How much??? Motorhome MPG (1 Viewer)

longdog

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Apr 16, 2013
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I have never really looked at the fuel consumption on my motorhomes, I am a relative rookie having only discovered motorhoming 2 years ago and enjoyed several holidays and weekends in the 2001 Hymer Swing with a Fiat 2.8 JTD that I bought to test the water.

I always thought that was a bit heavy on the juice but I put it down to being relatively old technology, so when I bought a low profile 56 reg CI Cipro 55 on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis I was expecting an improvement......!!!

Well we have just had a long weekend in Hertford on the Balls Park Camping and Caravan Club site there, (highly recommended, they are not called the friendly club for nothing :thumb: ), I drove over 450 miles and logged my fuel usage on a full-to-full basis. What a shock I had when I found I had averged 20mpg and that was me driving like a nun for goodness sake!!! :Eeek:

Where do people get these 30mpg figures from? When they are parked up with the engine ticking over perhaps?

20mpg is not really acceptable so I am thinking of cutting my losses and selling the CI and getting another older van now :cry:
 
Aug 7, 2013
284
172
South Wales
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27,380
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swift kontiki
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I'm a newbie bought our first motorhome 7months ago and love it
we have a 2.8jtd on a swift kontiki on the motorway at a constant 60 mph we can get 30 mpg but it does drop down when we are on A roads
 

bernardfeay

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Nov 18, 2009
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hymer exsis
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We have a 2.3 diesel Hymer Exsis 2004. I stick the cruise control on for most of the journey and stay with the trucks at 56 mph. We get 30 to the gallon. I don't think you are going to get very much better than that.

It's the speed on the motorway that is the easiest thing to adjust before getting rid.

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Sep 3, 2013
768
816
Crowthorne, Berkshire
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1992 RMB Silver Star 670
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One year. A whole one!
What's your annual motorhome mileage?

Did you honestly change just to get better fuel economy?

It just seems a trifle hasty to change your MH based purely on how much fuel it consumes. There's got to be more to your CI than that?!
 

hilldweller

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Dec 5, 2008
605
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Where do people get these 30mpg figures from?

They are all ex-funeral drivers.

Speed is everything when pushing a brick wall through air.

And remember the air can be moving, do 60 into a ( low ) 10 mph headwind and you are paying for 70 mph fuel.

We get 25mpg if I keep to 60 or below but I can drop it to 20 by using 70 a lot.
 

Spottycatz

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Feb 17, 2013
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Still making mistakes! But they're not as costly.
We've done 4500 miles in Europe since August and over a mix of Spanish and French motorways and A and B roads, my on board tripometer tells me the van has an average of 28.4 miles per gallon.

I'm driving a Fiat Ducato Automatic, with a 160 Multijet.

I'm pretty pleased with the mileage I'm getting:thumb:

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tonka

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Jul 2, 2008
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Arrived back last night from my longest ever trip.. Covered 5,600 miles from here in the Midlands, down through France, Spain and 2,100 miles around Morocco. Then back again.. So some very varied and mixed driving.. Usually 90km / 60mph on motorways.
My van is a fiat 2.3 130bhp euro v , Coachbuit with overcab bed. Running at 4,100kg as an average (more until we started on the beer)..
The on board overall average was 27.9mpg... I really tried for that 28mpg but could not make it happen...

I have recorded part journeys into the 30+ bracket but that does not last long..
Last year I was slightly lower at 26.5mpg but it does seem to have improved since a recent service.
 

Techno

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Jul 28, 2010
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We've done 4500 miles in Europe since August and over a mix of Spanish and French motorways and A and B roads, my on board tripometer tells me the van has an average of 28.4 miles per gallon.

I'm driving a Fiat Ducato Automatic, with a 160 Multijet.

I'm pretty pleased with the mileage I'm getting:thumb:

Mine too can read that in France but brim to brim is 4mpg less
 
Oct 28, 2013
490
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Van Conversion
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my on board tripometer tells me the van has an average of 28.4 miles per gallon.
Is that the van's computer?
If so then I can almost guarantee that it's lying through its teeth because they all seem to.
I have one on my X5 and another on my Triumph Tiger and to say that they're both "Optimistic" is an understatement.
Generally both overstate by around 4 - 5 MPG.

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sdc77

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Jan 28, 2013
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We get approx 26mpg in a 3.0 ducato (Euro 4 160bhp).. But that's carefull driving with cruise on.
 
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longdog

Banned
Apr 16, 2013
255
287
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25,566
I didn't buy the CI for fuel consumption reasons but I did think one of the benefits of changing from an older technology diesel with an over-cab bed to a more modern engined motorhome with a low-profile may have resulted in improved fuel consumption.

The Merc has cruise control so I set it at 60mph for the length of the M4 and some of the M25 so there wasn't really too much driving on A roads. I'm not heavy footed either, so it was more of a shock to find 20mpg for the trip.

Just as an aside, I pulled into Reading services on the way home to find diesel was being sold at 148.9p per litre. I'm not tight but I drove straight out and turned off at Junction 15 on the M4 as there is a Sainsbury store just 3 miles off the M4 and the diesel was 134.5p per litre on Sunday, well worth the 6 mile detour! lol
 
Oct 1, 2013
7,487
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Lanzarote
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Nil by mouth
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Lots
You should see the MPG in my space ship when I am on my astronaut missions.

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Feb 16, 2013
19,498
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uttoxeter
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ambulance conversion
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50 years
Never thought I would be writing this, as when tyre pressures has raised its head on this forum iv always gone for lower pressure 60/65 but when we got the van out after Xmas just thought I would try 70/75 and wouldn't believe it but mpg has gone from 23-25 to 27-30 over quite a few fill ups, up mountains down valleys in wales and Yorkshire with a bit of motorway thrown in.
I know it's not a lot and I'm not really bothered but it does just go to show little things can make a hell of difference.
Ride is harder though , makes the pots rattle a bit more so shall probably try with a bit less psi :thumb::thumb:::bigsmile:
 
Aug 6, 2013
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Kendal, Cumbria
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27,352
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Le-Voyageur RX958 Pl
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since 1999
I have never really looked at the fuel consumption on my motorhomes, I am a relative rookie having only discovered motorhoming 2 years ago and enjoyed several holidays and weekends in the 2001 Hymer Swing with a Fiat 2.8 JTD that I bought to test the water.

I always thought that was a bit heavy on the juice but I put it down to being relatively old technology, so when I bought a low profile 56 reg CI Cipro 55 on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis I was expecting an improvement......!!!

Well we have just had a long weekend in Hertford on the Balls Park Camping and Caravan Club site there, (highly recommended, they are not called the friendly club for nothing :thumb: ), I drove over 450 miles and logged my fuel usage on a full-to-full basis. What a shock I had when I found I had averged 20mpg and that was me driving like a nun for goodness sake!!! :Eeek:

Where do people get these 30mpg figures from? When they are parked up with the engine ticking over perhaps?

20mpg is not really acceptable so I am thinking of cutting my losses and selling the CI and getting another older van now :cry:

So far I haven't done enough miles in my (new to me) 2.8JTD Hymer but I have had time to check the speedo accuracy against a satnav - and it reads over 10mph fast at 65mph - be careful what you base your calculations on. My last A class with 2.5td averaged 22mpg throughout my usage - based on odo readings & a continuous record of fuel purchased over the past 9 years.
 
Oct 28, 2013
490
443
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The Merc has cruise control so I set it at 60mph for the length of the M4 and some of the M25 so there wasn't really too much driving on A roads. I'm not heavy footed either, so it was more of a shock to find 20mpg for the trip.
Using Cruise Control is not actually the most economical way to drive.
You can improve your economy quite considerably by manually (or whatever the foot operating equivalent might be) controlling your speed.
That said, I use CC as often as possible in the car...

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sadlonelygit

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Jan 28, 2014
155
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since 1975
our old 644 with the 2.5TD and well heavy used to average 28mpg over a 6000 mile tour.
no idea what the merc does yet as we haven't done a brimful............yet!!!
 
Sep 3, 2013
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Crowthorne, Berkshire
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1992 RMB Silver Star 670
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One year. A whole one!
...The Merc has cruise control so I set it at 60mph for the length of the M4 and some of the M25...

I think that's part of your problem. I have cruise on a few of my cars and find it uses more fuel as the system uses quite heavy doses of throttle to maintain progress up hills and when on 'resume'.

Far better, in my experience, to use the throttle manually and be light / gentle with it.
 

sdc77

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Jan 28, 2013
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Using Cruise Control is not actually the most economical way to drive.
You can improve your economy quite considerably by manually (or whatever the foot operating equivalent might be) controlling your speed.
That said, I use CC as often as possible in the car...

I have to say that every vehicle I have had with cruise control has been more economical by far when using cruise control... (on motorways and similar roads)

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DBK

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If I was the OP I would get it checked by a diesel expert. It might be the injectors need looking at, air filter changed or something like that. Also check the brakes aren't binding and the tracking is correct.
 

JeanLuc

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Nov 17, 2008
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I think you should check it over a much longer period than one tankful. Our 2003 Hymer is based on a Sprinter 316 chassis and plated at 3,800 kg. We normally travel fairly near fully loaded - say 3,700+ kg.
The engine is a 2.7 litre 5 cylinder unit, coupled to a 5-speed full auto box. I use cruise control extensively and normally run at 50-55 mph on standard roads, up to 60 mph on motorways.

Over our entire ownership (45,500 miles - yes I really do log every fill-up and odometer reading) the average fuel consumption is 24.8 mpg.
 

JonMac46

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Jan 19, 2014
36
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Just did 6,100 km on trip to Spain in our 1999 Dethleffs overcab 2.8 idTD. Calculated mpg as I can't relate to litres per 100 km, it was 29.5.

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Daifuse

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Feb 20, 2013
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My Merc engined Chieftain ('87) used to return 23 -27 mpg. On a Scotland tour, she returned 24 mpg. The 2.8JTD in my Cheyenne 630 averages 27 on a mixture of motorways and A roads but I don't push it. 55mph on motorways but A roads as dictated by the traffic etc.
 

UK Pete

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Jan 16, 2014
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I get between 28 and 32 on a run, mostly motorways, usually doing between 60and 70 mph, that is what my mpg gauge says, i have yet to try working it out for myself,
Van is renault master 2.5
 

flatpackchicken

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Last year I done just over 10,800 running through Scandinavia & Europe, going right to the top of Norway then to the Bottom of Portugal traversing every type of road going, flat, mountains, single carriageway, dual carriageway, towns, Motorways etc and got overall 26.11mpg. Most of the time I travel at about 50mpg on single carriageway and 55mph on dual carriageway and motorways., (42mph in Norway and Sweden most of the time) My vehicle was a 56 plate Renault master 130bhp speed manual. The worst was 23.7mpg and the best was 32mpg Regards Garry Flatpackchicken

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Last edited:

Forestboy

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Jul 31, 2007
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Beats me how all these folks get these 30 mpg figures out of a travelling house.::bigsmile:
Our 2.8 JTD does 25 mpg if I keep it at 60mph and there's no headwind over 60 mph and it drops to 20 very quickly. When I'm in the mountains on hard roads 20 mpg at best.
Admittedly I do drive it quite hard cant be doing with all that don't touch the throttle cause it'll use fuel nonsense. :winky: Its better now than it was after the WOW remap it dropped by 2 or 3 mpg across the range but thankfully got that removed.

Mercs aren't renowned for being frugal on fuel but better than RVs my diesel Rv did 10 / 12 mpg and my petrol did 7 /9 mpg at best :Eeek::Eeek:
 

Jaws

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2.8 boxer, 4 tonne mh.
On a really good day we will get 23 -25 MPG driving at 55mph ( on the GPS, so a speedo indicated 60 mph )

Towing we get 19 to 21 mpg
 
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longdog

Banned
Apr 16, 2013
255
287
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I think you should check it over a much longer period than one tankful. Our 2003 Hymer is based on a Sprinter 316 chassis and plated at 3,800 kg. We normally travel fairly near fully loaded - say 3,700+ kg.
The engine is a 2.7 litre 5 cylinder unit, coupled to a 5-speed full auto box. I use cruise control extensively and normally run at 50-55 mph on standard roads, up to 60 mph on motorways.

Over our entire ownership (45,500 miles - yes I really do log every fill-up and odometer reading) the average fuel consumption is 24.8 mpg.

Thanks for this JeanLuc, this is more or less a like-for-like comparison and your figures are much closer to what I was expecting. My van is rated at 3,800 kg too by the way.

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Jul 24, 2009
4,324
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South Yorkshire
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Our Frankia returns about 20/22 mpg solo and about 18/20 when towing. Its a 2.8JTD and I usually drive up to the speed limits.
 
Apr 27, 2008
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My 3L Mercedes and 4000kg MGW does about 23 to the gallon. I find using the speed limiter more economical than CC.
My best mpg van was a Kon-Tiki 650 2.5L

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