Gas Mileage

Hmm.

Yesterday I did the 650 km trip from Auckland to Wellington in my 1995 Legacy Wagon (2.5l with 4EAT, 195,000 km on the clock) and I used 15.4 l/100 km (14.7 miles per USgal) instead of my normal 9 l/100km (25 miles per USgal).

As my figures are normally very similar to Gumby, but this time were very similar to yours, perhaps we both have similar problems.

Here is a photo of my car just after refilling at the halfway point:

How heavy is the trailer / glider combo?

Some sort of spoiler on the trailer ala truck cab could help - or you could try mounting the wings on the Legacy ;)

(Mental note, just took a b4 around the South Island before the beginning of the last set of petrol rises, must tally the mileage)

I'm not sure. The glider was a fiberglass two seater weighing (manufacturer's specification) 400 kg. The trailer is not lightweight.

I just traded in my 02 Legacy Outback. When I bought it, I averaged 20.5 MPG, combined city and highway - mainly city. After about three years, the mileage slowly creeped up to 22.93 (total miles 32,000). I kept track of every tank and calculated MPG per tank, total MPG and several other things. The best tank I got was 27.24 - all highway and driving relatively slow (60-65 MPH).

Don D

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I've towed my glider & trailer-27B/cobra fibreglass & averaged 21 mpg running about 70mph with an '05 OBW LLBean 3.0L. Hardly knew the trailer was there except when crossing a bridge with a very stiff X-wind coming through a mountain gap. That was kind of interesting.

Chip F N127KK

I've towed a PW5 behind mine quite a lot, and it hardly notices it. But this Grob Twin in a heavy boxy trailer was a different matter entirely. The Twin Astir is 2.5 times the weight of a PW5 and the trailer is probably 3 or 4 times the weight of the PW-5 trailer. Your ASW27 is only slightly heavier than a PW5 and the Cobra is a good trailer.

Shell...Turangi

Indeed you are correct that Turangi is at the halfway point between Auckland and Wellington ;-)

But how'd you pick it was Shell?

My '05 Outback with auto trans is consistently getting 18 in town, 21 highway. Not good, but my dealer said it was typical. Is it? (The odo says

7300 miles.) Can the onboard mileage calibration thing be wrong? I haven't checked the gas mileage the old-fashioned way.

They also said that there was no brake noise at full steering lock. That has gotten better, but the car still hesitates when the throttle is floored from a stop. The dealer says they all do that. Do they?

My next nearest dealer is a lot farther away, but the trip might be worth it. Arrrrgh.

Tom

2004 3.0 Outback Wagon, average 24-25 mpg consistently.

Follow-up:

2000 rsk b4, 88k on the clock at the start, road trip around a good part of the South Island NZ. Mix of open road, urban, and some slow crawling over unsealed roads of various condition (Forrester / Outback clearance would have been nice in places).

Total km = 2653, fuel 344.29ltr (mix 96 & 98). 12.9Ltr/100km or 21.7mpg.

Lovely trip - wasn't driving with an eye on the fuel economy - the roads are pretty good, and mostly empty. Need to do it again and cover the far south (this time crossed over through the Haast pass to Wanaka / Queenstown, then via Laurence to Dunedin before heading north up the east coast.)

Still, Warbirds over Wanaka next year - that's a great excuse.

1. Must be Turangi. Taupo , not far enough and none with enough room with that size trailer Waiouru, first on left is BP (Ak to Wn you'd stop on the left) Taihape, only BP
2. Yellow & red in signage.

1. Done that trip hundreds of times but I usually go round the back of the lake. (no cops)

Instantly recognized the trailer as I used to be active in a sailplane club. I soloed when I was 15 years old in a Schweizer TG-2 . Nice to see some fellow silent wings on the site!

There seem to be quite a few more than I would have expected, actually!

For those who don't know what is in that trailer it is a Grob "Twin Astir" two seat high peformance (ok, 38:1 glide angle is only medium these days) fiberglass sailplane. Our club has two of this model that we use for everything from teaching raw beginners to fly, to flying cross-country and taking part in competitions.