Class C With Ford V10?

[JoeC]

Originally Posted by AJMike

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had two RVs with the Ford V10, a Class A and a class B, and that I got 8-9 mpg with the Class A. That was my average over all of the time I had the RV and did not involve driving in perfect conditions. What I found was that speed was the major defining factor in gas mileage. If I kept my speed under 65 mph I got decent mileage, if I went over I got poor mileage. And I always tried to keep a light foot on the accelerator.

The same thing seems to be true with my current Class C diesel RV. Keep it under 65 and I get about 16-18 mpg, go over 70 and the mileage goes way down.

All in all the gas V10 served me very well and I would buy one again if I were getting a gasser.

Unless your Ford V10 was on a baby carriage, I doubt very much that you got 16-18 mpg. 55-60 mph, no hills, no head wind, no toad or trailer and you can expect to get 9.5 mpg at best in a 28' class C. You might do .25 mpg better in a shorter class C. I logged every single gallon of gas going into my 28' (27 QP) Itasca and put the gas and miles at every fill-up in a spreadsheet that spans 3 years and 28,000 miles. It even shows the #10 cylinder ignition coil failing over time when the only indication was an occasional check engine light on bigger hills. Looking back, I gradually lost up to 1 mpg at the end when the light started coming on without hills so I bought a scanner to see what the problem was. Since I almost always tow something, my best average mpg after repairing the coil was 8.6 pulling a pair of Polaris ATVs. I get 7.9-8.0 mpg towing the Jeep Wrangler and staying at 55-60 mph. My personal best mileage without towing but driving 65-70 mph was 9.1 mpg and hills were involved. One more thing, using the generator will mess with your gas mileage calculation as it consumes gasoline too. You can estimate about 3/4 gallon per hour, depending on load, to run the generator.

[AJMike]

Originally Posted by JoeC

Unless your Ford V10 was on a baby carriage, I doubt very much that you got 16-18 mpg. 55-60 mph, no hills, no head wind, no toad or trailer and you can expect to get 9.5 mpg at best in a 28' class C.

Please re-read my post. I did not say I got 16-18 mpg with my V10 gasser. I said I got between 8 and 9 mpg with the gasser on my Class A and about 13-14 mpg or so with my Class B, and those were averages for all of the time I used them.

I said I got 16-18 with the Ford diesel in my Fuse.

[akeagle]

Another factor in MPG that I'm a little surprised few have mentioned: the running of the chassis A/C. According to my ScanGage the A/C reduced my mileage by about 1 MPG.

[AJMike]

Originally Posted by akeagle

Another factor in MPG that I'm a little surprised few have mentioned: the running of the chassis A/C. According to my ScanGage the A/C reduced my mileage by about 1 MPG.

That is about what I see with my car when I turn on the AC, and what I saw with my Class B RV with the V10, but I do not think I saw that with my Class A. Then again it was a long time ago and I can not be sure.

I would not think that you had much use for AC in Alaska. The year I was there people used to say "Last year summer was on a Wednesday" so I am a bit surprised that it has even come up in Alaska.

The AC mileage issue is something I will look at with our diesel Fuse when summer comes again, as it will in southern Arizona.

[AJMike]

Originally Posted by Winterbagoal

Did either of your 6.8L V10s have a real time or averaged fuel economy dash display, either L/100km or MPG? My 2016 didn't, but my 2017 3.0L V6 diesel Navion does. I think there's a reason for that? I even asked the dealer about it, and he said no there isn't a fuel economy display on the V10. We left it at that.

...

I do agree with your "lead foot" observations. The diesel seems particularly fussy about speed and fuel economy, which is very predictable (even without my dash display). I found my best trade off between making good progress from A to B, and squeezing every drop of power out of a gallon of diesel is somewhere around 60mph. 55mph increases fuel economy and 65+ mph kills it.

Neither of my V10s had a fuel economy display, and I am glad. Had I seen my fuel economy on display I might have just stayed home. But my diesel Fuse does.

I agree about the speed specs and I have gotten the best economy at about 60. Even lower is better but I don't want to be a traffic hazard. I got 18 during one trip where I kept below 60 and about 17 on another trip at about 65. And the wind plays a big part. I ran into very severe head winds in the Texas panhandle and my mileage dropped to about 13-14. Pretty depressing.