[guyd]

Hi,

set myself a challenge of improving the mpg of a 33' long 8' wide 11' high brick, aka my coach based motorhome / RV

last run had us getting 11.5mpg at a pretty constant 65mph on a motorway across england. It was late, I was tired, and I wanted to get home as soon as possible.

The next day, I started looking for ways to improve mpg - and for forums to help me. This one came up time and again, so I joined.

Starting with some simple bits

1) rear wheel covers
2) Tyre pressure to max sidewall (well, 105psi is all my compressor will do)
3) mirrors delete, camera replacement
4) Cold air intake - its a turbo diesel 5.8litre straight six


heres some pics of the delete mirrors. Note the steampunk use of copper pipe to house the ebay special mini cameras. The idea is that if I clip something, the pipe will swivel round on the munson ring holder.

Cold air intake - see how the air intake is right in front of the radiators? The air comes in from under the shelf the maglite is on, and is directed up to the radiators. However - in sunny climates, there is so much air coming in, that the blower for the cabin can only get hot air (the intake for this is 12" above the top of the rads). My only solution to this was to remove the front bonnet. The next, better, solution will be to separate the air for the rads from the air for the cabin. I will have to add a second blower for the rear of the camper as there isnt enough heat from just the cab blowers.

See the huge gap above the rads? that stuff you can see behind it - especially the silver blanket, is the engine. The engine sits between the driver and the passenger, so all that hot air, or cold air, depending on the weather, is being blown into the space around the engine. I think Ill block it off somehow.
Do I:-
a) 'join' the top of the rad to the top of the grille?
b) just block off where I have written 8"
if I do A, then theres no air for the blowers - that could be resolved with another grille though.
Need to do a grille block, but it has to be on a wire of some sort, as getting in and out is a pain.