Fuel economy
 

Got a quick question.. Has anyone ever tried calculating fuel Eco? Like a MPG on a cafe with out big power... I know it's a toy and some people don't care, I'm just talking about planning while out on the water if you go for a long run if you should plan on having money for more fuel type of situation..
I've heard a little less than $10 a minute but not sure. I don't think mines that bad but who knows.

So has anyone played around with trying to calculate this?

Pretty easy to do if you have a GPS. I haven't tried it yet but I'll probably do it for fun some day and see what I get.

running a poker run hard i use about 2 gallons a mile... but cruising isnt bad. just when you open up the 1150's they drink

The TRS drives will kill economy on your boat. I know they do on mine.

Could you elaborate on this? I've got a Garmin 540, and for the life of me can't figure out how far (miles) I've traveled. ...could be that my unit is to old to calculate, but not certain.

Thanks.

From the main menu click on "information". That will bring up a trip screen and a bunch of other stuff like max speed avg speed etc. you can reset all or just trip.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with a big azz heavy boat plowing thru the water ....LOL....

A big high performance twin cruising is usually 1 mpg+/-, and 2 gallons per mile running hard. That's a general rule of thumb for new and old high performance engines.

I have seen data for newer 8.2s showing 1.3-1.7 mpg cruising.

Now, a wet ride in a flat bottom heavy hull changes things of course.

My friend has a 24k lb 50 ft stepped vee with 3 1000hp that takes 3 gallons to each mile, cruising

Nope the 10,000 lb fiberglass tub is irrelevant. The trs drives rob all the power and burn the fuel. You would save tons of $$$ in fuel with bravos. Mainly because you'll miss a few weekends because of broken drives.

yeah but the Sandler is worth every penny!!! 100mph 50 footer

Going to try to get him to leave the skater home and run the sandler one more time in the fall fun run. We can all take a piece after for memories haha

You leave my lovable fat chick out of it. The difference may be negligible, but the fact the drive is built like a brick shethouse and the transmissions are taking some power, it has to be mentioned that they hurt economy. Not saying it is a deal breaker or a reason to not buy a TRS boat, but it does bear mentioning. Personally, I think if you are worried about fuel economy when buying a performance boat, you shouldn't bother buying a performance boat.

Personally now that I have owned one, I love having a TRS boat. They shift like butter, are pretty bulletproof if you stay within reason on power, and since most people don't want them they are a great value. I have yet to have a hard time finding parts either, you just have to be creative with where you source them.

I have a piece of tape where the secondaries start to come in.. used it to for tuning purposes but I have since left it there so I know when she goes into guzzle mode...and I`m not talking about your mom

On a serious note I have noticed a nice difference in fuel usage ( for the better) after having High Flow Heads do the combustion chambers.... better, faster, more complete burn is what I was promised and it was delivered, I`ve noticed it at the pump...plus they sounds like a 1500hp motors.. bigger bang, bigger noise :D

LOl. You know I'm busting chops as I know you know how things work.

Or a ski boat (mostly the older one's) and use it as a family take a long trip in it boat. You know how many people from our area load up the family and go to Wolefboro or god forbid Alton and complain about how much gas, having to stop for more gas, and etc, etc? They just plow thru the water and WOT is only mid 40's.

My little boat's minus's are it doesn't like waves at all. Big boat way trumps it here.

Fuel mileage ? How about 15 gallons from my place, to Alton, over to Wolfeboro, and then back home. That's it. I save gas $ during the summer. Snowmobiling chows it. LOL.

Small + light = good fuel mileage and good mph per HP.

Small + light = absolutely, positively horrible in the waves.

All boats have their + and -'s. And where we live/boat we would need 3-5 different boats to cover most of the boating we would like to do. LOL.

My 38 with 500 carbs and trs got 1.7mpg at 3500. Now with my #5s and boxes with about 800ish hp i checked it again two weeks ago and it was exactly 1mpg. Not that it matters but nice to know how far you can safely run

Do boxes still help a gun when they have a notch? Are you just trying to get the X even higher than the 5 does on its own?

And that is exactly why I have 4 boats. A 32 cruiser for a day out anchoring, the Formula for actually getting places quickly, a 22 bowrider for skiing, tubing and quick trips, and a 13 foot Whaler for the kids and fishing.

Here is the rub, my newest boat is a 1996. I buy older, clean, well kept boats instead of new stuff. Fuel injection? Pump the throttle a couple times and they fire right up. In some ways they take more upkeep, but in others they are easier to own.

I chuckled when the guy in a brand new Bennington pontoon boat quipped about how much my fuel bill was for my Formula. It probably equals one of his payments and he gets to ride that depreciation train right to the bottom. If I don't want my boat to cost me money, I just don't turn the key. And I will bet I get a hell of a lot more compliments about my clean, old Formula than he will ever get about his floating minivan.

the last part was why i posted it.. so roughly 1 mpg for cruising and a bit less if im hammaring down. thats what i wanted to know! thanks guys!!

You can pretty much set you're x-dim wherever you want it when you rig it but the boxes serve two main purposes, to run a high x-dim(even with the bottom in my case) and be far enough back to be in clean water for getting on plane, and for added leverage to carry the bow. Notch essentially acts as another box

Use the fuel gauge and fill as needed

Last 2 fountains I've had, fuel gauge isn't accurate at all. Shows full all the time and the when you see it fluctuating it's empty!

I have 2 small extra tanks. Always have them for reserves.

They have adjustment screws on top of the sending units. I got mine to at least read somewhat accurate from full to half, after that it's a crap shoot

I get about 1mpg,, cruising with twin 800's in old 38 Fountain with SSM drives. But they arent tuned for alcohol like some boats i've seen where the transom looks like the bottom side of a weber bbq lid after a run.

I was thinking you were going to say...drinking beer I get about 1mph, but when you hit the "hard stuff" (alcohol) the throttles go forward and you get 2gpm.

Thanks a lot. I didn't know that. I'll check it out.

All I do now is open my other tanks when I see my gauge fluctuating.