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What MPG do you get?


Yostfmx

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Expect 11-14 mpg, much less if you travel 65-70 mph (9-11 mpg). This is what I typically get with my 18' V-6 auto.

You "may" get close to 20 (16-18) if you travel 45-50 mph. The higher the speed the lower the fuel economy (wind resistance).

I have a V6 Winnebago Warrior, 21 1, Automatic w/ OD, and I get about 17 mpg consistently.

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Final average on our trip to Dallas was just over 15. Seldon went over 60 mph, had some traffic, ran the a/c more than 1/2 the time and had ethanol in most of the gas :ranting2: . I found that using the cruise control causes the trans to shift down too easily and affects mileage too. The ECT button didn't seem to make any diff in when it shifted. I suppose that without air, ethanol and heavy traffic, I'm sure I could get 17.

Tone/Joan

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On our trip to the keys [from Tampa] , flat all the way, we got 12.5 on every tank. I complained at every gas station until I got home and started to unload. A full hour straight of just unloading . That included two kayaks inside! Its a wonder I got double digits.

Thanks to all , Coach.

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:rolleyes: We have a 20 ft 1983 Encore with a 4 speed 22R and the 6 lug rear end just fished a 6000 mile tour with all kinds of driving we ran at 50/55 mph and got an avarage of 18 mpg with a low of 15 and a high of 22 . wind made a large difreance . Mountan driving did not do to bad we made up for what we lost going up when we went down the other side . I am pretty happy with how it did . Our former Motor home was a 20 ft Moble travler with a 318 dodge it go around 10 no mater what . :ThumbUp:
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picklebill thats the same as mine. 19.9 mpg sounds tops to me! Hoping to have my weight under 3800 lbs. Haha yea I don't know how you guys drive your rigs at 65 - 70, sounds scary to me! I think 50 and under is good.

just took out my 81 dolphin 300 today for the first time. it sounds like your rig. i also want to cut out useless weight so i can haul my band and gear around... i love how it rides at 50 and under. i totally agree with you there. it sounds like you're hurting it when you go past 55.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have a 1984 Dolphin (4 cyl 4 speed manual) and just finished a 8,000+ mile trip across the country and back. We averaged about 17mpg, got as low as 12mpg (due to hills, speed, and wind) and as high as 21mpg between fill-ups. We got better mileage when we kept the speed between 55 and 65. Our gas prices ranged from a high of about $5 per gallon (in Canada) to a low of $3.48 (in New Jersey).

The power of the engine was adequate to most tasks. I was pretty darned impressed with it's performance.

don

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We have an 88' Winebago, Itasca, 21 ft. with a 22RE 4 speed manual.with 68,000 mi. Just completed a 3700 mi. trip through the Rocky Mt. states. Got a high of 21 mpg while cruising slow in Yellowstone NP and a low of 15 due to low octane fuel in Idaho (85). Our average was 16.7 and when we could, we drove 60 to 70 mph. Most of the time we were hauling water and firewood as we never knew where we would end up for the night. Had just changed plugs, cap and rotor. All plug wires were within ohm specs and oil was fresh as was air filter. :ThumbUp: We're pleased with it as we used to travel in a 90' 4 runner with a v6 5 spd. and got less than that. :thumbdown: (Now we just have to fix the roof leaks.)

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I haven’t read any replies from Chinook owners? I recently took a trip to Vermont from New Hampshire about 300 mile total and averaged 18.75 per gallon. The Chinook has a 20R 4speed, with three adults and gear I though this was pretty economical. I did exceed 60 mph for short periods but for the most part kept it around 60 mph. In my opinion any Toyota camper has a leg up on most self contained motorhomes on the market today, that says a lot about a vehicle they haven’t made since 1993.

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Mine is a 1993 Dolphin 900, 21 footer, V6 Auto trans with overdrive, I get 13.8 MPG. I see a good bit of discussion about wind drag, however probably the greatest drag is caused by the back of the box.The air in front is made to seperate to go past the front of the vehicle, you are pushing a column of air, but the rear of the vehicle being a box does not allow the air to reattach thus creating a bunch of vortices, creating a lot of drag. And the drag coefficient increases with the square of the velocity. If it was practicle to streamline the rear the drag would be decreased tremendously. The rule of thumb for streamlining is the length has to be three times the width. Impracticle

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I just got back home in Portland, Oregon after a trip down to San Jose, California and back in our new 1989 21' Sunrader. We put a little over 1500 miles on it. It averaged a little over 15 MPG which is not bad considering the mountians in Southern Oregon and Nortern California. It is a V6 with an automatic.

Our other Sunrader is a 1983 21' with a 4 speed and a 4 cylinder engine (22R). On our trip from Portland, Oregon to Mobile, Alabama last year (6000 miles) we averaged a little over 17 MPG.

Bob

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1989 22' Dolphin 3L (3VZ) FULLY LOADED

Round trip from Vancouver, BC to Seaside, OR. both highway and cruvey road & hills did 70 MPH on the freeways 14.6 MPG :ranting2:

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Hi all - this topic seems to always generate a lot of interest. We have a 1982 18' Sunrader with a carburetted 22R engine and 4 speed manual tranny. On our recent trip to San Felipe in Baja from our home in northern California we averaged 19.9mpg. The trip was a little over 800 miles. I was really surprised because we developed a vacuum leak during the trip and I thought it would adversely affect the mileage. I do drive pretty conservatively, almost never exceeding 55 mph on the highway. I think the 2 main things that affect fuel mileage are vehicle weight and driving speed. Our rig is pretty lean and mean - no A/C or power steering and total weight when loaded for a trip is 5200 Lbs. And a good headwind will also kill your mileage. I hope everyone out there is having a great summer and planning some great trips!

Bill

Bill,

It sounds like you have the same setup as I do.. The reason this RV was so attractive to me is because of the fuel mileage (Especially now!) This is very heartening for me to hear!!

Some cheap (Relatively) things youg uys can do to get more mileage out of your rig:

Run full synthetic motor oil! I recommend Mobile 1 w/ Extdended mileage protection. It will run you about $30 for 5 quarts.. I noticed a mileage increase (On my other vehicles, not the RV, I haven't driven it enough to know. However the basic principle applies; Less drag=better mileage) when I switched to full synthetic-it puts less drag on your motor, and even if a small drag decrease-it will save you $-because the motor is turning all the time when you are moving.

For those of you who do not run your RVs all the time: Lucas oil stabilizer keeps stuck to the metal parts better than conventional motor oil and will protect your motor better after starting it when it has not been started in a while.

Lucas full synthetic (Or other synthetic) in your transmission will reduce drag.

Lucas full synthetic (Or other synthetic) in your differential will also reduce drag. The stuff has the consistency of cold honey, and will also help protect your tranny and diff.

Obviously tire pressure is important.

Something that helped a lot with my other vehicles is installing a high-output ignition coil, which ensures a mroe consitent burn of the fuel/air mixture.

Maybe a high-flow K&N air filter, and a cold-air intake? I assume that these are available for the older Toyota pickup trucks, so they should also be available for these motorhomes...

I am not trying to sound like an advertiser for Lucas, but it seems to me to be a very good product, allbeit expensive ($10 a quart!).

For the brief spin I took my motorhome, I don't think it can handle smaller gearing, or even a 5 speed, but I could be wrong, I did not drive it that far. The 22R motor is one of the best internal combustion motors available period, so there are 5 speeds available for it, however due to the varying nature of our RVs, a driveshaft shortening may be in order.

I was also thinking: What about flat aluminum siding like on "modern" rvs? I wonder if that would decrease drag...

Edited by Tundrawolf
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  • 2 months later...

my first trip with my 78 chinook i went about 500 miles round trip and averaged 23mpg at 65 mph the whole way. That was all the more i dare push her, after all she is an old girl.

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Took The Little Puppy out on his first long trip recently. Drove on flat roads and some hilly country plus had some wind to deal with. We were fully loaded plus three people and three small dogs. Total mileage was 451, drove 55 mph (did creep up to 60 a time or two) and our overall mpg was 15.5....we were very pleased! Cheapest gas was in SW Missouri $1.83 gallon :ThumbUp: . The Little Puppy did a super job on the road with his "new" axle and was very comfortable for all of us. The only problem we had was before we left our driveway. Charles was checking the tires and found an inside dually tire flat. Called Good Sam and within half an hour the nice man was here to check it out. He couldn't find any nails or screws or defects (they are new tires) so he aired it up along with checking all the other tires to make sure they were okay and had the right tire pressure. He said that sometimes dually tires will go flat for no reason so always check your tires before driving. We had no further problems with tires on the trip. So overall, we were happy campers with the exception of the two COLD nights we endured because of an unexpected fast moving cold front that blew through. We survived :w00t: and were glad to have the extra puppy heat from our dogs!

We are looking forward to many more trips in our Toy....he's a joy!

Dianne

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Took The Little Puppy out on his first long trip recently. Drove on flat roads and some hilly country plus had some wind to deal with. We were fully loaded plus three people and three small dogs. Total mileage was 451, drove 55 mph (did creep up to 60 a time or two) and our overall mpg was 15.5....we were very pleased! Cheapest gas was in SW Missouri $1.83 gallon :ThumbUp: . The Little Puppy did a super job on the road with his "new" axle and was very comfortable for all of us. The only problem we had was before we left our driveway. Charles was checking the tires and found an inside dually tire flat. Called Good Sam and within half an hour the nice man was here to check it out. He couldn't find any nails or screws or defects (they are new tires) so he aired it up along with checking all the other tires to make sure they were okay and had the right tire pressure. He said that sometimes dually tires will go flat for no reason so always check your tires before driving. We had no further problems with tires on the trip. So overall, we were happy campers with the exception of the two COLD nights we endured because of an unexpected fast moving cold front that blew through. We survived :w00t: and were glad to have the extra puppy heat from our dogs!

We are looking forward to many more trips in our Toy....he's a joy!

Dianne

I love stories with snuggly endings!!! I bet The Little Puppy loves his new rearend!!!

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Shanda,

Yes, The Little Puppy loves his new rearend and so do we! He is named in honor of our pups, but we think we heard him purring as we drove along! We were so pleased with how he performed on our trip. These little Toyota trucks are real jewels! We made it up some moderately steep hills without holding up too much traffic and he did just great on the interstate...just breezed on down the road. Didn't burn a drop of oil. He is a little cold natured when starting in the mornings, but so are we :P ! Had a grand time seeing the countryside more slowly, and didn't break our pocketbook filling up with fuel. That's a nice change. We will be taking TLP out for some winter drives so he doesn't have to just sit so long and will keep his juices flowing so we'll be ready to go places in the spring. The dogs just love him and can't wait to hear the words "load up, we're going places!" These little toys are so much fun. Sure hope everyone is enjoying theirs! Stay tuned for more updates as they occur!

Dianne

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In our 18' Sunrader r22 towing a 1,000# trailer 6,800# all up, from Kelowna BC to Quartzite, we have been every where from 14 mpg to 19.1 Las Vegas to Quartzite, that was the best run, we had a bit of a tailwind. We call our trailer "Parade Leader" most of the time we are 50-55 mph. Just a note, when we first bought "Sunnyjim" we noted no oil consumption. Then had the oil changed at Wallyworld & they only had 10/30 - started to use a bit of oil. Then changed oil in Bend Oregon, switched to 15/40 no oil use since then.

Tony

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Last April drove from La Paz Baja to S>F> area and back 3000+ miles averaged 17.6

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19.2 sounds good. Is it an 18'?

Mine's a 22R (4-Cylinder) and 4-speed. 15MPG if I shut the engine off & coast down long hills. Engine on all the time, I get 12. Only place I go with it is a desert site 75 miles East of town twice a month with the Astronomy Club of San Diego. Basically, all uphill to get there, and on the way back I have several hills that are a few miles long. No power steering, no problems shutting engine down on loooong hills.

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1984 Dolphin, 4cyl 4sp. I drove coast to coast (8,000 miles) and back this summer with my wife and 4 kids in it. In the mountains, we got as low as 12. But on the flats or moderate hills we got as high as 22. I would say we averaged around 18. We usually drove 60-65.

Don

www.ShapeNRace.com- discount pricing on pinewood derby car kits

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a 21 foot Dolphin 900 V6 automatic with overdrive, best I have gotten is 14.8 holding the speed to around 55-60.

The discussion about streamlining the front, pans under neath etc will help a little, but the big drag problem is caused by the squared off rear end which does not allow the air to reattach smoothly after you pass through it, causing a multitude of vortices which hold you back. If you could solve this you could greatly improve performance. The drag coefficient increases with the square of the velocity, it is not a linear function, so as speed increases the drag increases rapidly.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 years later...

I have an '89 21 foot Sunrader ; 3.0 6 cyl. automatic. I just completed a 1,000 mile round trip to the southwestern tip of Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay. I bought a Hobie Cat kayak (14 ft. tandem) at BluHaven Marina and loaded it on a PVC roof rack that I made. Strapped it down, wallowed through D.C. rush hour (3 hrs.) and the PA turnpike. Zero problems down and back. With 5 fill-ups that ranged between $20 - $50 (17 gal. tank), my lowest mpg was 15.3 (huge thunderstorm on turnpike going down), and the highest mpg was 16.9 (coming home with the kayak mounted - and at night). I Didn't use the cruise control, and my speeds ranged from 45 - 60 mph (usually 50 - 55). I was surprised that the kayak didn't foil the wind as I expected ; I got better mileage with it ON than my trip down to pick it up! But I also noted that the best recorded fill-up (coming back) didn't have the 10% ethanol blend. Or at least it wasn't registered on the pumps (Exxon). I try to be consistent when fueling. When the pump "clicked" at a full tank, I resisted the urge to top it off. By my calculations, the trip (with tolls) cost about $225 ($3.82 - $3.99 per gal.).

Mick222

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  • 2 weeks later...

This weekend pulling motorcycle trailer in a hurry

Oregon Coast over mountain to Grants Pass 14.12 MPG

Up I-5 over several passes 12.52 MPG

I-5 flat with slight tailwind 14.13 MPG

Over Mount Hood big upgrades, as slow as 30 MPH 13.03 MPG

Back over Mount Hood with even longer streatches of uphill 10.38 MPG

Curvy 2 lane slow road 12.75 MPG

Back down I-5 @ 60 MPH 12.27 MPG

Average for trip 12.73

Average speed 42.25 MPH

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My numbers are almost identical to Lee's.

On our Alaska trip, we kept good fuel usage records.

11,000 miles traveled, 13.9 mpg average for 790 gallons of gas consumed.

At 65 mph - about 12.9 mpg

At 55 mph - about 15.0 mpg

Obviously, headwinds/tailwinds effect this number.

Worst was 10.8 (strong headwind) and best was 17.2 (good tailwind)

I'll post my fuel usage spreadsheet if anyone is interested.

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

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John, I would like to see your spreadsheet. How was your trip, did everything work ?

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I have an '89 21' Sunrader with 22RE and an automatic. I just took a 300 mile trip and averaged about 15.8 mpg. This was fully loaded, full tanks, two people and two big dogs. We rarely went much over 60 mph unless we were going downhill or with a tailwind or drafting a big rig, in which case we went up to 65 and occasionally 70.

It seemed pretty clear that, headwinds and hills aside, which always end up balancing out on long trips. the biggest factor for us was speed.

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Took a trip down the coast from Brookings Oregon to Eureka CA & back. No trailer and almost empty of anything, and drove very casual with a tailwind down and no wind back. Stayed under 60, mostly 50-55 MPH & got 14.58 MPG down and 13.90 up.

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Just got back from a 2200 mile trip from Colorado to Oregon. I averaged 17.9 mpg for the entire trip. 16 being my worst tank and 21.2 being my best.

I have a 21' Sunrader 22R with 4 speed man. Kept my speeds between 55-60 when possible.

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1100+ miles into our Nanaimo trip best tank (the last one will work out to around 18 (still need to do the exact metric conversion. Worst tank - 15 mpg exactly for 120 miles uphill almost the whole way (Boise, ID to New Meadows, ID). Averaging 16+ on almost all secondary mountainous highway at loaf-along speeds int the '92 Winnie Warriior 321RL with V6 and auto. Speedo and Odo check out w/in .5%.

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1100+ miles into our Nanaimo trip best tank (the last one will work out to around 18 (still need to do the exact metric conversion. Worst tank - 15 mpg exactly for 120 miles uphill almost the whole way (Boise, ID to New Meadows, ID). Averaging 16+ on almost all secondary mountainous highway at loaf-along speeds int the '92 Winnie Warriior 321RL with V6 and auto. Speedo and Odo check out w/in .5%.

Here are the final numbers from our Nanaimo trip. We drove 2,632 miles with very little on freeways. The best mileage was on winding roads at about 45 mph and the worst was on hilly roads at 60+. Best tank was 17.4 mpg and worst was 12.2. Trip average was 15.79 mpg.

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Pulling bike trailer to central Oregon from the South coast of Oregon & back

1st 118 miles @ 13.64 MPG slow two lane fairly flat

2cd 94 miles all uphill two lane over crater lake 5000-6000 feet 11.82 MPG

3rd 68 miles two lane 13.60 MPG

4th 67 miles two lane 15.27 MPG

5th 95 mostly downhill over crater lake 13.98 MPG

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