Impressed with MPG in old rig

[KeninAZ]

We bought an olde Bounder, 31.5' with the V-10 chassis and 73k on it last summer late. We spent a lot of time getting it ready for the season over the winter. The motor has an original Banks Power Pack on it.
Our first trip was only some 250 miles round trip to the Grand Canyon and I tower our Miata on it's trailer just to check how it handled and MPG while towing.
I would say that the roads were average at best but when I topped off I was rather amazed to find that we averaged 8.02 MPG on the old timer with 5 people on board. A pleasant shock when I was expecting 6-7 MPG.

[John___Angela]

The people with Teslas towing small trailers like Airstream Bambis are seeing about a 40 percent drop in range at interstate speeds. But interesting enough the range goes up quite drastically at around the 50 mph (80 KMph) speeds. Speed is the range killer for EV's. Both of our vehicles are EV's and we notice this a lot. We have a rated range of around 180 KM on our leaf but when we go for Sunday drives on secondary roads where the speeds vary between 60 and 70 KPH the range can easily shoot into the 240 KM range. Our province has a pretty good fast charger network and growing bigger every day but if I was pulling a trailer I would be keeping close track of the GPS and where the next fast charger is if I was pulling a trailer. Then again, its not designed for that so that won't happen. I guess the other challenge is that no DC fast charge station I have seen is designed to accommodate anything but a full sized sedan. Campgrounds with 50 amp service would work for an overnight charge though. If it got common there would have to probably be some infrastructure changes though. I suppose it is not a matter of if but when. Things are moving fast in the EV world although a lot slower in North America generally speaking.

[JaxDad]

free radical wrote:

I dont think you know what perpetual machine is,,
Hybrid electric is nothing of the sort,,
http://workhorse.com/stepvans

Oh I know what it is, and admittedly I was being a little tongue in cheek about it, but then again, "Our fuel efficient generators could keep the battery bank charged up while going down the road." being more efficient than a conventional chassis is nearly as much of a fantasy as a perpetual motion machine.

[hanko]

mike brez wrote:

hanko wrote:

Ava wrote:
My 1994 36' diesel Bounder averaged a little over 12 mpg on our recent 5000 mile trip through the US. ( no toad).

My old VW got 30 MPG.

And my scooter gets 157 mpg :S

Oh Ya! my??? poop, I cant remember what I was going to say, probably didn't have anything to do with OP's post

[Mr_Mark1]

free radical wrote:

KeninAZ wrote:
We bought an olde Bounder, 31.5' with the V-10 chassis and 73k on it last summer late. We spent a lot of time getting it ready for the season over the winter. The motor has an original Banks Power Pack on it.
Our first trip was only some 250 miles round trip to the Grand Canyon and I tower our Miata on it's trailer just to check how it handled and MPG while towing.
I would say that the roads were average at best but when I topped off I was rather amazed to find that we averaged 8.02 MPG on the old timer with 5 people on board. A pleasant shock when I was expecting 6-7 MPG.

Was that with a strong wind at your back?going downhill? 🙂

Only way to improve mpg is making motorhomes more streamlined aerodynamic,,many moons ago buses were like this,why cant manufacturers do it today also,

https://youtu.be/KipEWECwjx8

Not sure what year was this old bus made but it should get pretty good mpg too

Today's engines are different. I was getting right at 7.1 mpg on my 45 ft., 56,000 lb. motorhome with a slight headwind. I have a Volvo, 500 hp with 1,750 lb. ft. of torque. I was going by the dash computer.

MM.

[free_radical]

KeninAZ wrote:
We bought an olde Bounder, 31.5' with the V-10 chassis and 73k on it last summer late. We spent a lot of time getting it ready for the season over the winter. The motor has an original Banks Power Pack on it.
Our first trip was only some 250 miles round trip to the Grand Canyon and I tower our Miata on it's trailer just to check how it handled and MPG while towing.
I would say that the roads were average at best but when I topped off I was rather amazed to find that we averaged 8.02 MPG on the old timer with 5 people on board. A pleasant shock when I was expecting 6-7 MPG.

Was that with a strong wind at your back?going downhill? 🙂

Only way to improve mpg is making motorhomes more streamlined aerodynamic,,many moons ago buses were like this,why cant manufacturers do it today also,

https://youtu.be/KipEWECwjx8

Not sure what year was this old bus made but it should get pretty good mpg too

[free_radical]

JaxDad wrote:

Mr.Mark wrote:
I would like to see a real 'hybrid' RV which I think is not too far in the future. With the battery power we have available now, it might work.

Our fuel efficient generators could keep the battery bank charged up while going down the road.

MM.

That is called a perpetual motion machine.

The losses on the generator coupled with the hybrid drive system losses, plus the losses from carrying all the extra weight of the batteries would undoubtedly result in far LESS efficiency.

A Tesla, which is a very small aerodynamic (certainly compared to a motorhome) 4,000 pound vehicle goes about 300 miles on a 1,200 pound battery. For comparison purposes, that is about 1/3rd of its weight is battery. Given the size and aerodynamics of a brick, errrr, I mean motorhome, they would need many, many, many tons of batteries to get anything close to practical range.

As a thumbnail calc, if a motorhome is ONLY 5 times less aerodynamically efficient than a Tesla, plus parasitic drag which is exponentially increasing, plus the weight difference, I think a Class A would need something in the order of 80,000 pounds of batteries to get a 300 mile range.

Oh, BTW, the cost of the batteries alone would pay your fuel bill into the next millennium.

I dont think you know what perpetual machine is,,
Hybrid electric is nothing of the sort,,
http://workhorse.com/stepvans

[mike_brez]

hanko wrote:

Ava wrote:
My 1994 36' diesel Bounder averaged a little over 12 mpg on our recent 5000 mile trip through the US. ( no toad).

My old VW got 30 MPG.

And my scooter gets 157 mpg :S

[Mr_Mark1]

JaxDad.... true, but we can wish can't we? I'm hoping future advancements in technology will take care of all the roadblocks that you mentioned.

MM.

[JaxDad]

Mr.Mark wrote:
I would like to see a real 'hybrid' RV which I think is not too far in the future. With the battery power we have available now, it might work.

Our fuel efficient generators could keep the battery bank charged up while going down the road.

MM.

That is called a perpetual motion machine.

The losses on the generator coupled with the hybrid drive system losses, plus the losses from carrying all the extra weight of the batteries would undoubtedly result in far LESS efficiency.

A Tesla, which is a very small aerodynamic (certainly compared to a motorhome) 4,000 pound vehicle goes about 300 miles on a 1,200 pound battery. For comparison purposes, that is about 1/3rd of its weight is battery. Given the size and aerodynamics of a brick, errrr, I mean motorhome, they would need many, many, many tons of batteries to get anything close to practical range.

As a thumbnail calc, if a motorhome is ONLY 5 times less aerodynamically efficient than a Tesla, plus parasitic drag which is exponentially increasing, plus the weight difference, I think a Class A would need something in the order of 80,000 pounds of batteries to get a 300 mile range.

Oh, BTW, the cost of the batteries alone would pay your fuel bill into the next millennium.

[hanko]

Ava wrote:
My 1994 36' diesel Bounder averaged a little over 12 mpg on our recent 5000 mile trip through the US. ( no toad).

My old VW got 30 MPG.

[Supercharged]

Ava wrote:
My 1994 36' diesel Bounder averaged a little over 12 mpg on our recent 5000 mile trip through the US. ( no toad).

All down hill to start with. That gave you good mpg

[Mr_Mark1]

crasster wrote:
That is pretty good. RV's of course are terrible with MPG's. I still believe the MFG's could do better with aerodynamics and such to get better. It's also weight so there's that. I would love to see the day where large coaches get 12-14mpg. 🙂 I do in my Toyota get great MPG but not the Bounder! I get about what you do.

I would like to see a real 'hybrid' RV which I think is not too far in the future. With the battery power we have available now, it might work.

Our fuel efficient generators could keep the battery bank charged up while going down the road.

MM.

[Ava]

My 1994 36' diesel Bounder averaged a little over 12 mpg on our recent 5000 mile trip through the US. ( no toad).

[crasster]

That is pretty good. RV's of course are terrible with MPG's. I still believe the MFG's could do better with aerodynamics and such to get better. It's also weight so there's that. I would love to see the day where large coaches get 12-14mpg. 🙂 I do in my Toyota get great MPG but not the Bounder! I get about what you do.