We just finished the first day of our 59th trip in our “Barbie”-mobile and there have been several notable things happen already. Actually, it started on Friday morning when I started to get ready for our Sunday departure. We had dry camped for two nights at the Marana Bluegrass Festival and, since that was not a campground, the holding tank had not been emptied. Since I have a macerator pump I can empty the tank at my house using the sewer cleanout near the front door. I tried to use the pump and it did not work. It was frozen solid for some reason. I had to get it fixed so I ended up taking the coach back down to the storage lot, getting it up on ramps, and replacing the pump. Fortunately there is a great RV supply store in Tucson called Sandy’s West RV Center – they have everything, mostly in stock.
We left on time – 9:30 – but, just before leaving I tried connecting Carol’s computer to our inverter and it didn’t work. The inverter was putting out about 90-95 volts. It was the el cheapo from Harbor Freight and it had lasted more than 5 years. Well, we were planning on stopping in el Centro for the night and there was a Harbor Freight store there and, it was a 10-minute walk from the WalMart we decided to stay at – see the photo above.
The first day with the FiTech EFI went really well. It is having some issues with low speed response to the gas pedal – I checked with FiTech and it is learning. The guy suggested I try some “accelerator pump” settings but did not provide any hints for how to get started. I have asked for some samples and hints so we’ll see.
The biggest news was gas mileage. I have not been measuring mileage for the past couple of years because nothing ever changes it. The only modification I ever made that affected it was installing new mufflers. That probably increased my mileage by about 10% (measured over a 7,000-mile trip) – only because the old ones were bad and one was restricted. The point is, I know that I get about 7 MPG normally. When I stop for gas I stop based upon how many miles I have driven since filling the tank. I do not depend on the gas gauge, I put gas in about every 200-250 miles or less. When I start pumping I compute the approximate number of gallons I will need by dividing the number of miles by my average 7 MPG. It usually works and I’ll wait until it keeps happening before I get too excited but I could not get any more than 23 gallons into the tanks after I had gone 198 miles. That would be 8.6 MPG which would be amazing – I didn’t do it for the mileage, I did it for performance and reliability. Stay tuned.
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