Guest wemit Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 Just completed a cross country trip from Western Montana to South Bend Indiana and back. I found that driving my '85 Toyota motorhome with the four cylinder to be tiring as Hell! I had to constantly be aware of hills and the attendant "parade" behind me for most of the trip. The engine performed well with no issues other than some oil leakage. I did get fairly good gas mileage with a little over 15 mpg average for the 3600 miles driving about 60 mph. Some of the fill-ups showed over 17 mpg and one time after about four hours of a good tail wind, I got just over 20 mpg! We had headwinds in South Dakota of about 25 mph which really slowed us down resulting in a four hour run of about 10 mpg. The headwinds also actually ripped my awning off the side of the rv and broke it into many pieces all over the road. I went back but there was no way to retrieve the parts or do anything with them so I left it there. Also we had a stone jump up and crack the windshield and the muffler split open but the rig was still driveable although a bit louder. Also some advice: don't do the trip in August without cab air conditioning! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ctgriffi Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 Sounds like a challenging trip! Thanks for posting some real world experience... folks that are hovering on the fringes, just checking things out, need to be aware these old, underpowered rigs aren’t exactly a bed of roses all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lopezg273 Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 11 hours ago, wemit said: Just completed a cross country trip from Western Montana to South Bend Indiana and back. I found that driving my '85 Toyota motorhome with the four cylinder to be tiring as Hell! I had to constantly be aware of hills and the attendant "parade" behind me for most of the trip. The engine performed well with no issues other than some oil leakage. I did get fairly good gas mileage with a little over 15 mpg average for the 3600 miles driving about 60 mph. Some of the fill-ups showed over 17 mpg and one time after about four hours of a good tail wind, I got just over 20 mpg! We had headwinds in South Dakota of about 25 mph which really slowed us down resulting in a four hour run of about 10 mpg. The headwinds also actually ripped my awning off the side of the rv and broke it into many pieces all over the road. I went back but there was no way to retrieve the parts or do anything with them so I left it there. Also we had a stone jump up and crack the windshield and the muffler split open but the rig was still driveable although a bit louder. Also some advice: don't do the trip in August without cab air conditioning! Great experience, thanks for sharing! My experience is similar, with my '90 Dolphin V6. Drove this: San Francisco - Sequoia Nat'l Park - Las Vegas - Zion Nat'l Park - Denver - Casper, WY - Yellowstone Nat'l Park - Salt Lake City. Took about 3 weeks because of all the stops and camping. Drove on interstates, primarily and stayed around 60-65 MPH (didn't have a parade behind me but everyone passed me, speed limit in these states is 80 MPH!), but it was a very relaxed drive because I didn't care who was behind me. I could have pushed the RV faster but didn't want to. Averaged 16.5 MPG (and I have the log and receipts to prove it), even climbing the Rockies. It was EXTREMELY windy (headwind) in Idaho, lost a solar panel - I only realized it at the next stop, so I couldn't check to see where it fell off. No oil consumption at all. Only ran the cab AC while driving around town, but it was peerless! On the freeway I had "2-50 AC" (2 open windows, 50 MPH) but hardly needed to. Next trip will be: Salt Lake City - Boise - Portland - Seattle but with many stays in the national forests in between, 2 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
85mirage Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 Wow thats some funny sh#@! Had me in tears. Brought back many memories of many mad people following me. I received quite a few 🖕 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odyssey 4x4 Posted March 7, 2020 Share Posted March 7, 2020 You guys must be in a hurry taking interstates on a Toyota camping trip. I'd never get on the interstate in a yota home unless I had no other choice! Take the back roads, slow down, and have a safe place to pull on the side of the road when stuff breaks! The back roads are the good scenery anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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