park the truck and drive a saturn

SHOW ME THE GAS MONEY

 

Been thinkin' about riding the Harley more for 42mpg. That and downsizing the 31'8" 10,400 lb high profile flat faced 5th wheel for another 20' TT. That big 5th wheel is a killer on fuel mileage.

 

i read buells(even the new 1200cc)are getting 72mpg.

 

My carbureted '92 1340cc Fatboy is a pig. Or a hog. Or a gas hog.
Talked with a feller who rented a Nissan Sentra for a trip and he claims he got 43mpg highway. I suppose it's possible but that's very good mileage. Father in law gets 26mpg with his 4.6L Mercury Grand Marqui at 65mph highway. I've been with him and seen it calculated. It's geared tall and shaped like a bar of soap so I shouldn't be surprised. A lot has changed with fuel injection and all... We get 12mpg with our Durango in town but it gives 20mpg at 70 highway. Better than my truck's 19mpg highway. But I get 18.5~ city if I go real easy on it and coast alot. I drive the Durango a little heavy footed. It sounds good!

 

Gas mileage in the 40's for small cars is NOT AT ALL hard to believe-in fact, it's fairly common. It's not limited to new cars, or even fuel injected cars. There were a number of really small cars in the 80's that had carburetors with teeny primary barrels and small secondaries that had oxygen sensors for closed loop operation. An example-I had an '87 chevy spectrum, which is a rebadged isuzu I-mark. It had a 1.5 liter carbureted engine. The carburetor and associated plumbing was an abomination of engineering-it looked like a pot of black spaghetti had been thrown under the hood. But, it all worked perfectly. It normally got about 40 mph on the interstate, and one time it got 45 mph. This was all hand calculated of course. I was in the navy at the time, so I did a bunch of interstate driving to go see people in other areas, and I was fanatical about checking my mileage.

I recently had an '89 toyota tercel with a 4 speed manual-no overdrive. It normally got 36 mph on the interstate, just screaming along. Again, a carbureted 1.5 liter motor (about 90 cubic inches)

 

My 99 Buell S3T (1203 cc) got 50-54 two-up! I sold it and got a wing as we do a bunch of two-up and interstate riding. Boy do I miss the Buell!!!! Wing (1800 cc) gets 42-44. Not bad but we have a short summer in Wyoming.

 

Wife's 2002 VW Beetle with the Turbo Diesel 5 spd claimed 49 mpg, she can get low 40's out of it all around driving, but 49 is yet to be seen. She won't let me chip/box that thing... love to see what it would do then!!!

 

My dad's 2002 VW Jetta TDI gets 45-47 regularly with an automatic. Nice car too.

 

Back to towing, it won't help the 5'ver guys but the pull type guys will like this. I talked to a guy that has a cab high shell and then puts his aluminum boat up there with the bow forward. It gave him 1-2 mpg on the average. Now put a 4 stroke on that boat and you are talking real savings . That thing will be darn near free by the time you get done with it. Add to that, the savings at the market from all the fish you'll catch and it might save you enough to buy those new injectors.

 

Filling up the tank for 70 bones is a killer right now. I've thought about getting a POS 35mpg commuter car to use for the majority of my driving. After doing the calulations of owning another vehical (cost of car, insurance, tires, reduced protection from getting T-bone by a Suburban, etc) it's just not worth it. On the other hand, if I already owned said POS, I would keep it and drive it a lot

 

We also have two Taurus sedans, and while both can get 28 to 29 mpg on the highway we typically see 18 to 20 mpg in town as we live on a hill. I get 17 to 18 mpg in town in the truck, so don't feel compelled to drive the cars.

A diesel sedan is attractive, but it'll have to wait until the truck is paid off.

My Suzuki GS1100ESD would get 45 to 50 mpg driving sane, and would dip to the low 40s at highly illegal cruising speeds.

 

My jetta tdi gets 42-45 intown traffic. Only one hwy trip of 500+ miles and it did 57. My truck does 16-17 in city and 20+ hwy.

 

how does it tow?

What kind of gooseneck hitch are you using? Roof mount or rear hatch?

I was looking at alternative transportation for the short trips and using the truck for shows and long trips.
Anything that gets good mileage that is a few yrs old requires me to grease down to slip into the seat.

We may look at the Tourag or something VW diesel to replace Megs' car.

Scotty

 

Heck, I've been thinking about riding one of the horses to work. Just got to figure where the temp corral will go. Also wonder what would happen when I showed up at the gate. Wonder how the MP's would inspect it??

Ed

 

there's always electric cars if you dont want to pay for gas or diesel.