Mileage for 2001 RoadTrek170

[ra2jim]

Gentlemen, your opinions/knowledge of oil is nothing short of amazing! Ultimately I'm still shooting for better mileage, and were I to choose, I would put money on less weight vs changing to synthetic oils....at least for now.
Thank you.
This Labor Day weekend, I'm crazy enough to agree with my wife to do a short 100 mile drive (along with the rest of the country) to a nearby state park....should be fun driving bumper to bumper..

Have a fun holiday guys!

 

[AZ ADVenturist]

Just watch out for the other guy /gals. No sight seeing while driving.
I learned the hard way driving "coast hiway " in Oregon in July.
It was the other guys fault - honest! His insurance paid! !

 

[BBQ-ClassB]

 

[booster]

Please note the "thanks to Penzoil for sponsoring this video" :wave:

They carefully leave out how long the "used" time was on the demonstration and what kind of abuse it saw. The major brands have been on a crusade to convince everyone of two things. The first is that the PAOIII oils they are producing are really "full synthetic" and will perform as well as a PAOIV or PAOV oil. The second is right in line with the PAO IV and V oils in claiming much longer engine life with very much longer oil change intervals, which is extraordinarily hard to actually prove one way or another.

I truly believe it is an "either/or" type decision. Sometimes you may get a bit of advantage with synthetic, sometimes not. Sometimes changing more often with conventional oil will be better than long intervals on synthetic, sometimes not.

What I also believe is that if you have a very high temp application, like turbos, the synthetic higher temp tolerance is a benefit, but go to a PAOIV to get max benefit. Air cooled engines which have a wide operating temperature range, can benefit from an oil with a high viscosity index and slower shear down, while water cooled engines in temperate climates would hardly know the difference.

I found it very interesting that some number of years ago, when all the "real" synthetics where trying to break into the market for high perf cars, that essentially all the roundy round racers were using Brad Penn non synthetic or blend racing oil, and as far as I know still are. The claim was that it is the additive package that makes the difference in high abuse situations, not the base stock, as it is always changed before the lower shear down rate would make any difference.

One thing I can absolutely assure everyone of is that this discussion will go on for eternity until the new "cosmic super special non oil engine lubricant" comes out and takes over the discussion.

 

[ra2jim]

Someday I want to find out if towing an ultra small car like a smartcar (1500#)is possible. I bet that will really shoot the mileage down. Of course it's counter to one of the reasons we got the smaller RT - small enough to drive anywhere w/out another vehicle.

 

[mkguitar]

what does your manual give for towing capacity?

the 2001 RT brochure shows 6100/1000 for your model with the optional hitch

RT has legacy model brochures available on their website




my PW is rated for 5000/500

Mike

 

[mojoman]

I had the opportunity to visit an large NASCAR RR facility a few years ago while I was helping a consultant friend of mine. I notice crates of 20-50 Mobile 1 motorcycle oil in their engine development/testing section. It was not the brand displayed on their cars.

 

[booster]

I had the opportunity to visit an large NASCAR RR facility a few years ago while I was helping a consultant friend of mine. I notice crates of 20-50 Mobile 1 motorcycle oil in their engine development/testing section. It was not the brand displayed on their cars.

I can totally believe that. That is the basic "thumper" oil for the big Harley air cooled engines. It always had plenty of zinc and phosphorus, and was a PAOIV base. It may still be same or not, as apparently Mobil1 can be different based on what the application is. Getting information from them is near impossible, I have tried repeatedly. It has been rumored that the zinc is severely reduced in their water cooled motorcycle oils, and there are guesses on the thumper oil. Weather it is a group III or IV is up for grabs.

The old Mobil1 thumper oil was great stuff, I ran it in my turbo V8 hotrod for years without issue.

 

[mojoman]

You have to buy "racing oil" for off road use to get the higher levels of Zinc now days.

 

[booster]

somehow got two posts at once,

 

[booster]

You have to buy "racing oil" for off road use to get the higher levels of Zinc now days.

It has also come back in some other products, too. Small engine oil, high mileage oil in some cases, "break in oil", some high performance labelled oils, classic car oil. You have to be careful with some of the racing oils, as they really are racing oils and very low in detergent and other street needed additives.

 

[ra2jim]

Mkguitar, brochure says Gcwr is 12500 and gvwr is 7700. But I understand I need to check my hitching setup and tires for their limitations too. With this much weight I might be tempted to try the synthetics. Curious to know what others get for mileage when towing.

 

[ra2jim]

Labor Day as I suspected was a traffic mess but thankfully no accidents. From home to campground was only 60 miles with a climb of 2000 ft. Rig was empty w 3 people...a disappointing 11 mpg...a whopping 27% less . This time I also had the fridge on dc while driving but never ran the onan the whole weekend. I was trying out a 400w solar generator which was charging on the cigarette lighter during the drive.

 

[nic7320]

20 MPG is possible in a RT 170P

When I first bought my 1997 RoadTrek 170P, I headed off from California to Colorado and made my way back, and got 16.4 MPG averaged over the whole trip. I thought this was pretty good, considering the Colorado Rockies I had to traverse, but for most of this trip I also had to keep my speed down to 50-55 MPH due to a steering wobble problem (which was later fixed).

Later, I got a ScanGauge II and found the transmission was spitting out a PO740 code, indicating the transmission torque converter was not locking up as it should in fourth gear, and this reduces the gas mileage. I had the tranny serviced, on a trip to Arizona (RTR 2017), the ScanGauge-II indicated I was getting 20 MPG (long-term average), and even 21 MPG (long-term average) at times. I kept my speed about 55 MPH for most of the trip.

Unfortunately, the PO740 code has returned, and consequently my gas mileage has dropped, so the problem with the lock-up torque converter is not fixed.

P0740 means that the Powertrain Computer or PCM is seeing greater than a 200 RPM difference between the rotational speed of the Torque Converter and the Transmission Input Shaft.

The transmission problem might be something simple or something expensive, and cracking open the transmission is a messy job, so I'll have a shop do the work.

I'm looking forward to 20 MPG again!