Final Mileage and Trip Report

August 26 2009 by Darrin.

It’s time to go through the receipts.  This is mainly for my own record, so will likely be pretty boring for everyone but me.

We left Douglas on the 13th of August, after filling our tanks as full as possible.  We also filled them to the top upon returning Monday.  Mileage was taken from a Garmin GPS 276C, which is far more accurate than the mechanical odometer - known to be reading 10% higher than actual.

• 8/13/09   Billing, MT           323 miles    44.118 gallons       7.321 mpg
• 8/14/09   Shelby, MT          317 miles    40.496 gallons      7.828 mpg
• 8/15/09   Calgary, AB         261 miles     42.860 gallons      6.090 mpg (wicked crosswind)
• 8/20/09   Edmonton, AB    346 miles    45.800 gallons      7.555 mpg
• 8/20/09   Hinton, AB           183 miles    23.613 gallons      7.750 mpg
• 8/22/09   Whitefish, MT     497 miles    69.731 gallons      7.127 mpg
• 8/23/09   Great Falls, MT  247 miles    30.661 gallons      8.056 mpg (nice tailwind)
• 8/23/09   Billings, MT         282 miles   40.604 gallons      6.945 mpg
• 8/24/09   Douglas, WY        322 miles    43.213 gallons      7.451 mpg

Total distance 2778 miles  /  Total fuel 381.096 gallons = Total average consumption of 7.290 mpg

That’s awful, when an identical truck does almost 10 mpg.  Just my luck, eh?  Since the truck starts well, and idles fine, I can only think “turbo”.  This was the initial gut feeling of an old friend from Fuso, and it makes sense.  We were all led astray with the over-full oil sump.  Last night, I ordered a VDO boost gauge, a two-gauge dash pod, and a VDO voltmeter (to fill the second hole.)  I’ll get it all installed next week and take a little trip (maybe to Glendo Lake 40 miles form here) to see how much additional atmosphere is getting pumped into the intake manifold.

Remember the original map of the proposed journey, back in March?

Here’s what we actually did, according to the GPS…

  We really didn’t have to recycle too much country, so that was okay.  Now the question remains:  Will I have this AATREC-FM204 available next summer, for another run, or will she be long gone?

My next trip is to San Diego, to pick up the tools and stuff I took down there last June when we delivered the identical twin to this camper.  I also have to pick up a Toyota 12H-T engine I ordered earlier this year, so I can start the restoration of an Aussie-market HJ-75 Land Cruiser Troopy I bought over fifteen years ago, and have had in storage.  She’s 25 years old now, and finally  legal to drive in the USA.

Thanks to everyone for reading!  I’ll let you know when the movie’s done, or something happens with the truck.

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