Sunday, December 03, 2006

Mongolian jeep trip fuel use - a random post...

Russian jeeps and vans - fuel use.

Just reading some posts on another travel website and it seems people are getting ripped-off with buying petrol on their jeep trips...

Russian vans and jeeps if well maintained should both average around 15 L / 100 km on a long jeep trip when mixing driving on asphalt, flat dirt-tracks and rugged areas. Thats 1 L of fuel for 6.6 km on average - use will be more in rugged areas but balanced by better efficiency in flat areas (or when the driver turns the engine off and coasts downhill...). Surprisingly I've logged almost identical fuel use in Toyota Landcruisers in Mongolia (4.6 L diesel engines).

Drivers can easily fool you with how much fuel they are using as both the vans and jeeps have 2 fuel tanks and the fuel gauges rarely work. If you are paying for the gas ask your driver fill up both tanks to full when you are leaving town. Then, allways fill up both tanks every time you refuel and keep a tally of the number of litres and the kilometres on the odometer (but the latter can be out by up to 10% if the jeep/van has non-factory wheels/tyres).

Random point of interest:
Russian jeeps have 2 fuel tanks of 39 L each
Russian vans have a 56 L main tank and a 30 L sub-tank
A loaded Zyl truck uses 65 L / 100 km...

No comments: