D40 Fuel Economy

[BravoBrad]

On the way to the muster I got 11.4 lph - probably at max gvm, into a very solid head wind the whole way.

 

[KraftyPg]

Going by what other KC owners have reported that is brilliant figures even without a head wind.

 

[BravoBrad]

I normally get 10 to 10.5 when loaded. down to as low as 9.5 when light.
Best Ive seen is 8.3 lph (over 678kms) but I must have been driving slow that day.

 

[KraftyPg]

They must have really improved those KC's, I know the new 140KW motor in the STX's has been giving better economy that most of the 127KW like is in mine but that's to be expected. The KC's seemed to have a bad wrap on fuel but that may have been that there wasn't that many of them and those that did have them yelled loudly.

 

[longy509]

I normally get 10 to 10.5 when loaded. down to as low as 9.5 when light.
Best Ive seen is 8.3 lph (over 678kms) but I must have been driving slow that day.

iv only got 2500kms on the clock but averaging the above loaded and unloaded thats in the king cab as well cant say i have 8.3 yet though

 

[KraftyPg]

I gave up on both driving for economy and using Scanguage to measure economy on the trip home from Perth, one because of the massive winds we got hit by and two because it is way to easy to influence the SG reading without even knowing it and making it quite inaccurate. I haven't done all the figures yet but I know got 9.8 coming out of Perth and 11.2 Norseman to Eucla with a massive head wind. On the way home yesterday I also dropped by the truck scales at a mates work and measured the ute fully laden (with holiday crap), 3 people and 3/4 of a tank of diesel at 2876KG......and the mother in law didn't believe me when I said I couldn't bring her home with us...sheesh.

 

[longy509]

hey krafty what u mean by influencing the sg

 

[KraftyPg]

Choice of boswer, how you fill it each time, choice of servo are three factors the driver sometimes can't choose, these will effect ScanGauge (and any other ECU reader. The driver can effect the figures further by introducing slight errors in any of the settings, in what they adjust each fill and with the way they feather their right foot on the loud pedal and feathering it can mean a difference of several LPHK without too much effort and without adjusting the speed.

 

[d40 abuser]

just returned from a trip got 11.7 fully loaded 3 bikes on a trailer all the camping gear just done the egr mod before i left and fitted 265/75/16 on steel wheels mines a auto thai built im pretty happy with that was sitting on bout 110 pretty much the whole time.

 

[KraftyPg]

Finally got around to working out the figures for my Nullarbor trip.

Average figure of 10.2 (worst 12.3 best 9.5 and the best day trip 7.7 for a trip into Perth and back)

Speed on the way over was cruise on about 97KPH with several days of headwinds but only peaking about 35kph, speed on the way back was cruise on 100KPh and two out of 5 days was a massive headwind they reckon was clocking 95kph at times, which not surprisingly was the days of my worst tank figures at 12.3LPH

Overall with the weight, wind, and speeds I'm happy with those figures. Will blow them out of the water with the next few tanks as I spend my days paddock hopping with a 175kg air compressor in the trailer on our shitty, lumpy and generally just annoying farm paddocks, but that's to be expected.

 

[STBEA]

well i love my d40(auto) but towing a car trailer(2.6tn) you need a fuel tanker to go with it !! last 3 tanks where .... 510km for 148ltrs / 522km for 154ltrs / 547km for 158ltr ......she just clocked over 15,000km now my rpms are @2,900 to 3,000 @95/100 kph ....so my fuel usage per 100 would be around 30-34lts

she inn @ nissan today to find out why but don't like my chances ! as they tell me its inn factory specs LOL

 

[Pete22]

well i love my d40(auto) but towing a car trailer(2.6tn) you need a fuel tanker to go with it !! last 3 tanks where .... 510km for 148ltrs / 522km for 154ltrs / 547km for 158ltr ......she just clocked over 15,000km now my rpms are @2,900 to 3,000 @95/100 kph ....so my fuel usage per 100 would be around 30-34lts

she inn @ nissan today to find out why but don't like my chances ! as they tell me its inn factory specs LOL

You got me mate....what are you doing to run 3000 rpm at 95/100kph....you should be no more than 2200 rpm. Are you locking the car in 3rd gear or something. I tow in Drive and with the Overdrive on (ie the little orange light on the dash is off) and the worst I've gotten is 17 ltrs/100km with 1.5 tonne of trailer and my vehicle @ approx 2.8 tonne.

 

[STBEA]

You got me mate....what are you doing to run 3000 rpm at 95/100kph....you should be no more than 2200 rpm. Are you locking the car in 3rd gear or something. I tow in Drive and with the Overdrive on (ie the little orange light on the dash is off) and the worst I've gotten is 17 ltrs/100km with 1.5 tonne of trailer and my vehicle @ approx 2.8 tonne.

i was told too keep it o-drive off when towing , otherwise it will do damage to the gearbox(auto) and on my dash with the over drive on it shows shes in 4th gear

 

[Pete22]

i was told too keep it o-drive off when towing , otherwise it will do damage to the gearbox(auto) and on my dash with the over drive on it shows shes in 4th gear

There's your problem I believe. The only time your torque converter will lock up is when in drive, OD on and about 50% throttle angle. If you are concerned at any time that an approaching hill might be too much....deselect OD at the time. The auto gearbox will decide when it wants to change down anyway.

 

[STBEA]

i will be doing the same trip this weekend again will give it a go

 

[Old.Tony]

Pete's hit the nail firmly on the head. The automatic gearbox has sensors to determine whether or not it needs to kick down, unlock the torque converter etc etc. It won't fail to protect itself.

We've hauled our caravan through the desert and up and down the Great Dividing Range dozens of times now. I never, ever take it out of overdrive - unless I'm going down a steep incline, and then I'll force it into low gear so that it engine brakes (more effectively) for me.

Try to limit your top speed to about 100km/h indicated (95km/h on GPS). You'll find that your RPM will sit at around 2000 and that's right on the top of the steep climb of the torque curve - any higher rpm and you're throwing fuel away, any lower and you're not developing enough torque.

 

[KraftyPg]

I'd definitely be asking the person that told you drive with OD off where the hell they get their information from and taking note of it to be sure you never listen to advice from the same source again.

 

[Rich64]

STREBA, I can concur with the advice given here, by Old Tony and Krafty, I tow a caravan 2800kg gross, ( although I've never weighed it), I tow in drive at 100 kph on the speedo, 2000RPM, and I get around 17 t 18 L/100 km

 

[Chris C]

so far for me,

7600 km on clock, mix of driving, but mostly highway and counrty backroads.

Average for whole time 8.01 lts per 100 k

worst so far, first tank was 8.29 lts per 100

best was trip on highway unloaded 7.6 lts per 100, sitting on 110-120kph for whole trip.

Flog it and fuel use goes up .2 lts per 100, drive it nice it drops .2 lts per 100, drive it normal but brisk and use 8 lts per 100.

My old cruiser doing same, but not as fast averaged 12.5 lts per 100, I do 900-1000km per week.

So I save 4.5 lts per 100 x 10 = 45 lts per week, x $1.50 per liter = $67. per week saving just in fuel, + the benifits of nice to drive, faster etc.

So far am happy, rattles all gone, headlights stilll crap.

Have only bloked EGR and fitted K&N (which dropped fuel use by .25lts per 100)

A 2.5" exhaust without cat and straight thru muffler is next, then a Chip-it module.

 

[Pete22]

so far for me,

7600 km on clock, mix of driving, but mostly highway and counrty backroads.

Average for whole time 8.01 lts per 100 k

worst so far, first tank was 8.29 lts per 100

best was trip on highway unloaded 7.6 lts per 100, sitting on 110-120kph for whole trip.

Flog it and fuel use goes up .2 lts per 100, drive it nice it drops .2 lts per 100, drive it normal but brisk and use 8 lts per 100.

My old cruiser doing same, but not as fast averaged 12.5 lts per 100, I do 900-1000km per week.

So I save 4.5 lts per 100 x 10 = 45 lts per week, x $1.50 per liter = $67. per week saving just in fuel, + the benifits of nice to drive, faster etc.

So far am happy, rattles all gone, headlights stilll crap.

Have only bloked EGR and fitted K&N (which dropped fuel use by .25lts per 100)

A 2.5" exhaust without cat and straight thru muffler is next, then a Chip-it module.

Now you're showing off Chris but I will say since blocking the EGR my consumption has dropped from 14 to 12.5 around town and I seem to have more grunt earlier in the rev range as well.