How many miles will you get out of half a tank?

[2manymadmonkeys]

Hi
I've got a 2.5 4wd bongo think it's being juicy at mo how many miles should you get on half a van ish

[Driver+Passengers]

Hard to say... assuming a 65L tank:

20 mpg gives you around 280 miles range.
30 mpg give you around 420 miles range.

Half a tank, half that range?

I don't think you can run it totally empty in which case you'll always have diesel left in the tank when you conk out. (I remember reading something about this, but not entirely sure. Wouldn't advise trying.)

Use http://www.fuelly.com or something similar to track your fuel consumption - fill it up brim-full every time and note your mileage. Within a couple of fillups, you'll start seeing an average figure emerge.

Lots of ideas to check re: heavy fuel consumption - tyre pressures for one.

[Muzorewa]

The gauge movement isn't linear but we get about 300km out of half a tank, and by a miracle of mathematics about 600 to a full tank

Our World Record effort was 630km to a tank. And I have run it out trying

[2manymadmonkeys]

Maybe it not that bad it had half a tank when I got it I've done 100mile and still have 1/4 tank ish

[perros huevos]

i get around 350 mile on half tank ,but not a bongo a vw t5 but then it takes £135 to fill it
chris

[gasace]

the fuel gauge (certainly on my bongo) cannot be trusted. Last year I was desperately searching for a filling station, the gauge had been on empty for a long while, when I filled up it only took 50 ltr. So assuming there is always some fuel in the tank I still had well over 2 gallons of usable fuel left.

The only way to check if to fill up to the top the after a run fill up again. We got 24 mpg on our trip to France towing a trailer as well

Cheers

John

[wonkanoby]

the first half of a full tank disappears much faster than the second

so i assume half is not as such half by a fair margin

[dave_aber]

the first half of a full tank disappears much faster than the second

Interesting. My 1/4's go like this -

1st - 80-110 miles
2nd - 80-100 miles
3rd - 60-80 miles
4th - 50-70 miles

Overall - 270-360 miles. Usually 23-24 mpg, has been as bad as 20 (all in town, and towing) and as 'good' as 26.6mpg.

[Alison01326]

It really depends on the type of driving you are doing, too! Locally (country lanes, stopping, starting, never giving the gearbox a full workout) I generally find that half a tank (the first half, not the second half as noted above) returns about 125-140 miles. If I get anywhere near a dual carriageway (particularly a long one) I get many more miles out of it.

And if I am somewhere else altogether (empty motorways in France, for example) I would average nearer 180-200 miles out of half a tank.

[wormey]

I have a 2.5 4wd auto Ford freda, she does 24mpg around town and on hilly terrain, 27 mpg on country roads, and on a run I've had 30.5mpg @ 60 mph.

Coming back from yorkshire last week on the A1 I returned 29mpg@60mph.


Daz

[The Great Pretender]

I always get better fuel consumption when the tank is half full, when it gets to half empty the consumption gets worse .........

[2manymadmonkeys]

Just notice the trip is in k not mpg so doing about 150k to half a tank around town that's not good is it

[francophile1947]

Just notice the trip is in k not mpg so doing about 150k to half a tank around town that's not good is it

Unless you actually fill up the tank to see how much has been used, it's all just guesswork. Fuel gauges are only guides and never accurate, especially if your earth wire is playing up