The 1000 mile tank.....
 

I'll be glad when its over, do you know how long it would take to do a 1000 miles at 55mph? - Well, 1000/55 = 18 hours. 18 hours of solid driving at truck speed. <yawn>

Anyway, on with progress... Seems like I have a little challenge going on with myself.

It all started when I coasted gingerly into the fuel station at Trowell services, filled up and saw just over 1000 miles left on the DIS. Seemed unlikely, but as you do, dawdled off to Birmingham and London, and more or less managed to maintain distance travelled + DIS range left = 1000.

So, My first 184 miles saw me parked up in Londons Brent Cross Holiday Inn for the night.

Then, a quick check on the way home to Harrogate and we're still seeing 715 + 302 travelled at just over 1/4 tank used = good stuff:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1330020124

Later on and we're pulling off the A1, showing 630 + 372. Still over 1000 combined. Just. Fuel needle backing up the DIS' claims at the moment.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1330020124


Harrogate is a lovely place to live, but there is no motorway with 15 miles of it, so its back roads and traffic back home, ruining my stats and noticibly moving the fuel needle. Still, 399 miles and needle still above half way isnt really to be sniffed at

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1330020124

So, I'm off to Birmingham and back tomorrow - Thats another 260 miles, then the same on Monday. In theory, I should be doing both those trips and returning with the same fuel in the tank, with the light just coming on as I hit Harrogate on Monday.....

800 miles will be a breeze. 900 miles should be do-able with a bit of care. 1000 though is gonna require extreme concentration and balls of steel for the fuel light bingo game....

Bets anyone ?

Pfft, my speedo goes upto 200 :D

Are you driving about at 55 MPH everywhere? Jeremy Clarkson drove a 4.0 V8 TDI A8 from London to Edinburugh and back again on one tank of fuel, 800 miles on Top Gear, so the 3.0 should be able to crack 1000 or get very close to it I'd imagine.

Quite aware of Clarksons journey.....

He turned off all the toys, drove without cruise, had a backup team, had nowhere to be at a specific time and did it all in 2 relitively straightforward journeys.

To do 1000 miles living in Harrogate, and having places to be and work to do, at the moment it looks like it'll be 7 journeys to make up 920 miles and whatever happens after that.

Thats 7 cold starts, 7 parking manouvers, 7 urban journeys 7 places to be with 7 deadlines and 7 reasonably good chances of getting screwed in a traffic jam.....

1000 miles made up of 2 x 500 mile motorway journeys with nowhere else to be would be a lot simpler.... +++

Very true actually... Never thought of it like that.

sounds like a fun challenge though eh Ian? :D

Interesting!

My 80 litres of the devils fuel gets me around 475 miles in my new Range Rover Sport TDV8... I always wonder if I can break the 500!

Hellva lot better on juice than the V10. But no comparison really. Miss it badly.

Yes.... I suggest some strong medication, and common sense will resume shortly... ;)

Looking more doubtful....
 

This morning wasnt going well. I was tired, and frankly ACC had done a good job so I sort of left it to it.

But it was going pete tong, badly. 2 urban Journeys through Harrogate traffic, 1 with a cold engine, then relying on ACC to get a good MPG had seriously chewed some fuel.

Here we are at Trowell, half way there with a pityful MPG of 43, nothing like the near 50 I need.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1330089803

Worse still, the Range + trip now equals less than 900... Yikes.

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1330089803

So cafeine to the rescue, and onto plan B. An 18 wheeler....

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1330089803

Trundling along at 55 mph is not easy. Trucks dont do 55mph, they do almost anything between 50 and 60, which is completely unnoticed when hurtling past at traditional motorway speeds - They all seem to be going the same speed of slowness.

Big trucks have to abide by the 40/50/60 rule - 40 on A roads, 50 on Dual Carriageways and 60 on motorways by law.

Some are governed to 56, presumably for economy, whilst heavily laden ones slow down to 50 up hill, and hoof it down hills to get a shuffle on.

Then, the drivers paid by the hour (or worse still on overtime) just trundle along slowly.

So, dodging the trucks was a nightmare. Theres only so many times you can be subject of a drawn out, 3 minute, 4 mile overtake manouver before you start to feel a little guilty.

I'm also concious that if my speed drops under 55mph, the torque convertor unlocks, which I'm convinced is less economical as the engine is free to rev far more than I might otherwise need to.....

So, back to the plan.

If I could find a big truck, driven enthusiastically by someone clearly getting a shift on, it would regulate my speed, get rid of the painful overtakes and as a bonus would give me something to slipstream.

Here comes into play this lovely tri deck transporter, nice and wide and clearly looking to make a punctual delivery. Full of Skoads, VW's and Audis too. It was surely meant to be.

ACC was off, and switched to manual throttle, including RSI of the ankle and premature wear of the heel section of the drivers floor mat, but hey, anything for science eh ?

And so I plodded with these new plan working wonders. Had to switch trucks at the M1 / A42 split as my VAG transporter stayed on the M1, but I found a nice box trailer to sit behind into Birmingham.. +++

Whilst plodding along at my found comfort speed, I did some basic (and rather alarming) sums.

If you have 90 litres of fuel, and can drain every drop, then to do 1000 miles you will need to achieve an average of 50.44 MPG. An average. Sheesh. Wish I'd done that maths before starting.

On the plus side, on the same basis, 900 miles would require only 45.4 MPG - which seems really quite easy in contrast.

Anyway, arrived at birmingham & parked up with the following numbers:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1330089803

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1330089803

So, I pulled the MPG up by 3 MPG, which is very good. I must have been doing more than 47 to pull it up from 43.8, so my new plan really did work. The 5 mins of urban travelling through Brum brought the range down a bit, but still 330 + 536 = 866 miles total.

Tonight will be tricky - Even if I get through the Friday night lottery that is the M6, I then hit heavy Friday traffic on the urban roads of Harrogate. I'm also in a 'rush' as I'm going out tonight....

So, after various regular Friday traffic hold ups, we're home, and after the urban crawl through Harrogate we are looking like this:

http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1330289916


http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/attachmen...1&d=1330289916

So, 677 miles done. 150 left, albeit falsely low due to the recent urban journey......

Note still got a fraction under 1/4 tank left, which after 677 miles aint bad at all really....

1000 aint looking likely, 900 is gonna be tough still.....

130 miles to Brum tomorrow should see me at 800 miles. It'll be interesting to see the fuel state of play at that point...

I'd have bet no chance from the start if the trip computer is anything like the D2. Mine says that I have a range of around 500 miles when I first fill it up, but as it gets further down the tank this drops quite quickly. By half full, the range plus miles travelled is usually around the 450 mark but, by the time I fill up, I'm often lucky to be above 400. So around 100 miles gets 'lost' to the computer along the way! :(