Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 08:24:05 -0700
Reply-To: Phil Stanhope <surfmobile007@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Phil Stanhope <surfmobile007@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Tires and fuel economy
In-Reply-To: <9A5C58D6-A781-40F7-B8BA-614EB2BCD6E7@mac.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
hmmmm, THATS interesting, im running 215/70 R15
Continental loadrange-D tires and im getting better
fuel economy than i did with my stock pizza cutters on
14" rims. Im also powered by a Tiico
conversion.....and i run 50psi front and 55psi rear,
which makes my van coast forever, if i see a light
turn yellow a mile ahead i slap the stick in neutral
and coast the whole way there, at 1000RPM. Also, my
Highway mileage improved with the taller tires,
perhaps it was the rolling restistance from your mud
tires rather than the diameter that was causing your
poor MPG.
Phil,
84' Westy, Tiico'd+dailydriver since 2001
--- Kim Brennan <kimbrennan@MAC.COM> wrote:
> When I first got the GoldBrick (86 Syncro passenger
> Vanagon) I got
> about 18mpg with the stock engine rolling on
> 205/70R14 BFG tires.
> Later I changed to 15" wheels and went with
> 215/75R15 BFG A/T T/A
> tires. I still got about 18mpg. Then I did the Tiico
> conversion on it
> (well, I'd blown one waterboxer and transmission, so
> it was time to
> replace the 2nd waterboxer with something else.)
> Afterwards I got
> about 16mpg. All fuel economy was based on real
> mileage figures
> correcting for odometer distortion due to tire
> sizes.
>
> Today I just did my first full tank on a new set of
> tires. Vredestein
> Comtracs in the 205/65R15 tire size. These are
> substantially smaller
> in diameter than the 215/75R15 tires. More like the
> stock 205/70R14.
>
> And waddya know, my fuel economy is substantially
> improved. 19.4 mpg
> (corrected...odometer now reads 4% more mileage than
> actually
> travelled). The Tiico engine is noticably affected
> by the rolling
> diameter of the tires.
>
> Oh, I should mention that 19.4mpg figure was driving
> from Washington
> DC to Pittsburgh, PA at speeds of 65-75mph across
> the Applachians
> (I-70, I-68, I-79). Very steep grades, with the AC
> running.
>
> These Comtracs are pretty stout tires (C Rated, with
> 65 psi max, I'm
> running 40 psi front, 48 rear). They are SUMMER
> tires, not all season.
>
> I've also been running Winter Comtracs on my Westy
> Syncro, and while
> much quieter than the BFG's they don't give me the
> same feeling of
> invicibility the BFG's do. They also didn't perform
> as well in the
> mud at SdM Este, but that's a different tale. On my
> Westy, I am
> running 225/70R15 (which is a slightly smaller in
> diameter than the
> 215/75R15 I was previously running). I've noticed a
> minor improvement
> in gas mileage, but I have done many other things in
> the drive train
> on it, so it was much more difficult to judge the
> affect of the tires.
>
> On the GoldBrick, I have no such problem. The only
> change on it was
> the tires.
>
> I dearly love those BFG AT tires, but the size is
> killing the fuel
> economy of my engine.
>
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
| 
