l'Escargot / the Snail
Hey,
I'm from Québec, I usually speak french, so you know....I'll do my best to be understandable.
I'm a musician, I have to move a lot of gear for my gigs plus, we do a lot of family road trip. So we bought a Ford econoline e250 (2004). It has 68300 miles on it. I think it's a great van because there's a lot of parts available in scrap yards. I think it's a nice way to be "green", to repair things.
I made some repair on the van: add a window on the side, change a door, repair rust, change spark plugs, filters, change alternator, wiper motor.
While surfing on the web to gain some knowledge about this van and mechanics, I found this great forum. I'm a "green" guy, I always enjoy to recycle materials and to modify things to make it more efficient or to reuse it. Ecomodding fits my insterests.
I bought an OBDII bluetooth adapter and an app (I use Torque). It gives me a LOT of live infos about the car: speed, position, temp, check engine problems... You can configure it the way you want. I use it in fuel economy mode.
I found out that when I bought the van I was doing between 12.3 to 14MPG, I now have an average MPG of 19.5!! Just by using some hypermiling techniques. THANKS GUYS!!!
I want to make it 20MPG (then 21... you know....
Now I want to make some mod on the van!!! I already covered the headlight with plexiglas and the front bumper hole with a sheet of metal. I want to cover most of the holes in the front (radiator). I used an old piece of fiberglass from a shower to make it. By the way, do you think I left enough space for air to come in (I suspect weird english here
? Since I live in Québec, I was thinking about living it there all seasons... What do you think?
I have many other project for this van. I hope you can help me! I want to add to solar panels, a roofrack (I know, bad idea for MPG but I'll figure it out...) ...
PS: ... can't post my pics yet, I'll keep in touch!
Thanks for thinking out of the box!!!
Sorry for my english... did my best...
Bonne St-Jean-Baptiste!!!
Pierre-Alexandre