Fuel consumption query

[allyoop260]

Dear all, we have our 2011 Bessacarr E420 and love it. It has a Fiat Ducati 2.2 Diesel engine. I expected to get more fuel to the gallon so was wondering if anyone else had done the maths. A 200 mile round trip is averaging about £100 in fuel. So £50 per 100 miles. I do the trip fairly often and now try and keep to 50 to 60 mph which does help but it still seems a lot of money. Does this sound about right please? Thanks

 

[monzer]

Seems high. I have the 2.8 Fiat and although I've not recorded millage, fuel etc I do know I get about 380 miles on a full tank. So roughly double what you are getting.

 

[TheBig1]

£5 to do 10 miles? You must have a leak or blowing diesel out of the exhaust. £5 buys a little over 3 litres. 5 litres to the gallon. So you are doing ballpark 17 miles per gallon

Most motorhomes do mid 20s per gallon minimum and ours, a 4.5tonne 3ltr tag axle towing a car gets low 30s

 

[Emmit]

That would seem ridiculously poor.

I'm not going to argue with TheBig1 above but at £1.30 a litre fuel is £5.90 a gall. So your £50 for 100mls works out closer to 14mpg than 17mpg.

Something is seriously wrong with either your wallet or your engine.

 

[TheBig1]

That would seem ridiculously poor.

I'm not going to argue with TheBig1 above but at £1.30 alt. Fuel is £5.90 a gall. So your £50 for 100mls works out closer to 14mpg than 17mpg.

Something is seriously wrong with either your wallet or your engine.

Argue away Derek, it's fine, I won't take a hump honest.......cheekyoldbugger

17 was a guesstimate, are you using imperial, metric or us gallons?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[IRHP]

Dear all, we have our 2011 Bessacarr E420 and love it. It has a Fiat Ducati 2.2 Diesel engine. I expected to get more fuel to the gallon so was wondering if anyone else had done the maths. A 200 mile round trip is averaging about £100 in fuel. So £50 per 100 miles. I do the trip fairly often and now try and keep to 50 to 60 mph which does help but it still seems a lot of money. Does this sound about right please? Thanks

Much easier to compare if you just work out your mpg. If you take it to a garage then it’s easier if you just tell them that.

 

[deleted79651]

Owned Brunhilde for just over 8 weeks. Predicted mpg was in the 25-30 range [2.3 diesel] but managed 31.35mpg on first refill [1st 'click' to 1st 'click' at the pump for consistency] over 381 miles. I'm still getting used to the driving style but have realised that increasing the throttle opening doesn't add very much to the speed, but increases fuel consumption considerably! Was advised by IanF at the weekend to open the throttle ahead of the start of gradients to build up ahead of steam to avoid losing too much momentum. It works, and, whilst the initial instant fuel consumption rises horribly, there is a compensating decrease in diesel drinking further up the climb. Brunhilde has only recently gone through the 9,000 miles mark, despite being 5 years old, so I'm hoping that the engine will loosen up and fuel economy improve over the next 5,000-10,000 miles.

Steve

 

[Figaro]

Yeah, on your figures I worked your mpg out at 11 miles.
Either your maths or your engine are faulty

 

[DerryW]

45mpg (only kidding), we seem to average somewhere between 25 - 30 on a 2000mile trip (or we did when we were last let out under the water).

 

[Emmit]

Argue away Derek, it's fine, I won't take a hump honest.......cheekyoldbugger

17 was a guesstimate, are you using imperial, metric or us gallons?

I was using fingers and thumbs but, since as you've been nice, it's even worse than I thought.
£1.30 a Litre = £5.90 (near enough) a UK gall.
£50 in galls. is 8.47 galls
8.47galls to do 100 miles = < 12 to the gall.
(11.8ish to be nearly precise???)

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Otter Spotter]

Dear all, we have our 2011 Bessacarr E420 and love it. It has a Fiat Ducati 2.2 Diesel engine. I expected to get more fuel to the gallon so was wondering if anyone else had done the maths. A 200 mile round trip is averaging about £100 in fuel. So £50 per 100 miles. I do the trip fairly often and now try and keep to 50 to 60 mph which does help but it still seems a lot of money. Does this sound about right please? Thanks

Cheaper to fly, I would suggest getting the diesel flushed and full oil and filter change, then take it to a weighbridge with your normal load and see if your overloading it.
Finally always travel with as little water as possible.

 

[deleted79651]

Argue away Derek, it's fine, I won't take a hump honest.......cheekyoldbugger

17 was a guesstimate, are you using imperial, metric or us gallons?

I'm a total anal retentive and maintain a very detailed spreadsheet that measures both miles per litre and mpg, the latter using 4.546 litres to the gallon ... Because I include all costs, including depreciation [writing the entire value off over 7 years, and then adding back the trade in allowance when I sell the vehicle], after 534 miles, Brunhilde is costing an entirely reasonable £36.97 per mile to run .... But these costs will fall significantly as the vehicle mileage climbs ...

Steve

 

[DavidG58]

I was going to add that I got 2 extra mpg driving home from Lyndon Top by turning off the air con

think this is beyond that

BTW I will be using air con next time, nowhere near enough saving for the uncomfortable drive and it only went from 21 to 23mpg

 

[jonasw19]

I'm a total anal retentive and maintain a very detailed spreadsheet that measures both miles per litre and mpg, the latter using 4.546 litres to the gallon ... Because I include all costs, including depreciation [writing the entire value off over 7 years, and then adding back the trade in allowance when I sell the vehicle], after 534 miles, Brunhilde is costing an entirely reasonable £36.97 per mile to run .... But these costs will fall significantly as the vehicle mileage climbs ...

Steve

Steve,
I firmly believe you are a danger to yourself and others. It is wholly unacceptable to post figures, especially when backed by evidence, of the actual costs of motorhoming.
Please cease and desist, my heart, and that of many others, is not strong...
The evil is only slightly lessened by stating that things get chaper with use.
Any way back on topic the fuel cosumption reported by the OP seems too high.
Sticky brakes ?
Best test is by brimming the tank, driving normally for a couple of hundred miles then refilling.
Using the fuel gauge is hopeless.
Jon

 

[deleted79651]

Steve,
I firmly believe you are a danger to yourself and others. It is wholly unacceptable to post figures, especially when backed by evidence, of the actual costs of motorhoming.
Please cease and desist, my heart, and that of many others, is not strong...
The evil is only slightly lessened by stating that things get chaper with use.
Any way back on topic the fuel cosumption reported by the OP seems too high.
Sticky brakes ?
Best test is by brimming the tank, driving normally for a couple of hundred miles then refilling.
Using the fuel gauge is hopeless.
Jon

I don't use the fuel gauge, far too haphazard! I filled the tank to the first pump' click' as soon as I bought the m/home and then repeated the exercise [even used the same pump ...]to the first 'click' again to get an accurate consumption figure ... A serious reason for doing this [and some of the other measures] is to use the mpg as an early indicator of any problems, such as sticky brakes. I have a Comments column on the spreadsheet for explanatory notes, such as headwinds, towing, mountain ascents etc, so that I don't panic about high fuel consumption without good reason!

I also track the cost per mile of depreciation and repairs/servicing; when the latter exceeds the depreciation figure, it's time to move the vehicle on, before I am left with an old nail ...

Steve [anorak, hood with fur trim, and dandruff catcher]

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Lenny HB]

I was going to add that I got 2 extra mpg driving home from Lyndon Top by turning off the air con

That's a lot on a modern vehicle, on the 3 Fiat based Motorhomes we have had I reckon ½ mpg or less.

 

[pappajohn]

Sounds excessive to me.
My old American RV would do 10mpg.....but that was a 365bhp 6.8ltr V10 dragging 7500kg so was expected.
10 mpg from a 2.2ltr dragging a 3500kg van sounds a lot.

 

[DavidG58]

That's a lot on a modern vehicle, on the 3 Fiat based Motorhomes we have had I reckon ½ mpg or less.

It wasn’t the most extensive test and only based on the display on the dash

But ours is much older than yours and a 3 litre Mercedes

 

[Eggs]

I'm a total anal retentive and maintain a very detailed spreadsheet that measures both miles per litre and mpg, the latter using 4.546 litres to the gallon ... Because I include all costs, including depreciation [writing the entire value off over 7 years, and then adding back the trade in allowance when I sell the vehicle], after 534 miles, Brunhilde is costing an entirely reasonable £36.97 per mile to run .... But these costs will fall significantly as the vehicle mileage climbs ...

Steve

This is how I work it out on a 25 year old Merc 811, 4l non turbo 7.5t conversion...

 

[Landy Andy]

Check your diesel filter (under the bonnet, right hand side) as they are know to leak on Fiat Ducatos.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Vipar]

It will not be sticky brakes. There would be flames if you drove 100 miles.

#14 is the best way. Just for reference I get less mpg driving down the M 20 than the M2. Due to hills. Hope you find a cheap solution

 

[Clarky]

We have a six year old A class van on a Fiat base with 2.3l 150 bhp and auto box.
Max weight is 4.5 t and we usually run with full water, gas etc. so between 4-4.5 t.
I log the fuel on a phone app and have always got better than 25 mpg.
Changed apps a while back so haven’t got an accurate figure from new but from 24k miles to date at 57k it registers 25.73mpg.
On some recent trip we have shown 30mpg on the on-board dash read out which seems a bit optimistic. The 25.73 figure will be spot on though.

Richard.

 

[Vipar]

I have just done a round trip to Haverfordwest I will be filling up tomorrow on the same pump that I used to fill up before I left I will publish details in the next few days. I have a Peugeot Boxer Class 3500kg 2007. Drive at 60mph when conditions allow.

 

[Northern Boy]

I do 11 Liters/ 100Km which translates to 25.68 miles per gallon Imperial

Fiat Ducato 2.8 2007 3500Kg

 

[Northern Boy]

I'm a total anal retentive and maintain a very detailed spreadsheet that measures both miles per litre and mpg, the latter using 4.546 litres to the gallon ... Because I include all costs, including depreciation [writing the entire value off over 7 years, and then adding back the trade in allowance when I sell the vehicle], after 534 miles, Brunhilde is costing an entirely reasonable £36.97 per mile to run .... But these costs will fall significantly as the vehicle mileage climbs ...

Try doing the figures on a boat!
My 10 ton Power Boat with twin 375hp Volvo's did 3litres to the mile at 30knots. It lost £££££££££ in value, everything was twice the price, an oil filter for the engine was twice the price of the same oil filter for the lorry version of the engine, it just had a 'M' in front of the serial number to indicate it was 'Marine'.

Considering one goes out about 30 days a year I think it worked out at £1000.00 to have a cup of tea anchored up in Osborne Bay off the Isle of White; coming from Southampton.

It was also a lot of fun

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Northern Boy]

Try doing the figures on a boat!

A friend of mine had a helicopter, and that was beyond calculating

 

[deleted79651]

Try doing the figures on a boat!00
My 10 ton Power Boat with twin 375hp Volvo's did 3litres to the mile at 30knots. It lost £££££££££ in value, everything was twice the price, an oil filter for the engine was twice the price of the same oil filter for the lorry version of the engine, it just had a 'M' in front of the serial number to indicate it was 'Marine'.

Considering one goes out about 30 days a year I think it worked out at £1000.00 to have a cup of tea anchored up in Osborne Bay off the Isle of White; coming from Southampton.

It was also a lot of fun

Around 1989/90, when Marine diesel was about 90p per gallon [vehicle diesel was around 37.5p per litre, so about £1.70 per gallon]. I lent a 'commission only' earning customer £37,500 to buy a power boat. He spent just over £100 on marine diesel on the first weekend, mainly racing the Red Funnel Hydrofoils up and down Southampton Water, but he did live long enough,and earn enough, to repay the loan in 12 months ... Flash git, but a great bloke, and a decent customer

Steve

 

[tonyidle]

£5 to do 10 miles? You must have a leak or blowing diesel out of the exhaust. £5 buys a little over 3 litres. 5 litres to the gallon. So you are doing ballpark 17 miles per gallon

Most motorhomes do mid 20s per gallon minimum and ours, a 4.5tonne 3ltr tag axle towing a car gets low 30s

I'm more than impressed! Mine's a 5.4T twin wheel 3L V6 towing a trailer with a car on it. I cruise everywhere I can at 65mph and consumption is in the low 20s.

 

[Diabalo]

I had a Bessacarr E435 on the same engine and getting on average 28 mpg so I would say yours needs a coat of looking at

 

[TerryL]

There's something very definitely amiss here. Just worked out that according to your numbers you are only geting 11.76 mpg, which is half of what you should expect to see with that motor. In fact I would hope to see better but there are a lot of variables.

Why are you using pounds per mileage? That's a very unconventional method of calculating fuel consumption and leads me to believe you're not reading something correctly. The only really accurate way is, as mentioned above, to fill the tank to the brim, make a note of the miles indicator then run the vehicle for at least a couple of hundred miles. Fill the tank again and note the mileage - with these numbers you'll get miles/litre; multiply by 4.54 and you'll get mpg, the usual standard used by everyone else.

If it's still as bad as you indicate, then one of two things - you're not driving it properly (not wishing to criticise others driving but over the years I've seen some stupid things) or something is very seriously amiss. I'm guessing you're not mechanically minded so take it to someone who is, maybe a recommended garage, and get them to check it out properly. Maybe include a test drive with you driving.

Last thought - could someone be siphoning off fuel when it's parked up?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}