The 1000 mile tank.....

[IT]

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.



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



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



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:





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....