mpg unity
- Thread starter bennett
- Start date
2013 Unity TB
Our highest full tank average was 17.5 in Texas running 60 mph max all freeway
Our full time average is 15.7 mpg running 25-75 mph on all type roads, mountains to city driving, (including some Honda CRV towing) for the last 5000 miles as reported by our Ultra-Gage
I believe the claim of 18-22 mpg is from Mercedes for the 2014 Sprinter bare chassis which comes standard with a 4 cylinder. LTV put out a survey last year to see if owners wanted the 4 cylinder and I don't believe it was ultimately offered. I would not but one.
18-22 mpg might be possible in a Sprinter Van but I don't see it being realistic for a fully loaded Unity or Serenity, but 17 on flat highway is very feasible as long as you keep the speed around 60 mph.
One very important component to good mileage is engine load. The 3.0L Mercedes runs most efficient between 2600 - 3000 but the auto transmission wants to shift sooner. The engine lugs at the normal shift points and sometimes hits 100% load at 2000 rpm. If you watch the rpm vs engine load and keep the revs high enough to control the engine load < 75% you will get much better mileage and your engine will last much longer, but this will require a lot of manual shifting and most people don't want to be that involved in driving.
Our highest full tank average was 17.5 in Texas running 60 mph max all freeway
Our full time average is 15.7 mpg running 25-75 mph on all type roads, mountains to city driving, (including some Honda CRV towing) for the last 5000 miles as reported by our Ultra-Gage
I believe the claim of 18-22 mpg is from Mercedes for the 2014 Sprinter bare chassis which comes standard with a 4 cylinder. LTV put out a survey last year to see if owners wanted the 4 cylinder and I don't believe it was ultimately offered. I would not but one.
18-22 mpg might be possible in a Sprinter Van but I don't see it being realistic for a fully loaded Unity or Serenity, but 17 on flat highway is very feasible as long as you keep the speed around 60 mph.
One very important component to good mileage is engine load. The 3.0L Mercedes runs most efficient between 2600 - 3000 but the auto transmission wants to shift sooner. The engine lugs at the normal shift points and sometimes hits 100% load at 2000 rpm. If you watch the rpm vs engine load and keep the revs high enough to control the engine load < 75% you will get much better mileage and your engine will last much longer, but this will require a lot of manual shifting and most people don't want to be that involved in driving.
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Here is the link to a thread on the Ultra-Gauge. It has proved to be very useful and reliable.
http://www.sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27145
http://www.sprinter-source.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27145
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LTV is Canadian and may be quoting miles per Canadian gallon even though the Canadian standard is now litres per 100 km. Converted to US gallons their claim would be 15.0 - 18.3 US MPG. After 10,000 km, our Unity CB has averaged 16.2 US MPG with a high of 17.4 US MPG.
Unity Traveler
2013 LTV Unity Twin Bed
Do people confirm the numbers from things like Ultra Gauge and Scan gauge? I have the cheaper scangauge because I just want to watch the mpg... for fun... just to make me think about my driving, but confirming it with actual fill-ups shows that mine is pretty consistently 1-2 mpg higher than reality.
Yes
Peter Tourin
2020 Unity RL, ex 2012 Unity MB
I'm also new to diesels - bought a 2012 MB on the 18th. We drove for about a week without paying any particular attention to highway speed or engine speed - calculated mpg at each gas stop ran from about 14.2 to 14.5. Last week I posted on this forum and started asking about driving tricks for better mileage. The first day I started watching RPM and shifting to control it, we got 15.8 on the next gas stop. We start home in 2 days - about 2500 miles to drive - so we'll see what happens.
aljimenez
'13 LTV Serenity on '12 3
I only trust mpg from fill-ups. The Scangauge is always useful on a relative sense; even though it may not be exact. What I mean is that if the gauge shows low mpg numbers, it probably means you are accelerating, or going up a hill, high mpg numbers, you are coasting or going downhill. Adjustment of the Scangauge each time you fill up keeps it from being too inaccurate... Al
sailquik
Well-known member
mumkin,
Can you get the % engine load (LOD) PID on your Scan Gauge E?
If you can...great.
If not, you are missing the most critical information to operating a Sprinter efficiently.
Scan Gauge II will pay for itself in fuel savings in 1 year or ~20,000 miles.
Hope this helps,
Roger
Can you get the % engine load (LOD) PID on your Scan Gauge E?
If you can...great.
If not, you are missing the most critical information to operating a Sprinter efficiently.
Scan Gauge II will pay for itself in fuel savings in 1 year or ~20,000 miles.
Hope this helps,
Roger
ScanGauge E displays 2 parameters at the same time, while ScanGauge II displays 4 parameters and has some extra functions. ScanGauge E has a choice of about 20 parameters including LOD. PDF of the user manual is available here http://www.scangauge.com/wp-content/uploads/documentation/sge-1-0/SGE_UM_101.pdf
See page 28 for the parameters that can be displayed.
User manual for ScanGauge II user manual is here http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scangauge.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fdownload-monitor%2Fdownload.php%3Fid%3D1&ei=CUHCUqiOAYH0oASsl4H4Ag&usg=AFQjCNFl0xnknQaVvvxzlxESirMem84fUQ&sig2=PUrvMnU5aqN__l9V45EzcA&bvm=bv.58187178,d.cGU
See page 28 for the parameters that can be displayed.
User manual for ScanGauge II user manual is here http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.scangauge.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fdownload-monitor%2Fdownload.php%3Fid%3D1&ei=CUHCUqiOAYH0oASsl4H4Ag&usg=AFQjCNFl0xnknQaVvvxzlxESirMem84fUQ&sig2=PUrvMnU5aqN__l9V45EzcA&bvm=bv.58187178,d.cGU
Peter Tourin
2020 Unity RL, ex 2012 Unity MB
Well, I spoke too soon 2 days ago. I was surprised and disappointed today that my 2 gas stops both calculated out to mileage in the low 13's! That's the lowest so far - and it's after I started driving slower and watching shift points. No idea why my mileage would go way down like that. We'll see what happens tomorrow...
sailquik
Well-known member
Peter,
Winter fuel and possible head winds could easily account for the lower mileage.
Plus you are heading north on I-95 or I-85 right?
You really do need that Scan Gauge II so you can see where your mileage can be improved.
Driving a Sprinter and getting good mileage can be anything but intuitive.
Roger
Winter fuel and possible head winds could easily account for the lower mileage.
Plus you are heading north on I-95 or I-85 right?
You really do need that Scan Gauge II so you can see where your mileage can be improved.
Driving a Sprinter and getting good mileage can be anything but intuitive.
Roger
Peter Tourin
2020 Unity RL, ex 2012 Unity MB
Well my birthday is in February <g>...
We had the Scan Guage in our last LTV RV and changed over to the Ultra Guage for the 2013 Unity MB we have now and like it much better. I have checked the Ultra Guage against fill up's and the Ultra Guage seems to be right on. We did a 3,000 mile plus cross country trip this past fall and the Unity seemed to average between 17 and 18.5 on flat ground at around 60 MPH.
pfflyer
Well-known member
I use a SGII but for my log I use miles driven divided by gallons used to get mpgs. You can adjust the SGII to compensate for differences but that's not why I bought the SGII. The only reason I use the fillup feature is it gives me an idea what a trip costs in $. I do like having the buttons in the front though.
Custommm
Member
Can someone know if ,as for now, Ultragauge included the tranny oil temperature?
sailquik
Well-known member
Custommm,
Hook up the UltraGauge EM, or A Scan Gauge II.....set it to read the engine Coolant Temperature PID.
Your transmission fluid temperature will be ~15 to 25 deg. F higher than the coolant temperature.
However, if you do not use the % engine LOD feature of these two performance monitoring gauge packages,
and you persist in leaving your Sprinter RV in 5th gear overdrive all the time.....the trans fluid temp could be a little higher, because if you are pulling hills @ < 2500 RPM, your coolant temperature is going to increase pretty rapidly and the trans fluid temp will increase proportionally.
Manually downshift, get some RPM on your engine, keep the coolant circulating, cut down on the amount of torque convertor slip, keeping the RPM in the 2700-3100 range, and your temps will stay pretty normal, and if they rise, they will settle right back down as soon as the engine driven fan cycles on.
It's pretty much like any other vehicle....if you load it to the max (or beyond) it will increase the temperature.
You have (or should have) fully synthetic transmission fluid that can handle temperatures in the coolant temp range
with no issues.
Just reduce the torque convertor slip and the % engine LOAD whenever possible and you will be doing pretty much all that you can to make things easy for your transmission.
Another less expensive and invasive option is to purchase an infrared temperature sensing device.
When you think the transmission is heated up too much, point the temp gun at the trans pan and you'll most likely
see that the trans fluid temp is 15-25 deg. F hotter than the coolant temperature.
Hope this helps,
Roger
Hook up the UltraGauge EM, or A Scan Gauge II.....set it to read the engine Coolant Temperature PID.
Your transmission fluid temperature will be ~15 to 25 deg. F higher than the coolant temperature.
However, if you do not use the % engine LOD feature of these two performance monitoring gauge packages,
and you persist in leaving your Sprinter RV in 5th gear overdrive all the time.....the trans fluid temp could be a little higher, because if you are pulling hills @ < 2500 RPM, your coolant temperature is going to increase pretty rapidly and the trans fluid temp will increase proportionally.
Manually downshift, get some RPM on your engine, keep the coolant circulating, cut down on the amount of torque convertor slip, keeping the RPM in the 2700-3100 range, and your temps will stay pretty normal, and if they rise, they will settle right back down as soon as the engine driven fan cycles on.
It's pretty much like any other vehicle....if you load it to the max (or beyond) it will increase the temperature.
You have (or should have) fully synthetic transmission fluid that can handle temperatures in the coolant temp range
with no issues.
Just reduce the torque convertor slip and the % engine LOAD whenever possible and you will be doing pretty much all that you can to make things easy for your transmission.
Another less expensive and invasive option is to purchase an infrared temperature sensing device.
When you think the transmission is heated up too much, point the temp gun at the trans pan and you'll most likely
see that the trans fluid temp is 15-25 deg. F hotter than the coolant temperature.
Hope this helps,
Roger
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Peter Tourin
2020 Unity RL, ex 2012 Unity MB
I'm going to play devil's advocate here. I'd love to have a Scan Gauge, and probably will, as soon as I can get into our MB for a long trip. But I spent $30 for an OBD interface and iPhone app, and I really like the analog gauge displays. I must be old-fashioned - but I find it easier (translate: quicker) to glance at an analog gauge display than to read a number on a digital display. There's enough room on the dash to fit my iPhone with no problem. For me this isn't a money issue - I can afford to buy a Scan Gauge - I just like analog displays. Afraid I'm on the losing team, though...
Roger, we still haven't done any long trips since picking the MB up out West. But on the few shorter trips, I've never gotten better than 14-15 mpg per tank. I'm itching to actually get to use the rig, and to see if I can improve on this - a few mpg better would make a big difference on a long trip, with the cost of diesel high.
Roger, we still haven't done any long trips since picking the MB up out West. But on the few shorter trips, I've never gotten better than 14-15 mpg per tank. I'm itching to actually get to use the rig, and to see if I can improve on this - a few mpg better would make a big difference on a long trip, with the cost of diesel high.