I've never gotten quite the fuel mileage I wanted from my Excursion. Around town it's only 13-14. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img] I figured it should do better.
So I verified the odometer and found that it reads 2.4% low, no doubt due to my 33" tires. So my real mileage is 2.4% better.
Then last week I towed a camping trailer from Bishop to the Bay area, climbing the Sierras to 10,000 feet over Tioga pass. I got almost 16 mpg.
When I filled up back home I did a quick mental computation of the gallons to fill it versus the miles on my trip odometer...it didn't match the mpg that the trip computer displayed.
I checked it closer and found out that the fuel mileage reading in my trip computer is reading 6.8% low! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
So in reality the indicated trip computer mileage needs to be multiplied by 1.092 (2.4% + 6.8%) to get an accurate reading.
So I really got 17mpg towing that trailer over the Sierras. Now THAT's why I ordered a diesel and waited 2 months for delivery! [img]images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
The only accurate way to check the mileage is by filling up to the top of the neck, drive as you would normally, fill it up to the neck again and divide the total miles travelled by the gallons required to fill up. The trip computer almost always is off from the actual due to the way it calculates mileage. An accurate odometer is a must for all this to work in the first place too.
Filling up to the top of the neck is important as it gives you a common reference point. If you wait until the pump shuts off and use that as your filling refernce point it can vary too much. I've seen it as much as 3-5 gallons difference. This accounted for significantly more optimistic mileage numbers.
BTW, my 2000 4x4 PSD Excursion (3.73 gears), bone stock, gets between 15-16 city, and 16-18 highway with cruise on at 65-70 mph. Towing 5000 lbs around SoCal I get between 12.0 and 13.7 mpg at the same speeds.
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2000 PSD 4x4 Limited, white/charcoal, 3.73 LS, and all other options.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>... Filling up to the top of the neck ... as much as 3-5 gallons difference ...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I should have noted in my original post that I always top up until there's no foam and just clear diesel at the top. I always get at least 3 gallons in after the nozzle shuts off, but so far never more than 4. If I park with the LR of the truck up highest, it just tops up faster, still no more than 4 gallons.
If I use a big rig nozzle with the huge diameter tube, it fills faster but then it takes longer for the foam to settle down, so there's little time saved overall.
Just noticed you're in Livermore, we're probably running similar quality fuel. Greetings!
We've had the same experience with the computer as you, and are seeing basicly the same numbers. Our computer reads pretty consistently 2mpg low regardless of driving mix. Around town we're getting 15 to 16, and on the highways, if we keep it under 70, we see 18 to 20. I've only towed once back during break-in, and didn't keep track of the mileage. I noticed a slight change in mileage back in late April, early May... I think the refineries switched to more of a summer blend.
So what color is your rig? Excursions have been growing like weeds here in Livermore over the last couple months. I've even started to see more PSD's. Every now and then, we see a lifted white/beige with a brush gaurd & cargo basket, I haven't gotten close enough to it to hear if it's a PSD. If that's you, man you're causing me no end of grief! The wife starts in... "I want that, and that, and those tires, and..." She want's to spend my truck money!!! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
Pulled a premo 77 Trans Am from Bend Oregon to L.A. Ca. on a U-hall 2w dolly set cruise at 65 mph got 16.4 mpg on paper. PSD EX had only 800 miles. No complaints here, but it will probably do 20 buy it self at 70 mph, but in Ca. on I-5 people are driving 70-90 mph. It drops back to low to mid 16's anything over 70 or over 2k rpm. cliffsurfs
I've seen the white/beige one with the roof rack too. That's not me. I've seen it at Home Depot twice. I don't know if it's lifted or he just has those BFG 33s on there. I parked next to him one day and mine seems taller with its 4" lift. There's also another white one around with all three badges removed from the rear door, the holes and recess plugged, and repainted so you can't tell there were ever any badges there. It looks excellent that way. I've only seen about 5 X diesels so far. One lady with a horse trailer has the exact same stock version of mine though.
Mine's Estate Green and noticeable for the large SafariGard bumper and lift. I usually have a covered high-lift jack on the roof which looks a bit like a machine gun if you don't know about high-lifts. I also peeled off the Excursion Limited badges from the back door but when I discovered there were holes under them I just covered them up with a Volvo badge. So I get some odd looks. Several times dippy soccer moms [img]images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] have followed me into a parking lot to ask where they can buy a big Volvo SUV like mine. If your wife saw mine she probably wouldn't want a massive bumper, jack on the roof, and Volvo badge on the back.
I get a kick out of driving the speed limit around here while speeding commuter jerks from Modesto etc (no offense to anybody in Modesto etc - I like Modesto too! ) stack up behind me. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] But almost nobody will tailgate a huge rig like mine. Plus I'm a pretty big guy. I know a few of the Livermore cops and believe me, they are turning up the heat on speeders.
Word to the wise: [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] keep it to 5mph over the limit in Livermore or it's quite likely you WILL get written up. They're planning blitzes this summer with up to 30 officers from neighboring jurisdictions helping out. Imagine 30 motorcycle cops [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] lined up in a row up a side street off East Ave (or Concannon, First, 4th, Holmes, etc) writing up every single speeding a**hole commuter some morning. [img]images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] It's going to happen, and they won't get me because I won't speed. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img] I don't need my insurance to go up, you know what I mean? A ticket costs a hundred bucks or so, but then you pay higher insurance for 3 years! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img]
I am a little curious as to how you came up with a 2.4% calibration error on your speedometer running 33" tires. Using 285's for comparison, which are actually only 32.83" in height, the calibration error is 3.6%. 295's which are 33.42" tall has a 5.3% error. Your speedometer error should be 4.1%. Maybe field or measuring variability explains the difference, but you may be getting better fuel economy than you think. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
You are absolutely right about insurance rates following a sppeeding ticket. My insurance went up $1000 a year for three years following one ticket for doing 24mph over on the interstate. $3000 penalty is gouging in my opinion especially since I have not had a motor vehicle crash in 35 years. I now have a very good radar detector. Depending on the radar frequency used, it will sniff a speed trap like the one you describe from between 1/2 and 3/4 mile away.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>I am a little curious as to how you came up with a 2.4% calibration error on your speedometer running 33" tires. ... I now have a very good radar detector. [/QB]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Regarding the odometer error, I just did a simple measurement over 50 miles out on highway 5 one day on a trip to LA. Those little mile markers in every county are very useful.
Regarding your radar detector, I have one too (Valentine, the best) but only use it out in CHP land. Local cops (like I said, I know a few personally) all use intant-on radar. When your detector goes off for instant-on radar, it's basically just saying "you're screwed" because as soon as you get an alert, the cop got a reading on you. You might get lucky and catch an alert from him reading the guy in front of you. That's your only hope with instant-on. Then if Johnny Law does pull you over, try telling him you weren't really speeding, with those suction cups on the windshield. Cops aren't stupid.
But the CHP seem to just leave their radar running non-stop out on the interstates. I don't speed there either, because I don't like my fuel mileage to drop like a rock, but it's nice to know when a cop is there anyway. That way I can be extra alert. Some speeding yahoos floor the left peddle when they see a cop, causing potential accident situations.
My wife says she's seen your truck, and likes the cargo basket. You're right though... The jack is out.. [img]images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
Livermore is definitly long overdue in bypassing highway 84. It would go a long way towards solving the commute speeder problem. But I'm worried that all the recent ire towards speeders is one more indicator that the yuppie-whiners have consolodated their power, and Livermore will follow Dublin down the path to becoming "like Pleasanton". Pretty soon, they'll be having crackdowns on "home oil changers", and issue tickets for "unlicensed vehicle maintenance activity within city limits"... Or some such nonsense. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img]
We live in old Springtown, and don't drive in south Livermore much. I take the ACE train to work most of the time. But I appreciate the heads up on the crackdown. I haven't been pulled over since 1988 or so! I want to keep my clean record. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
One of the things I have noticed is the X brings out some severely rude behavior on 580. People just can't stand to have even a stock height X in front of them. When I drive my ranger, I don't have problems merging, when I drive the X, people seem to have some vendetta to work out. Weird.
Anyhow... If you see a white and beige PSD X with the custom plate "FRMDADE", that's us. (The plate is from a previous vehicle my wife inherited when her father died. She can't part with it... [img]images/icons/crazy.gif[/img] )
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR> ... I'm worried that all the recent ire towards speeders is one more indicator that the yuppie-whiners have consolodated their power, and Livermore will follow Dublin down the path to becoming "like Pleasanton". Pretty soon, they'll be having crackdowns on "home oil changers", and issue tickets for "unlicensed vehicle maintenance activity within city limits"... Or some such nonsense. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] ...
One of the things I have noticed is the X brings out some severely rude behavior on 580. People just can't stand to have even a stock height X in front of them. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I got a "move it or we'll tow it" sticker on our spare car the other day, but other than that I don't get any sense that Livermore is about to lose its country manners and not let us good ole boys work on our pickemup trucks in the driveway. I talk with the local cops often and go to city council meetings. I think Livermore is going to stay OK for guys like us as long as we don't speed.
For merging on 580 if there's an asshole stuck to my bumper I just figure out a way to let him by. I'd rather have Joe Jerkspeed up in front of me anyway so the distance between us is under MY control, not his. I have plenty of time to get myself and my family to whatever destination. I've seen enough wrecks already in my life.
My plate says XCRUSHN just like below in my sig file. I could have had XCURSHN but I liked the crush part. [img]images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
I just ordered the aluminum roof rack from JC Whitney after I learned that it's made by Surco. I'll mount that bad boy up there next weekend, and figure out a way to attach the hi-lift to the rack. That should look better than the jack alone up there. [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
I designed a little Excel spreadsheet to keep track of mileage. Inputs are:
date, gallons, cost, price (per gallon), odometer reading, where purchased, notes.
Output is miles (since last fillup), MPG, mpg adj (to get actual MPG since the computer in the Excursion cannot be adjusted), and cents per mile.
If anyone wants a copy of this Excel spreadsheet, please email me at skeysyeks@aol.com.
Steve
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Reno Husker Du: I got a "move it or we'll tow it" sticker on our spare car the other day, but other than that I don't get any sense that Livermore is about to lose its country manners and not let us good ole boys work on our pickemup trucks in the driveway. I talk with the local cops often and go to city council meetings. I think Livermore is going to stay OK for guys like us as long as we don't speed. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
That's good to hear. I can live with the speed limits around here. I only speed on interstate's, and then only "passively". No lane hopping and dodging. It's never worth it.
The wife and I just got back from LA. We got really bad mileage... Only 16mpg... [img]images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] Filled up at the Flying-J on the grapevine. Diesel was $1.459! That's like $0.25 cheaper than the last time I filled up here. Including our's, there were 5 Excursions parked in valet parking at Disney's new hotel. The valet's were having fun "geometrically arrainging" them by color and height in the lot. We left at the same time as a white XLT gasser. Didn't get to talk to them, but my wife had to give chase to give the rig a look over. It had about 4 inches lift, BFG's, chrome diff cover, and a nice grill gaurd. For the first time, she's talking about a lift kit... I'm going to talk her out of it, or I'll never be able to afford to get rid of my ranger... [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>... she's talking about a lift kit... I'm going to talk her out of it, or I'll never be able to afford to get rid of my ranger... [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
You might be surprised how much a lift kit doesn't cost. Because the X has live axles front and rear, lift kits are only a few hundred bucks. If you put it in yourself (make sure you have air tools) all you have to pay for afterwards is a good 4-wheel alignment.
For GM trucks and others with IFS, lift kits are way more expensive, and in my opinion they look dorky too.
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