Terrible Gas Mileage - Any mods that will help?

[86Scotty]

Originally Posted by JWA

.

The reasons why could be argued forever but until there's sufficient profit to be had we'll keep buying off-shore.

Of course I agree but I can put one word to it. Greed. In this case oil companies and of course lobbyists. It's the biggest problem of humanity and one I've never understood.

You tell me how any one human can justify needing more than a few hundred grand a year (at the very most) and I'll certainly listen.

I haven't read anything on this as some of you guys have but I find it very exciting that such a small piece of this country could do so much good (solar). That's just pretty damn cool.

[BroncoHauler]

So, how does someone improve the GAS mileage of a 4x4 van?

[IanF]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

So, how does someone improve the GAS mileage of a 4x4 van?

Drive slower.

[marret]

Go downhill.

[Orv]

I used to have a stock E-150 Club Wagon with a 302, and the best I ever saw was 19 mpg. 15 mpg was more typical. I mention this because I feel this is about the best you can expect from a gasoline van this size. Pretty much everything we do to them makes it worse -- we add more weight, we lift them higher off the ground, we add drag with various external bolt-ons.



Too much speed, too little air in the tires, and excess weight will all drag the MPG down, and those are probably the things you have the most control over. For what it's worth, I find I and the van are both a bit happier hanging out in the right lane with the semis instead of in the left lane with the Teslas. I got used to this when I drove a VW Bus (which got 17 mpg, interestingly.)



I'm averaging 12 mpg in my 2WD E-250, but I drive it an average of 1,600 miles a year, so even at California fuel prices it's not worth worrying too much about. I'm paying more for insurance and registration than I am for fuel! I have dual tanks, which helps a lot with range -- I gather that's not always an option for 4x4s though.

[86Scotty]

Originally Posted by BroncoHauler

So, how does someone improve the GAS mileage of a 4x4 van?

I find that lying to people on mileage related forum threads and living in denial has always helped my thirsty vehicles get better fuel mileage.

[IanF]

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

I find that lying to people on mileage related forum threads and living in denial has always helped my thirsty vehicles get better fuel mileage.

I've been in the TDI world since 2003. I'm used to some wild MPG claims.

[Orv]

Yeah, VW Bus forums had some pretty wild claims, too. Although some of them made more sense once we realized some of us were using Imperial gallons.

[nyyankees588]

Originally Posted by JWA

As a massive huge over-simplification of that issue there's no economic sense to manufacture here, easier and probably cheaper to import them. The USA could dominate the technology and manufacture if it was profitable enough to do so.

The reasons why could be argued forever but until there's sufficient profit to be had we'll keep buying off-shore.

My 2-cents: the import vs. made in USA debate for renewable components is similar to any other manufacturing - we've gotten used to cheap, fast technology. I work with Zamp Solar regularly and just had a super interesting convo w/ one of their techs. They started like all of the other solar companies, buying chinese, rebranding and reselling in the US. After a few years they weren't ok with the quality, so they completely changed to producing all their products in the US. All of their solar panels are now made in lovely Bend, OR.

The downside... they are more expensive (their newest 100w obsidian panel is $450!!!!!) and it takes longer to develop new products. Eg, they don't sell a MPPT charge controller, despite it being much more efficient than PWM controllers. Why? Because it takes a hell of a time to design a new product in-house than it does to buy one coming off an assembly line in china and slap your sticker on it and sell it on amazon.

Back on-topic - like somebody else mentioned, my biggest hit to MPG was adding a roof rack (including a roof box). Amazingly that was a solid 2mpg drop (and I've been monitoring my MPG for the past 50k miles, so I have a lot of data to base this off of). Yet when I tow a 5,000lb trailer, I drop 2mpg max, sometimes I barely notice any difference. Crazy how some aerodynamics matter. There's a forum called "ecomodder" that I've perused - you'll notice a lot of people focus on making their vehicles super aerodynamic. This usually results in them looking absolutely absurd (imagine things covering over the outside of the wheels and skirts down the front of the vehicle).

[1der]

Real life last week at Lassen NP South parking lot -

Watched four Teslas roll up to the two charging stations they have there. Just download the app onto your phone (there is no cell service). Okay, then use the free WiFi at the park headquarters building at the end of the lot (oh, yep that was not working either), then plug the cord into your charging port and hang around for a few hours (actually maybe a couple of days because the power was shut down due to wind/fire risk and only a generator was handling the essentials which did not include the charging station). It was interesting to watch the owners' faces while they were trying to figure out the next closest charging station and wondering if that one would be operating and if they had enough range to get there.

So, how long would it take for a Honda 2000i with a step up transformer and proper plug to charge up a Tesla to give it 100 miles? I think I could have made a few hundred bucks in those moments. Heck, I could have just high idled the 7.3 w dual alternators and run that through a step up .....

.