Colorado fuel consumption

[olddigger]

Calling Colorado owners.
Just back from a long (9662km) trip, mainly towing an offroad CT.
Fuel use came in at 12.967 litres per 100 kms.
Tried to sit on 90kph, but often drifted up to 100 or more (the speedo is very hard to read, shrouded in darkness and half covered by the steering wheel).
I was a bit disappointed by the result, which I thought was a bit high.
Am I being a bit picky?
A lot of the time, it was VERY hot.

Cheers, Tony

[Pog]

Don't beat yourself up over it. 13km/100 is realistic, especially travelling at 100km/hr with Aircon on.

After all, it's only fuel....

[bluejay]

what model colorado ?was it auto/manual 3.0lt or 2.8 lt motor

[olddigger]

It's 3 litre motor, automatic transmission . . . and I'd forgotten I had the aircon on a lot of the time and the fridge plugged into the truck as well.

Cheers, Tony

[Landyline]

In our new Pajero auto diesel in similar sounding conditions on our recent 3500km trip I averaged 12.5 L/100km. So it sounds about right.

I travelled at 100 whenever conditions allowed.

The main thing that affected my fuel economy was 5th gear lockup.
I was planning on getting a manual lockup after spending the trip watching the tacho like a hawk to ensure lockup.
However at $400 for a few relays, a resistor and wire I decided I'd be better off finding the Pajero wiring diagram and doing it myself.

[Danr]

13l towing and loaded is pretty good in my eyes the old 1 hz 105 series I got does that not loaded!

[Nutto]

I averaged the same with my set up below, 1.4t loaded (d-max manual, same engine) over 20000kms/5 month trip, including some high temps in the centre.  towed in 4th most of the time, sat between 90 & 100  Worst was 14.5l/100km into stiff headwinds coming down stuart into S.A, (85 in 4th)  best was 11.3l/100km, flat smooth freeway, slight tailwaind, 5th gear.


Nutto

[Mandrake]

Shudda got a DMax... 8L/100 solo .. 11L/100 towing 1.5tonne camper trailer - over 16000 kms including 3000 on dirt .  M

[bushbandit]

We have a manual Triton 2.5 Diesel new vehicle ,just  towed CT plus full load in tub ,fridge loaded on back seat area up flat freeway then up Oxley Hwy West  using all gears worked out to 13 ltrs per 100ks .

[thommo19]

Just came back from a few days on mid north Coast . I only travelled abt 1500ks tow CT and av11 l/100.,in the Narava. It is manual and cruised mainly in 6th gear mostly expressway driving. I'm pleased with this.

Jeff

[bushbandit]

What we want to know is why the manufactures of these vehicles which on average only weigh 2t can't get a lot betterfuel consumption  than a motor home which must weigh a lot more. On our trip the latest annual motor home gathering was on 865 of them I quizzed one of the owners about his fuel consumption and he gets  8ltrs per 100kms better than his dual cab he has at home and this motor home was not a small job either.

[chester ver2.0]

What we want to know is why the manufactures of these vehicles which on average only weigh 2t can't get a lot betterfuel consumption  than a motor home which must weigh a lot more. On our trip the latest annual motor home gathering was on 865 of them I quizzed one of the owners about his fuel consumption and he gets  8ltrs per 100kms better than his dual cab he has at home and this motor home was not a small job either.

You sure he does not mean 8kms per Litre

[bushbandit]

You sure he does not mean 8kms per Litre

.       Yeah that's what I thought he meant but he definately said it was  8 per 100 and it was better than his dual cab he seemed pretty lag it but who knows

[Landyline]

If I am driving a 2000kg vehicle and normally get 9L/100kms and then tow a 1000kg trailer in the same driving conditions I would think it reasonable to then get no worse than 13.5L/100kms.

This is an extremely simplistic look at things but still reasonably fair I think.

[bussoboy]

we took our 3.0lt auto Colorado west and back in May travelled 11000 in total and averaged 13.8/100 - that was towing our roughly 900kg fully loaded camper and about 500kg's of crap in the tub and a space case 3 jerry's of water and spare tyre on the roof for the trip home

was happy with the economy considering how badly we packed for our first extended long trip

[achjimmy]

In our new Pajero auto diesel in similar sounding conditions on our recent 3500km trip I averaged 12.5 L/100km. So it sounds about right.

I travelled at 100 whenever conditions allowed.

The main thing that affected my fuel economy was 5th gear lockup.
I was planning on getting a manual lockup after spending the trip watching the tacho like a hawk to ensure lockup.
However at $400 for a few relays, a resistor and wire I decided I'd be better off finding the Pajero wiring diagram and doing it myself.

OT for a moment I had the Pajero diagram showing a suggested lock up wiring diagram. Will look for it but fear I cleared a lot of Paj stuff  .  It was on the Paj forum but removed because it conflicted with a sponsors product. You may still be able to search the thread and PM the relevant members?

[olddigger]

Thanks for the comments. On reflection, I am not displeased with the fuel useage, given that I had forgotten about the aircon being on, the amount of (unused!) stuff in the back of the tug and the 50 litres of fuel sitting at the front of the CT, among other things.
Lessons have been learned from the trip. Cull, cull, cull being one of them.

Cheers, Tony

[Wortho]

So these modern CRDI diesel motors have not improved fuel economy by much. I get 13lts per 100k with my 1997 direct injection Landrover TDI when towing a 900kg CT, only thing is its got bugger all power when compared to modern diesels.
Agree with the comments regarding campervans as we had a Fiat Ducato camper last year and drove 5000km around Europe with an average of 9lts  per 100km (includes Alps driving). This camper had been chipped as well and went like the clappers on the Autobahn 
Cheers
Mark

[jeb1900]

I think you should be pleased with the result. 

[Landyline]

OT for a moment I had the Pajero diagram showing a suggested lock up wiring diagram. Will look for it but fear I cleared a lot of Paj stuff  .  It was on the Paj forum but removed because it conflicted with a sponsors product. You may still be able to search the thread and PM the relevant members?

Thanks.

I am on that forum too since July or so.

I read the thread you are talking about along with every other lockup thread I could see but haven't spoken to anyone on there about it.

I am used to AULRO which had huge amounts of technical advice.  The Paj club forum is ok but little in the way of in depth technical advice. I'll have to try to help change that :-)

[Landyline]

On your trip did you try watching the tacho to see if the tc was locked up?

Perhaps you would benefit from a lockup switch as well?

The NW Pajero locks up no matter what at over 90km/h in 4th but in 5th it unlocks at the slightest incline.

[chester ver2.0]

Shudda got a DMax... 8L/100 solo .. 11L/100 towing 1.5tonne camper trailer - over 16000 kms including 3000 on dirt .  M

Im close (same vehicle) 9.5 solo and 12 towing mind you i think the goldstream is a little bigger than yours Mandrake. Lift and going up a size in tyres seems to have made the largest difference