TO ALL OUR FAMILY & FRIENDS
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Frank & Rene
We will be on the road as of November 2012
Monday, December 3, 2012
Saturday, December 1, 2012
MPG TOWING OUR JEEP LIBERTY
Prior to my retirement I had been thinking about buying a 2006 Winnebago View mini-motorhome built on a Dodge Sprinter chassis and powered by a Mercedes Turbo Diesel engine. It was supposed to get about 15 to 18 mpg, but they were going for about $50K. When the time came to buy a newer and larger RV than my current 1977 Dodge Brougham 20' Class C, I decided to bid on a 1994 Fleetwood Tioga Montara 29Z that had only 20K miles on it. As it turns out I was the high bidder on EBAY at $10,001. At that point I knew I would use the other $40K, that I saved, on fuel for my future travels.
So lets keep in mind that our RV is 29 feet long, 8 feet wide and 11 feet high. It weights about 8 tons and is not very aerodynamic. On top of that we are towing a 4000 pound Jeep Liberty behind us. This RV was built on a 1993 Ford E-350 cutaway chassis and is powered by a 460ci fuel injected V-8 tied to a 4 speed overdrive transmission with a Banks TransCommand AND it has a 55 gallon fuel tank! That doesn't sound like a very economical vehicle by any stretch of the imagination!
Anyway, in order to keep some kind of record of our fuel costs and miles per gallon I downloaded an app to my smart phone called FuelLog. The first two days of travel were on relatively flats roadways down the East Coast on I-95 and we averaged 8.68 mpg traveling at 55 mph. Traveling in the mountains of North Carolina and West Virginia it dropped to an average of 7.33 mpg. On some of those inclines we just followed behind a tractor trailer at 30-35 mph. Once we were out of the mountains and back to the Great Plains of Indiana and Illinois we jumped back up to 8.51 mpg.
Keep in mind that RVing is not for everyone, but for those of us that want to travel the country by RV this is just a fact of life and a cost that you have to embrace and accept. There are others ways that we make up for the expense, like not having to pay for motels every night when we hit the road. And not having to buy breakfast, lunch and dinner as you would if traveling by car. We also know that this "IS" the way we want to see this beautiful country of ours!
FP & RG
So lets keep in mind that our RV is 29 feet long, 8 feet wide and 11 feet high. It weights about 8 tons and is not very aerodynamic. On top of that we are towing a 4000 pound Jeep Liberty behind us. This RV was built on a 1993 Ford E-350 cutaway chassis and is powered by a 460ci fuel injected V-8 tied to a 4 speed overdrive transmission with a Banks TransCommand AND it has a 55 gallon fuel tank! That doesn't sound like a very economical vehicle by any stretch of the imagination!
Anyway, in order to keep some kind of record of our fuel costs and miles per gallon I downloaded an app to my smart phone called FuelLog. The first two days of travel were on relatively flats roadways down the East Coast on I-95 and we averaged 8.68 mpg traveling at 55 mph. Traveling in the mountains of North Carolina and West Virginia it dropped to an average of 7.33 mpg. On some of those inclines we just followed behind a tractor trailer at 30-35 mph. Once we were out of the mountains and back to the Great Plains of Indiana and Illinois we jumped back up to 8.51 mpg.
Keep in mind that RVing is not for everyone, but for those of us that want to travel the country by RV this is just a fact of life and a cost that you have to embrace and accept. There are others ways that we make up for the expense, like not having to pay for motels every night when we hit the road. And not having to buy breakfast, lunch and dinner as you would if traveling by car. We also know that this "IS" the way we want to see this beautiful country of ours!
FP & RG
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