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Old 06-24-2011, 09:51 PM   #61
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....In my area it seems the marinas sell pure gas. Must be a boat thing. ...
I think so. I hear ethanol doesn't play nice with boat engines or more particularly the fiberglas and plastic tanks and rubber fuel lines in boats. On another forum I hear about a lot of problems in New Hampshire where boaters can only get ethanol at marinas.

Here is an article about water absorbtion in ethanol. Marine Problems with E10 Ethanol Fuel Blends.

and another about fiberglass tanks in boats. Boat Engines -- The Ethanol Menace : Alternative Fuel Vehicles
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Old 06-25-2011, 04:30 AM   #62
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Grits, what rear axle and how many speed tranny do you have? and rear tire size? And what speed do your tow at. If your getting 13 your doing good.
3.55 - 4speed (but I tow with the OD disabled) - 245/65R17 - 60 & under

The 13mpg avg was on 75 miles of mainly rolling hills on a secondary 4 lane with about 10 stops. I was bringing the camper home from the previous owner ........ no propane, no battery, no water in the tanks, no camping gear, and just me & about 50# of tools in the TV. Tires on the trailer are a bit dry rotted so just under 60 was max on the trip and I didn't run the AC.

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Originally Posted by Gene View Post
I think so. I hear ethanol doesn't play nice with boat engines or more particularly the fiberglas and plastic tanks and rubber fuel lines in boats. On another forum I hear about a lot of problems in New Hampshire where boaters can only get ethanol at marinas.

Here is an article about water absorbtion in ethanol. Marine Problems with E10 Ethanol Fuel Blends.

and another about fiberglass tanks in boats. Boat Engines -- The Ethanol Menace : Alternative Fuel Vehicles
It's not just marine engines. Older vehicles, farm equipment and small engines are suffering too.
The EPA has now approved E15 for highway use and due to government incentives for the use of ethanol we'll soon have a hard time even finding E10.
Eventually the auto & marine industry will catch up and start building with ethanol resistant components, but that will of course drive costs up. With marine engines though we'll still have the problem of running moisture thru the system .... sort of like E15% + H2O3%.
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Old 06-25-2011, 07:10 AM   #63
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The state of Florida passed a law in 2008 requiring 10% ethanol for domestic use. I did notice a few Florida stations saying they have pure gas but I doubt that claim since they'd be breaking the law and subject to fines.

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Old 06-25-2011, 10:07 AM   #64
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2011 Chey.Tahoe 4WD LTZ 6 sp. 20"wheels 3.42 rear

Not towing.........................17 to 19 MPG

Towing W/ QUE for 4,293 mis....10.9 MPG. AVG.....Hi of 11.8 Low of 10.4

Towing W/ 5,400 lb. boat for 450 mis....12.8 MPG. AVG

All towing was @ 50 to 65 MPH

The QUE is much lighter than the boat but it's box shape kills the mpg.
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Old 07-02-2011, 12:54 PM   #65
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TW and TT back in storage. I'm heading across the ocean for a couple of months, but it sounds like I should do a calculation and check the accuracy of my trip computer when opportunity arises.
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Old 07-19-2011, 01:38 PM   #66
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2003 Ram 3500 DRW 5.7l Gas 4.10:1 Towing 1994 T-2770.
Using trip computer numbers for the breakdown. The trip computer has seemed to be psomewhat acurate without towing so far.
City towing (From house to interstate) - 6.4 MPG
Interstate with hills 60MPH - 8.1 MPG
Flat interstate 60MPH- 10.1 MPG
Avg for trip Towing - 9.1 MPG

This was using 93 octane. The Hemi is rated for 89 octane to acheive the most power. We filled up at Sams club so 89 wasn't an option.

When I got out to the flat highway, I kicked in cruise and overdrive. RPM was 1800 at 60MPH. Being a gasser, hills required a downshift and a bit more RPM.

Ohh, non towing numbers are 17 highway and 10 around town.
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Old 07-19-2011, 01:59 PM   #67
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When the cost of diesel fuel went up, we questioned the economics of paying extra for the Cummins engine. However, looking at OhhWell's numbers,I think we made the right decision for the long haul.
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Old 07-19-2011, 02:45 PM   #68
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Yeah, we didn't have a deisel budget. Gas works for us. The numbers are rough but around what I expected. We don't camp that much or far away and the truck sits in the driveway most of the time. I can come up with a few more rationalizations heheh....

I gotta be fair though and admit that I wasn't driving it easy as it was my first tow with it. I had some much better gas on the way home and took it a bit easier. I wound up with noticeably more gas in the tank than the trip out. All the gas around here seems to be pretty awful.
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Old 07-20-2011, 05:58 AM   #69
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2007 Dodge Ram 1500 Q/cab 4X4 with 5.7 Hemi, 3.93 rear. 11 avg. tow/haul 18 avg. normal driving. 8cyl drops to 4 when not needed.
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Old 07-20-2011, 06:32 AM   #70
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Old 11-11-2011, 08:23 PM   #71
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Hi all,
A while back I posted some numbers for our 2004 Ram 2500 4x4 that looked really good, so I kind of questioned the accuracy of the computer and thought I'd check and compare to actual fill data.
At the last fill up the computer indicated 24.4 MPG after 716 miles. At fill up the pump read 28.810 gallons, so if my math isn't all screwed up, that comes to 24.85 MPG. So in this case the computer was actually reading a little lower than actual.
We'll be busy for a while, as we are in the process of moving. Will close on the new house on Thursday.
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Old 12-26-2011, 08:22 PM   #72
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We took a short trip over Christmas. I filled the Excursion and drove some 20 miles local before hitting the road. On the road I turned the overdrive off while pulling the camper and kept speeds of 55 to 60 and one short stretch, four miles, at 65/70. This kinds of driving had the onboard computer post about 10 (9.8/10.2) MPG. Coming home I only turned the overdrive off when starting off or at slower speeds and then at higher speeds I turned the OD back on to get 11.7 most of the time at highway speeds of 55. Highway speeds of 60 or better would drop the MPG back to the 10 MPG area. Since Florida, this area anyway, is mostly flat the OD setting did not have the gears hunting unless I used my foot on the pedal. With the speed set on the cruise control the transmission settled in sixth gear only. All of these numbers are from the onboard computer, using ethanol, and I haven't tried to fill and calculate figures, yet.

I get around 12 MPG around town and 19 MPG on the road without the TT.

All in all the Excursion has been a worthy tow vehicle. At times I felt able to pass other slower traffic but held back trying to maintain a good MPG. Power was plenty. Control and tracking were reasonable. Moving around in gas stations, tight places, was easy. Only down side to this trip was the lack of proper mirrors but that will be fixed soon.
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Old 12-27-2011, 07:10 PM   #73
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Jim, you stated "Excursion" and then 19mpg..... Did you do a typo and mean "Expedition"?

There is a few cylinders difference between the 2... and if you do have some secret to getting 19 mpg even down hill on a Ford 6.8 V10 please let us know.... I need some. LOL

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Old 12-27-2011, 09:08 PM   #74
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yes, typo. Expedition. I was reading about the excursion and fingers went crazy.
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Old 12-28-2011, 08:22 AM   #75
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Quote:
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yes, typo. Expedition. I was reading about the excursion and fingers went crazy.
Bummer. Here I was "hoping" you had some magic elixir I could add to the tank... Esso use to put a tiger in your tank and I could use him right about now...
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Old 12-28-2011, 11:40 AM   #76
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Speaking of elixir, does gas octane make any difference in towing MPG?
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Old 12-28-2011, 09:07 PM   #77
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Speaking of elixir, does gas octane make any difference in towing MPG?
It depends on the engine. Some of the older big blocks ran better on high test for towing. However on the newer engines they are so tuned to run right at 87 octane that going to hi test really messes with the computer.

I tried this on my 2003 6.0 liter Suburban. Tried to run hi test to gain mpg. The mileage at first got worse by 1.5 mpg. Then after 3 tanks it leaned itself back to the same mpg I was getting running 87 octane. I saw no better performance in power or mpg. 3 tanks was enough for me to stop throwing the extra money away trying to gain mpg. Yet other guys running real big engines and the older not as smart computer systems see a gain in pep and mpg. Or at least they claimed they did.

In your newer Expy I would expect the same result as I had. No gain, may even loose.
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Old 12-29-2011, 04:55 AM   #78
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john,

I see performance chips advertised. Ford - AutoChipsDirect.com : The Leader in Automotive Performance Modules!

Again, we have advertising geared to "real gas" and all we can get is "imitation". But, if these chips claim of 8 MPG can be adjusted down like MPG for gasoline then you could still see quite a improvement.

Come to think of it the entire country is being "adjusted down". Oh well!
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Old 12-29-2011, 05:34 AM   #79
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john,

I see performance chips advertised. Ford - AutoChipsDirect.com : The Leader in Automotive Performance Modules!

Again, we have advertising geared to "real gas" and all we can get is "imitation". But, if these chips claim of 8 MPG can be adjusted down like MPG for gasoline then you could still see quite a improvement.

Come to think of it the entire country is being "adjusted down". Oh well!
Generally chips for gas engines don't do much the gains are with diesels.
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Old 12-29-2011, 05:51 AM   #80
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It depends on the engine. Some of the older big blocks ran better on high test for towing. However on the newer engines they are so tuned to run right at 87 octane that going to hi test really messes with the computer.

I tried this on my 2003 6.0 liter Suburban. Tried to run hi test to gain mpg. The mileage at first got worse by 1.5 mpg. Then after 3 tanks it leaned itself back to the same mpg I was getting running 87 octane. I saw no better performance in power or mpg. 3 tanks was enough for me to stop throwing the extra money away trying to gain mpg. Yet other guys running real big engines and the older not as smart computer systems see a gain in pep and mpg. Or at least they claimed they did.

In your newer Expy I would expect the same result as I had. No gain, may even loose.
High test fuel is for high performance engines there is more heat value in regular gas (more energy). It's a misconception that your engine will run cooler,faster,longer on high test if you drive a turbocharger car or some thing like a Porsche then you'll need the expensive stuff. The biggest killer is ethanol Here in Maine it's 10% there is energy in ethanol but no where near what there is in gasoline kind of irks me to buy 10 gallons of gas and get 9. frankly I think alcohol belongs in wine and beer not in gasoline!
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