RV FEATURE

HOW TO TEST FUEL EFFICIENCY

It ’ s relatively easy to test how much fuel your vehicle is using . Whether hitched to a caravan or driving solo , the process is the same . First , fill your vehicle ’ s tank to the brim . You ’ ll probably need to trickle-fill past the first or second click of the pump trigger .

Then , zero your trip-meter . By doing this , you ’ re recording the number of kilometres travelled between fuel fill-ups . Some would say that relying on a vehicle ’ s tripmeter is not the most accurate approach , but with modern cars , I think this method is fine . An alternative might be to use a GPS .

Once you ’ ve driven your vehicle a reasonable distance in a way that you feel is representative of your usual driving habits and practices , it ’ s time to fill up again . Fill as close to the brim as possible ; by doing this , you ’ re effectively resetting the fuel level back to what it was before you began the test . Note the number of litres you put back into the tank .

Now , what constitutes a ‘ reasonable ’ driving distance is up to you , but I ’ ve always used 200km as a minimum to achieve what I feel are fair results .

Once you ’ ve noted both the kilometres travelled and the litres used , a quick calculation will reveal your litres per 100km . Simply multiply litres used by 100 , and then divide by the kilometres travelled . For example , let ’ s say a vehicle used 23L over a distance of 265km . You would multiply 23 ( litres used ) by 100 , and divide the answer ( 2300 ) by 265 ( kilometres travelled ). The answer : 8.68L / 100km .

As mentioned , this approach and formula also works for testing fuel consumption when towing , and we will perform a towing test on this MU-X in the near future and present the results in a future issue . Stay tuned !

+ D-MAX FUEL TEST !

+ D-MAX HITCHED-UP FUEL TEST !