Fuel consumption rate on the trail

I have not had the chance to put many street miles on my 55 to see what kind of mileage I am getting on a Miles Per Gallon basis with the freshly overhauled F-Head but I have logged several hours on local trails and "primitive roads" as the Forest Service calls them.

I dont know how many other members keep track of fuel consumption on a Gallons Per Hour basis off the pavement so I thought I would share my results just for fun.

Saturday and Sunday we went up on the mountain trails , My house is about at 3400 feet and where we turned around is at about 6500 feet ( mountain is about 7600+ on top ) , about a 3000 foot climb. About 3/4 of the driving was in 1st and 2nd gear low range and the balance in 1st and 2nd high range. Sunday I kept track of actual driving time after I filled up and when we got back and topped off it took 2.42 gallons to bring the fuel level back up to halfway in the filler neck.

Actual driving time from the gas station up the mountain and back to the gas station was 3.5 hours, Its only about a mile from the station to Forest access. This works out to 0.691 gallons per hour.

 

a buddy and I did the Dusy/ Ershim trail this last summer. he has a 2 bl 302 early bronco .trail is 33 miles and he drank 46 gallonswe came home and did a EFI swap.....

 

That sounds alot better then what Im getting. We went out jeepin yesterday and I think maybe the total trip length was about 80 miles. Half street and half trail. Half hi range and half low range on the trails. I started out with a full tank and when I got home I think I had roughly a gallon of fuel left in the tank. Pretty bad fuel mileage I think and I think I finally have it running aleast dependable. V6 stock everything.

 

Yikes, Sounds like it had a leaking power valve. Hope the EFI swap is doing better.

 

Jeepin, Do you have the 10.5 gal underseat tank.

 

i've got a 69 w/v6 and as much as ilove it,the gas mileage sucks.

 

At tioga 1 day of wheeling burns about 5-7 gallons. mostly low speed stuff, generally about 15-25 miles. I pretty much just idle the 304 all day. Rarely do I get into the go pedal more than a light tap, because when i do, the results are usually bad.

 

Your mileage sounds similar to my F-head 62CJ.

I went out twice this weekend. In total I spent about 7-8 hours on the trail mostly in low gear. On the last day I decided to drive the CJ home from the trail rather than towbar it back. I went 50mph for 50 miles to get home.

When I filled up the tank, I had used 7.5 gallons. I'm pretty happy with the mileage i'm getting.

 

I dont know. I assume I do, when I fill it it still has some fuel in it usually and I think it well take around 8 or 9 gallons. I should go and fill it right now to find out because its almost out according to the stick! I replaced the fuel gauge last weekend and it quit working already!

 

I feel your pain with the "stick gauge" method, I am using a short piece of fuel line

I am almost of the opinion that a working fuel gauge on these old jeeps is more of a novelty than anything else

The PO on mine apparently used the "screwdriver gauge" method as I fished one of those long two fisted screwdrivers out of my fuel tank after I heard something rolling around in there.

 

From my recent experience:
16-19 mpg driving straight down the mountain for a day driving in the flatlands of the valley and back again.
11-13 mpg crawling around the local trails, which includes minor hwy driving to and from the trails

 

yeah fuel gauges in old jeeps DO NOT WORK. I was testing my truck out going around the local roads, and it died on my 2 miles from home. Gauge read 1/2 tank. I pop the sending unit off (after about an hour of fiddling around...BONE DRY.