What to do if your Camper is too slow? (1 Viewer)

[veevee]

Posting this as a general non specific make question.

Have just driven around 550 miles in a very slow (top speed) camper.

In the early noughties we spent 3 years driving over 100,000 kms in an even slower one, but even though this one accelerates a little faster and has a probable top speed a few mph more, it surprised me how in just 7 years the difference between "normal" traffic and this (new to us) old camper appeared so dramitic to the point of mildly dangerous on occassion on motorways.

The comfortable cruising speed was just under 50mph although I drove just above 50mph.

Is there a general acceptance that old campers are just very slow or are there accepted within a reasonable budget chosen methods of adding say 10mph to the cruising speed?

 

[Snowbird]

Depends mainly on the model. Non turbo engines are SLOW but tend to be more reliable. I have an old camper that is capable of well in access of 80 MPH and would happily cruise at 70 all day but I like to travel at around 55 to 60.

 

[ourcampersbeentrashed]

ours does 70 down hill with the wind behind us and 50 up hill whatever the wind

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

 

[Madmark62]

Hi, our LeSharo is slow, well it will get to about 70 ish, but it is downhill with a tail wind, we travel at about 55-60 moh and that feels ok in the van. We have a 2.1 turbo diesel Renault trafic engine of 1985 vintage, so we dont thrash her , not that it would make much difference anyway, not with only 85 bhp!!

 

[SPUD'N'T]

not sure what top speed ours does, but we like to travel at 55-60 mph like snowbird and find it more relaxing and economical

 

[Popeye]

Well my 3.0 litre 6 speed 4000kg goes like a greased ferret. The day I bought it I took it up to 100mph on the speedo probably about 96-97.

Problem was the fuel gauge was moving as fast as the rev counter.

I stick at 58-65mph purely for mpg. Sub 60 returns me 27mpg. I seem to get 25mpg otherwise.

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

 

[Road Runner]

Only one way to find out
















































[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Qu-NgzjSME[/ame]

 

[aba]

it all depends on how the engine is revving at your happy cruising speed if its not revving too hard then maybe a service could help.
if its just slow and feels a bit gutless it could be down to previous owners being too gentle with it.
all engines need to work hard at some point in their life and if they have been pootling around at 30 miles an hour they can be a right pig to get much out of them.

a good diesel injector cleaner added to the tank in a higher than stated dose then a good run but revving the engine quite hard ie using a gear lower than you normally would once the engine is warm can be a way of just helping it along.

 

[jhorsf]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgLD6ELZDGY&feature=related[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_yxhNboLMg&feature=related[/ame]

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

 

[GJH]

Our van will do 70 easily enough (except up steep hills) but we tend to keep to around 50-55 for fuel economy.

Our son reckons his recently acquired 30 year old camper will do about 55 max.

 

[Hayleylulu]

buy a faster one

 

[pappajohn]

where's Buttons ?

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

 

[pappajohn]

Nothing wrong with driving at 50mph.....:thumb:

I have taught myself, through perseverance, frustration, anger, cursing and muttering to drive at 50mph-ish at 1800rpm...not so bad on A roads but a bugger on motorways but come to a hill and the cruise control drops a gear and revs rise to 4000rpm just to make 40mph.

I reckon my motorhome is good for around 80mph to 90mph, as it should be with a 360hp 6.8ltr V10 petrol lump under my feet, but then 50mph gives me a nice, healthy 10mpg .

 

[veevee]

I am using actual speed, checked against two sat navs. The speedo gave a 15% error, read 92 kph while satnavs read exactly 80.

I have a bit of a feel for engines and their rotating speeds although not so much with diesels. This is a 5 cylinder Mercedes on a 410D chassis, 95ps is quoted.

Take your point aba, the uphill performance was markedly better after the first 300 miles or so, but the engine sounded harsh at an actual 55 mph (88 kph).
I know that this MH hasn't travelled anywhere since July and a hunch that for the previous 5 or 6 years hardly did a few thousand miles each year.
It's on 42,000 miles at the moment so almost new for a Merceds diesel I'd guess.

Would like the option to cruise comfortably at 60mph and feel that the engine is capable of that, but it may be pushing it too hard to attempt that?

That's the reason for asking a general question. If an engine is happy cruising at 50 mph but the traffic is travelling at say 65mph, what would be the method for a MH of comfortably increasing the road speed to say 60mph without increasing engine speed.

Thanks

 

[pappajohn]

I am using actual speed, checked against two sat navs. The speedo gave a 15% error, read 92 kph while satnavs read exactly 80.

I have a bit of a feel for engines and their rotating speeds although not so much with diesels. This is a 5 cylinder Mercedes on a 410D chassis, 95ps is quoted.

Take your point aba, the uphill performance was markedly better after the first 300 miles or so, but the engine sounded harsh at an actual 55 mph (88 kph).
I know that this MH hasn't travelled anywhere since July and a hunch that for the previous 5 or 6 years hardly did a few thousand miles each year.
It's on 42,000 miles at the moment so almost new for a Merceds diesel I'd guess.

Would like the option to cruise comfortably at 60mph and feel that the engine is capable of that, but it may be pushing it too hard to attempt that?

That's the reason for asking a general question. If an engine is happy cruising at 50 mph but the traffic is travelling at say 65mph, what would be the method for a MH of comfortably increasing the road speed to say 60mph without increasing engine speed.

Thanks

That's only possible by altering the gear ratio's or, if there is such a modification for that vehicle, adding an overdrive unit and you would be hard pressed to go any faster as the higher gearing would probably be too much for the engines power and torque.

adding larger wheels may do it but again, the increase in gearing my be too much for the engine.

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

 

[motorhomelover]

our RV will cruse all day at 70+ but i only go about 60
it having a 7.4Ltr Engine i am not surprised at its acceleration and top speed

most euro motor homes are over loaded for the size of engine fitted
my old Mercedes
had a 2.3LTR diesel non turbo and would only do 50 ish but did do almost 30MPG so was cheaper to run than the RV but the extra comfort ,size and power are worth the small extra cost cost :thumb:

 

[aba]

I am using actual speed, checked against two sat navs. The speedo gave a 15% error, read 92 kph while satnavs read exactly 80.

I have a bit of a feel for engines and their rotating speeds although not so much with diesels. This is a 5 cylinder Mercedes on a 410D chassis, 95ps is quoted.

Take your point aba, the uphill performance was markedly better after the first 300 miles or so, but the engine sounded harsh at an actual 55 mph (88 kph).
I know that this MH hasn't travelled anywhere since July and a hunch that for the previous 5 or 6 years hardly did a few thousand miles each year.
It's on 42,000 miles at the moment so almost new for a Merceds diesel I'd guess.

Would like the option to cruise comfortably at 60mph and feel that the engine is capable of that, but it may be pushing it too hard to attempt that?

That's the reason for asking a general question. If an engine is happy cruising at 50 mph but the traffic is travelling at say 65mph, what would be the method for a MH of comfortably increasing the road speed to say 60mph without increasing engine speed.

Thanks

we used to hire a 410 merc for shifting sound systems it too was a horribly slow thing to drive especially when full although i don't recall it being so slow however that is one of the most reliable vans you could buy.
it should be quite happy sat in the left hand lane sat behind the trucks and i feel that the engine will cope quite well with 55mph.
which shouldn't be a problem with the new trucks limited to 52mph.

 

[MikeandCarolyn]

Our van is a 2ltr JTD-it was sluggish on hills with only 80BHP we had it re-mapped to give around 120 BHP,now it goes like s**t off a shovel and cruising at around 60-65 mph we return 32 mpg-suits me
Mike

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

 

[johnp10]

Any engine will only do what it will do.
To get the best from any engine:
Accept its limitations, treat it with respect, dont abuse it but make it work for its keep.
Go over 60 and the fuel suffers on any MH. They are after all as aerodynamic as a brick.
Like Mikes, our 2.8dtd goes like sh*t off a shovel, gives good figures without boy racer driving.

 

[wivvy's dad]

What's the rush.....?




C....H....I....L....L

 

[Snowbird]

I am using actual speed, checked against two sat navs. The speedo gave a 15% error, read 92 kph while satnavs read exactly 80.

I have a bit of a feel for engines and their rotating speeds although not so much with diesels. This is a 5 cylinder Mercedes on a 410D chassis, 95ps is quoted.

Take your point aba, the uphill performance was markedly better after the first 300 miles or so, but the engine sounded harsh at an actual 55 mph (88 kph).
I know that this MH hasn't travelled anywhere since July and a hunch that for the previous 5 or 6 years hardly did a few thousand miles each year.
It's on 42,000 miles at the moment so almost new for a Merceds diesel I'd guess.

Would like the option to cruise comfortably at 60mph and feel that the engine is capable of that, but it may be pushing it too hard to attempt that?

That's the reason for asking a general question. If an engine is happy cruising at 50 mph but the traffic is travelling at say 65mph, what would be the method for a MH of comfortably increasing the road speed to say 60mph without increasing engine speed.

Thanks

A cheap and cheerful fix is as I have done in the past. Put taller tyres on,that will increase your road speed without increasing the RPM. The speedo will read slower so take care with that. I did it with a 6 cylinder non turbo VW. You always started off in 2nd gear never using 1st and it ran out of steam at 58MPH. After putting taller tyres on it felt more comfortable at around 60 with less engine noise and more MPG.

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

 

[veevee]

A cheap and cheerful fix is as I have done in the past. Put taller tyres on,that will increase your road speed without increasing the RPM. The speedo will read slower so take care with that. I did it with a 6 cylinder non turbo VW. You always started off in 2nd gear never using 1st and it ran out of steam at 58MPH. After putting taller tyres on it felt more comfortable at around 60 with less engine noise and more MPG.

It's already on quite tall tyres and if the width of the tyre is increased to increase the height the rears wont fit inside the bodywork.

I feel that with the narrow track compared to the body width, any extra height wont help stabilty...

Did you find this?

 

[vwalan]

mind dont go too big on the tyres.
i used to use an lt50 to pull my trailer . once had to stop on the hill to burgos in spain. only just managed to get it to go. if i had taller tyres think i would have had to reverse along way to get a run up to it again.
just drive slower . enjoy the ride. in my lt pulling the trailer we would have thought it speeding to do 50 mph cruising . some did put aftermarket turbo.s on those motors . think it was someone up daves way if my memory is correct. mackelsfield way i think. tb turbo or something like that.

 

[Snowbird]

TB turbos of Lancaster I think Al, Am sure they went to the wall some time ago, but I could be wrong.
Re the taller tyres, My LT was very low geared and it did make a lot of difference to the cruising speed. It was much quieter and not as stressed.
It just made it as I used 1st gear to start off instead of 2nd.

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

 

[vwalan]

yes dave think you are right. think i,m thinking of someone that does fancy exhausts by you. mind getting confused . but have seen a few of tb turbo,s on mercs . been out driving a merc sprinter today . no where near as nice as my mitzy. quick and definately faster than an lt like we had but even the lt is good to drive . fantastic turning circle ,i miss that abit sometimes. still have my lt ,its resting. might get it back on the road one day.

 

[G4GMO]

Cruising speed

We find 50 mph (on satnav) a comfortable cruising speed on normal roads with anything between 50 and 70 on the motorway easily achievable without being unbearable on our 410 with auto box.

Sounds like it just needs a good service and maybe a good long run, acceleration isn't special as it's a big hulk.

 

[Road Runner]

Well my new one unloaded is hard to keep back form steaming along.......

Must set sat nav to squeal so 60 mph

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

 

[Jaws]

If in no hurry I like to bimble along at about 55 ( indicated JUST under 60 )

But if I wanna get a budge on somewhat faster.. and if I REALLY wanna catch that ferry, have been known to cruise at an indicated 90 ( but the fuel gauge moves almost as fast as the speedo then !!! )

 

[icantremember]

The OP asked quite simply "What to do if your Camper is too slow? "
Well we do not have that problem as if necessary......................

=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=

I just put Joyce in the toad on the totally [HI]il[/HI]legal A-frame & she pushes the m/h.............simple:thumb:

 

[Jaws]

Yup.. your right

Ok.. if your camper is too slow the options are:

1) do major work on your existing engine .. Depends on whether it is it be petrol or diesel what you do to it to get more oomph but whatever you do it will have to be major.. Faffing around with filters and the like will do nowt other than make the vehicle lighter ( by the weight of the money you spend )

2) Replace the engine and gearbox as a complete unit.
Probably the easiest, cheapest and quickest this option.. Swap it out for a bigger capacity version of what is already fitted and sell your old unit on to part fund the upgrade

3) Sell the thing and buy something that does the speed you want to travel at !

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