes quite big, Swift Kontiki 640, Auto Trail Scout and now Auto Trail Chieftain, but the truth is i only now achieve 20mpg max.
Even feathering the accelerator, tail gating to get dragged along and sticking right to the speed limits........... NO GOOD.
I read others who CLAIM to achieve 28+................ How the H**L do they do it, perhaps it's because i actually turn the engine ON is where i'm going wrong.
What do other mh's with decent size mhs get, lets say 3850kgs units, 2.8jtd engines, regular trips of decent length?.
Go on prove me wrong...... show me i DO have a lead foot.!!
We had a Burstner 747 (5000kg) and a Burstner 681 (4000kg) both with the 2.8JTD. Both returned an average of around 22mpg overall. We seemed to be able to give those engines all the grunt you liked and they still returned the same mpg. I cannot say what they did with a light foot because I never investigated that.
Our last van had a Ford 2.0 litre TDCi on a 3500kg chassis and I had no real problem getting 28mpg with decent performance, 30mpg achievable with care.
The previous van was a Fiat 1.9TD and getting more than 23mpg was impossible, mainly because you had to floor the accelerator all the time to keep it moving.
Our current van is a 4000kg A class (blunt front) with a Fiat 2.8JTD and I can just about manage 25mpg when driving with great care. If I drove in the same manner as I would with a car I'd get somewhere in the region of 20mpg I reckon.
There are obvious ways of improving fuel efficiency, the most obvious being maintaining a lower speed but probably the greatest influence on MPG is the fuel used to start the van from rest. That being the case there are two strategies. The first is to be very smooth when accelerating, use the throttle gently and accelerate smoothly, slower acceleration will have very little effect on journey times. Second strategy (and this is what makes a huge difference) is to avoid stopping. This simply involves anticipation of what's happening ahead. If there is a roundabout, traffic lights or a queue ahead, slow down well in advance and judge your arrival to coincide with a green light or a gap in the traffic, if you can avoid stopping and starting again you'll save quite a bit on fuel consumption.
______________________________________________________________ If you lend someone £20 and never see that person again, it was probably well worth it.
as one who doesn't have a motorhome of a 'decent size' I can only agree with Mike (are you sure yours is decent enough?)
My brake pads have only lost 20% of their wear allowance in 4 years and 36000 miles.
PS indecent motorhomes get 40mpg when driven carefully
______________________________________________________________ Regards Frank - - please follow me on twitter @FrankieBryant
Denn wir haben nichts in die Welt gebracht; darum offenbar ist, wir werden auch nichts hinausbringen.
RIP Peter and Fiona Our thoughts are with you Chris and Graham. Fighting with Mavis and Ray
Plusnet, Safari 5, G5 PowerPC iMac running OSX 10.5.8, Salisbury UK : Get behind early - it gives you more time to catch up.
Our Autotrail Scout on a Merc 312 achieved 25 / 26 MPG over thousands of miles towing a light weight trailer with two small motorbikes on it.
Cruising speed set to 90 KPH by cruise control most of the time. This is about the same MPG I achieved with a Landrover Discovery (old type).
Always had overcab motorhomes and always averaged 23.5mpg. A few years ago we took three motorhomes in convoy to Barcelona and back, a 1.9td, a 2.0jtd and a 2.8jtd. All of them were overcabs and all on the 3500 chassis. On the full journey the average fuel consumption of the three vehicles was within .25mpg, we never exceeded 60mph except for overtaking.
Gerry
I thought I was doing bad at 21 Mpg out of our new van but it seems to be quiet good in comparison.
Our old Transit 2.2 130Bhp luton could top 30 Mpg on a steady long run no problem.
I do drive for economy though, I agree its getting back up to speed after being slowed down where the derv goes as well as speeds above 60Mph with a luton esspeccially.
mind with are new van it seems to do better at 65 MPH than at 60 MPH due to a high 6th gear.
If you realy want to get a good MPG try drafting a high truck, just don't get too close
Richard...
Last edited by RichardnGill on Wed Mar 25, 2009 11:57 pm; edited 1 time in total
A 2.8jtd fiat engine and over 3500KG A class van we returned an average of 29.1MPG on a 2700 mile round trip from Scotland down to Dover then round France and back last October. A gentle right foot and cruise control (mainly the cruise control) seems to be the answer. I must admit it was a lot better figure than we had ever hoped for. Generally tootling round Scotland we get nearer 26mpg
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France
Our thoughts are with you Chris and Graham. Fighting with Mavis and Ray 
