28.56 MPG in a 2000 3-Litre Caravan (Mostly HWY Miles)

[101Volts]

Though I retired Moony from fuel logs here, I thought this was worth posting as it's the highest MPG tank I recorded so far. (I say "So far" since I'm not sure if I'll take it out of retirement or not.) Here it is, Straight from the fuel logs though with some unnecessary-to-post parts left out and a few parts changed while remaining relevant and true:

2013-October-18
359.8 miles/579.04 kilometers
12.598 gal (US)/10.49 gal (Imp)
47.69 L
424.55 kWh
Gas Cost: $3.309 ($41.69 total for this fill)
28.56 mpg (US)
34.3 mpg (Imp)
8.24 L/100 km
3.5 gal (US)/100 mi
1179.96 Wh/mi

"Fillup #14: At the tail end of a long trip. I drove for all of this tank except when my Father drove down the driveway this morning. About 346 of these miles were today and most were highway miles. For about 13 miles (On the previous day) the van wasn't loaded, For about 170 miles we had it loaded to Ohio with a telescope and the rest was loaded heavier to the gas station."

I don't recall the pressure the tires were at - 55 Hot or thereabouts? The roof-rack was also removed and we had plastic (or the pizza pans?) on the hubcaps along with tape on the wheel wells if I recall it properly, but I recommend using something other than duct tape since when I removed it I also removed part of the finish and ended up with a rust hole that was later filled. Also, At the time there were still parts that I think hadn't been replaced ever such as the spark plug wires and fuel filter.

So, There you go.

EDIT - Note, the middle and rear seats were removed for this tank.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

It still seem to have some potential. What might be the next MPG target?

[101Volts]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

It still seem to have some potential. What might be the next MPG target?

It does have potential, But at the same time this is really a good time for me to just retire it. It's still going to be used without fuel being logged, but it has a fuel leak somewhere which needs worked on and retiring it from this site (At least for the time being) gives me more time to focus on the Chevy and Mercury. It's also more of my Dad's van than a car of my own and I do most of the driving in the Chevy Sedan and Mercury, so there's that.

I may take the van out of retirement later, I'm not sure yet. It does have a heater in it already so that will be fun to see the effects of, if I have opportunity to see it in winter-time. We just have to mind heating the windshield; We cracked one in the van already and it looked like it was from heating it with snow on it, from a cold-start with the heater on full-blast.

[jcp123]

Not bad! My parents had a pair of '96 Caravans with the 3.0. Aside from the troubles they had they were actually decent vehicles, my dad vaguely said he was impressed with the gas mileage when driving to the Sierras for skiing. 28 seems fantastic for one.

[mcrews]

Nice job!