Fuel Economy

110 mph! Here in North Devon you're lucky nowadays to get above 30 and even luckier if you can stay on the right side of the road with all the potholes that are now dangerous craters. This afternoon on the way back from Tescos I stopped to help a driver change a wheel that was destroyed by a crater. Makes it all the more scary when it's raining when the road looks like puddles.

Back to mpg, I've had my van for 9 1/2 years and never once worked out the mpg. Gauge gets to quarter, fill it up. 

JK

Ah! Realised, I meant under 2 hrs!! Didn't mean to give wrong impression.

Regards all.

Actually I meant to ask. Re. my trip to Damage Barton, North Devon next Saturday (Coronation Day!!). I'm thinking the best route from any point on the M5 is to leave at the Tiverton junction (27) and use the A361? It seems the easier route for caravans. Any advice gratefully received.

David. 

Definitely J27 Hepo. Stay on A361 all the way, past Barnstaple and follow signs to Ilfracombe. At Mullacott cross roundabout take the 1st exit for Woolacombe / Mortehoe. Go past Bay View campsite, around a sharp right hander (Turnpike Corner) then in about 200 meters on left hand bend turn right. Follow for 5 minutes, DB is the second campsite on the right. Plenty of space to choose from , there was only 25 vans there yesterday

JK

In answer to the point re roof boxes, I have some experience of this. When we had a caravan, towed by a Kia Sorento auto, we used a roof box on our long overseas trips. What I found was that whilst towing in Germany, with a lowish max towing speed on the autobahns I did see a modest improvement in fuel economy but as soon as we were in France with a much higher towing speed limit any previous advantage was lost. So it seems that if you tow at modest speeds you may get a slight improvement but as the speed increases the advantage is lost. Don't forget that unless you remove the roof box when you get to your destination that will make the general economy worse if you leave the box in place. The only reason to have a roof box is really as extra storage rather than hoping for any improvement is towing economy. 

David

I've never worked mine out either .... but after a couple of button presses my tow car will display it for me 😉

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How many miles will you need to travel at improved economy to pay for the roof box with the savings….. 50,000? Going from 23mpg to 25mpg or whatever is neither here nor there. If economy is such a financial issue then perhaps caravanning is not affordable for you given the other costs involved? 

However I am not sure what towing speed limits in Germany and France you are referring to DavidK? 

In Germany the limit is 80 kms per hour (unless you had the Tempo 100 sticker)  and in France (when we last went) 130 kms per hour so quite a difference and no I didn't tow at 130 kms per hour!! The fact I had a roof box was just incidental to the economy achieved, it was just something I noticed over many hundreds of miles of motorway towing in both countries. I had a roof box because I wanted out of the way storage whilst we were on route to our destination. Totally agree that it would be a waste of money buying a roof box to achieve extra economy but the OP did ask.

David

Totally off topic and apologies but when we had our second motorhome it had a large roofbox on it at the rear bolted to roofbars with a 150mm gap to the roof. Back then I was minding the budget and I found there was a difference of 8 mpg when I took the box off. That's a big chunk of gas when I only used to get 24mpg. 

JK