1.5 gallons per hour

G

golftrek

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 21, 2012
Messages
86
Fluid Motion Model
C-248 C
Vessel Name
Banjo
We just did our first fill up since owning the boat. Appears we got around 1.5 gallons an hour. Most of our cruising was in the ICW at 7 to 8 knots, although a couple of times we had it wide open to avoid bad storms. Just today the coast guard announced a water spout the way we were going so we turned around and went the other way pretty quickly. We have the boat pretty loaded with bikes, etc and a few times we had guests aboard. We also ran the generator a several hours. So all in all we think we are getting good fuel economy. We are the envy of the marina.

Jim and Jo Ann
Banjo
2008 R25
 
Nyaa, nyaaa, nya, nyaa nyaaaaa I average 1.0 gph :mrgreen:
Nobody can out-cheap me...
 
Nice! 😀
 
I am learning I have to stay off the throttle if I want to economize on the fuel Hard going from twin 350 gas to single 6 cyl diesel 🙂 I have found fast uses gas .. Have used a lot less fuel though in the 35 hours I have put on in the few weeks ..
 
Yeah, it's a mind set... While our tugs will run moderately fast (not as fast as WIld Blue, of course) they are incredibly economical while near displacement speeds- compared ot the usual marina go-fasts...
I noted this mind set last winter while at the marina on the Gulf Of Mexico... Our slip mates were super friendly people from Minn and had the usual pair of big engines Sundancer... When we went out with them it was pedal to the metal, turn your hat around, hope your sun glasses stay on, and shout... In an hour the fuel gauge had dropped and just the thought of the fuel burn made me queasy (yeah, I'm REALLY cheap)...

When they went out with us it was 6 knots at 1 gallon and his missus sitting in the cockpit, playing cards and chatting in a normal voice as we spent the afternoon cruising... When we got back my fuel gauge still showed full and the totalizer said we burned 3.8 gallons... He could not believe it and kept saying, "3.8 gallons!"
Finally I said, "Yeah, 3.8 gallons... We'll have to live on stale bread and water for a week."
"Don't rub it in." he says...
 
The exceptional fuel economy was one of the things that drew us to the Ranger Tug; i'm glad it's living up to the expectation.

My daily driver vehicle is a Prius Plug-in, and it's averaged 84 mpg over 7k miles. Slower IS more efficient, when traffic allows.

(2 more weeks till pick up...)
 
Crewdog":v4yddbfz said:
........My daily driver vehicle is a Prius Plug-in, and it's averaged 84 mpg over 7k miles. Slower IS more efficient, when traffic allows......)
Click to expand...
Bet that electricity is free, though, huh?
 
This is a Ranger moment from about 3 to 4 years ago. It is about the 110 HP Yanmar with a turbo charger. I have that motor, but I don't know if this story applies to any other engine that Ranger has put in boats. You should check your owners manual from your engine manufacturer and find out if this could be a concern.

The Turbo needs to be heated up periodically. The manual comments on this. I make sure I run wide open for at least 5 minutes every hour. Usually when I hit some chop: bow up, power wide open and charge over the lumps with the spray way behind the windows.

You can drive a 110 HP all day hardly using any fuel in the 1,000+ range. Some owners did this, and never did the full throttle I note above. Some of them had to replace their turbo charger -- a $3,000+ hit.

I periodically run along at low speed. It's nice and quiet and wonderful -- but every hour I go wide open and heat the engine up to keep my turbo happy. I'm at 1,350 hours and "touch wood".

Check your manual and see if this applies to you. This is buried in Tugnuts somewhere, several years ago.

Dave
 
Dave, I think you are correct that the manual says to periodically run it wide open. So far I have not had this problem since just about every time I go out I have to run fast from storms, water spouts, etc. Even with the running fast on occasion, we still averaged 1.5 gallons an hour.

Jim and Jo Ann
Banjo
 
Here's one of those references about the turbo on a 110. From a post by J&lgrey about 18 mos ago.

"B. The turbo on the Yanmar 110 was seized after 90 days of river travel on the western half of the Great Circle Loop and going 8 knots day after day. We don't do that pattern of cruising anymore."

There's more I'm sure. Search on Turbo.

Charlie
 
Perhaps more important than gallons per hour is miles per gallon. If you save one third in GPH and take twice as long getting there, you lose overall in $$$. Garmin shows both GPH and MPG. But most important is the MPH you are most comfortable with.

Allan
Rocinante
 
Yeah, but!
6 at 1 is 6 mpg
Going twice as fast takes 6 times the fuel
At no point on the fuel versus speed curves is there a point where going faster burns less fuel for the trip...

Now, if you want to start in about current/wind/waves and SOG that is a hole nother world (and not worth arguing about) I have been in conditions where anything less than full throttle was going backwards... I wasn't even thinking about fuel burn at that point...
 
But isn't it about the journey and not just the destination? In our Ranger Tug we can go out on a journey that takes all day for $25. At 8 knots we can see everything thats happening out there. There are many boats in our marina that can hardly get out of the marina for $25. And if they go 40 knots how do they see anything?

Jim and Jo Ann
Banjo
 
I run my Yanmar 110 at 1800 RPM, 1.0 GPH. I heard the rumor about keeping the turbo happy, so I go to wide open for 5 minutes out of every tank of gas. Knock on wood too, but I think (hope) the seized turbo may have been a fluke. After 800 hours, no sign that the turbo is unhappy.
 
I get about .75 GPH on my boat but I have the only 75 hp made (average about 6kts). In reality it does not matter how large your engine is. The fuel you burn is a function of the HP you are using. My understanding is that the older mechanical controled Yanmars (50, 75, 110) all had the same engine block and the 125hp ws similar. They all got about the same best GPH at 6 kts and burned up to 4 times as much fuel (MPG) at 12 kts. Of course mine will only do about 10 kts so I never burn that much
 
You will know that your turbo is "unhappy" when one of two things happen: the tug will not do max speed it used to do or after slipping off the wire screen over the intake, you put an index into the turbo and the blades will not freely turn. We learned this lesson with the Laurie Ann, after running 90 days on the Great Loop at 8 MPH. The fix was easy but but the seized turbo was and expensive repair. For us, the symptom was a max of 10 MPH.
 
In my R21 - hang on now. . . 1.3 QUARTS per hour! And that's at a comfortable speed of about 7 kts. (in Grand Cayman)
No gen, no bikes, no surfboards, kayaks, or the like and rarely more than 2 people. Also in generally calm water (of about 82 degrees F.)
Bill White in Epilogue
 
If it makes a difference to anyone, we don't have a diesel in our boat, but we gauge our satisfaction in SMILES per gallon! 😀 I can run at displacement speed and keep the fuel burn to around 1 gallon per hour, or run 25 mph and burn a bunch of fuel. Sometimes you just want to get somewhere, and sometimes just being out on the water is enough... thus, SMILES per gallon!

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
I have been goin fast with busts of slow 🙂 nothing will seize up here ..
But glad to see the posts as I would not have know ..
Glad we have this forum
 
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