I just drove from Denver, Colorado to Richmond, Virginia. Then a week later, I turned around. For those who don't know, that's about 1600 miles each way. I thought some of this information might be helpful for someone.
Relevant Modifications
Fox non-adjustable steering stabilizer
Eibach 2.5in leveling springs
Falken Wildpeak A/T4W LT285/75R17/10
Leitner Designs 3/4 roof rack (just Maxtrax and a hi-lift jack up there)
Wolfbox G900 rear view camera
Suma Performance side mirrors
Seating Position
One concern I have had about this car is the only place to set an arm is in the window sill. It's great around town, but it doesn't allow for much control, and it's not good for your arm/shoulder for a long drive. We found that we could shove pillows on either side of the driver's seat, and it made all the difference in the world. It was comfortable, and I had much better control on the highway. My biggest takeaway from this drive is that
these seats need armrests. Honestly, my back/neck was my biggest worry before setting out on this trip, and the pillows as armrests made it delightful.
Steering/Handling
If not for the steering damper, I'd have gotten rid of this car a long time ago. The damper did a great job. However, it doesn't do much for the play in the wheel, and any emergency handling is going to be a very bad day. I am considering King shocks to see if that might help it feel more stable at speed. I am also considering the King or adjustable Fox steering dampers. The steering play is just insane. But I'm also considering a Land Cruiser, so it could go either way.
Mirrors
These work brilliantly together. I felt a lot more confident with these than the "why would you need to see anything behind you?" design philosophy of the stock mirrors. It took just a couple hours to adjust to the Wolf camera.
Fuel Economy
This is really the reason I am posting this. I didn't trust the car to do the math. I kept track of miles and gallons. In Colorado and Kansas I got 91 octane, and east of there I got 93.
There are several factors related to fuel economy. Obviously the cross sectional area of the vehicle makes a big difference, and the lift and roof rack contribute to that. Then there is whether it has to rev higher than it would prefer because of running out of gears. Rolling resistance matters, and certainly there are other tires that would do better. I had mine to about 38/39psi. In Colorado and Kansas the altitude will help because of less air density. Given the mods I have, I did not expect much, but I was hoping for better. I typically drove 10mph over the speed limit. I am not interested in comments about that unless you have driven across Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, or the like yourself (honestly, I'm not interested either way). That makes it 85mph for most of eastern Colorado, Kansas, and western Missouri. Other states had speed limits of 65-70mph. Note that I also checked my speed with GPS, and I needed to add about 1.5% (so car reports 83, I'm going 85). The pressure drag is proportional to the square of the speed, so going fast can quickly get out of hand, but even in West Virginia where the roads are narrow, windy, and under construction (i.e. slow), I didn't see any good results (it is also a lot of up and down, though).
I started by comparing reported miles to mile markers over 50 miles. I determined I needed to add 6.2% to the car's miles for accuracy. So with all of that corrected...
- Total average: 11.96 mpg
- Worst tank: 9.32 mpg
- Best tank: 14.37 mpg
Of course the worst and best tanks can be affected by a gas tank that clicked off at a different level, but the overall average is pretty solid. It looks like mostly 11-12 in the west and 13-14 in the east.
Before you jump in with "The Grenadier wasn't built for this! What did you expect?" or something of the sort, I am aware. I am reporting the information in case it matters to someone. It's a new car, and data is important. I'm not all that keen on global warming either.
Unfortunately, I can't give exact numbers here, but every time I checked the vehicle's calculation of the mpg, it was significantly higher. I might make it a point to compare the real with the car calculation more precisely later on.
That's all I have. Thanks for you time. Feel free to move this to a different forum if it should be somewhere else.
schwankgrills.com
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