Back from Vacation
Well...Vacation is over. Always seems to fly by. Wanted to get some good gas milage readings towing my boat but unfortunately we hit some major traffic down and back. My first half of the trip down towing my boat with full load of gear and passengers, est. total weight @ 10,000 or so, I got just over 12mpg. Last half sitting in traffic for 2 hours ended up around 9 mpg!! The trip back took 10 hours where it is only a 6 hour drive. Hit heavy traffic several times...stop and go. Over all milage for the trip ended up being just over 10mpg. I had hoped for better but with all the stop and go...accelerating towing boat it just was not going to happen.
The whole time on vacation I did not take a single picture...sorry. Have some wife took I will add later. I had fun driving on the beach again this year. Saw many stuck vehicles each day. All makes and models including one late model F250 extended or quad cab. In all cases...owners did not air down their tires and 1st time drivers on the beach. I always use 4 low...makes it more effortless. Less likely to spin also as you need a lot more engine rpm. 4 high bogs motor down....give it more gas and eventually wheels just spin digging yourself a hole. I told this to an 1st time beach driver in a jeep and he put it 4 low after lowering tire pressure and drove right out. He thought he was spinning due to the increase in engine rpm but I told him he was not and he then gave it a little more throttle and just drove away.
Had some issues with my boat. MY FAULT!! Changed steering cable to starboard jet earlier this summer and umm.... forgot to re-attach cooling hose from jet to motor!! This was performed at the same time I was working on my Expy as my son was interested in taking the boat out. So obviously I was not paying enough attention. Well this created a serious leak with the motor running. lol. Luckily with the motor off the bilge pump was able to keep up. Ended up overheating the motor causing auto shut down and was able to get it back and on the trailer with the port engine. Found problem re-attached hose and had about 4-5 hours of tubing before starboard motor again stalled. Opened engine compartment to find starboard motor soaked in sea water. Drove it back to beach house on port motor and found plugs badly fouled.. Was injesting sea water. Replaced plugs and it started right up and began to spray water out of exhaust elbow. 3 bolts were completely backed out other was loose and many other bolts I found were very loose. Apparently overheating the motor expanded it enough that when it cooled everything loosened up. So I tightened all bolts I could get to and she started with no more apparent leak and she drove well and strong all the way back to the boat ramp where I loaded it back up and considered her week over until I can go thru the motor completely see what my mistake cost me?!
Well...Vacation is over. Always seems to fly by. Wanted to get some good gas milage readings towing my boat but unfortunately we hit some major traffic down and back. My first half of the trip down towing my boat with full load of gear and passengers, est. total weight @ 10,000 or so, I got just over 12mpg. Last half sitting in traffic for 2 hours ended up around 9 mpg!! The trip back took 10 hours where it is only a 6 hour drive. Hit heavy traffic several times...stop and go. Over all milage for the trip ended up being just over 10mpg. I had hoped for better but with all the stop and go...accelerating towing boat it just was not going to happen.
The whole time on vacation I did not take a single picture...sorry. Have some wife took I will add later. I had fun driving on the beach again this year. Saw many stuck vehicles each day. All makes and models including one late model F250 extended or quad cab. In all cases...owners did not air down their tires and 1st time drivers on the beach. I always use 4 low...makes it more effortless. Less likely to spin also as you need a lot more engine rpm. 4 high bogs motor down....give it more gas and eventually wheels just spin digging yourself a hole. I told this to an 1st time beach driver in a jeep and he put it 4 low after lowering tire pressure and drove right out. He thought he was spinning due to the increase in engine rpm but I told him he was not and he then gave it a little more throttle and just drove away.
Had some issues with my boat. MY FAULT!! Changed steering cable to starboard jet earlier this summer and umm.... forgot to re-attach cooling hose from jet to motor!! This was performed at the same time I was working on my Expy as my son was interested in taking the boat out. So obviously I was not paying enough attention. Well this created a serious leak with the motor running. lol. Luckily with the motor off the bilge pump was able to keep up. Ended up overheating the motor causing auto shut down and was able to get it back and on the trailer with the port engine. Found problem re-attached hose and had about 4-5 hours of tubing before starboard motor again stalled. Opened engine compartment to find starboard motor soaked in sea water. Drove it back to beach house on port motor and found plugs badly fouled.. Was injesting sea water. Replaced plugs and it started right up and began to spray water out of exhaust elbow. 3 bolts were completely backed out other was loose and many other bolts I found were very loose. Apparently overheating the motor expanded it enough that when it cooled everything loosened up. So I tightened all bolts I could get to and she started with no more apparent leak and she drove well and strong all the way back to the boat ramp where I loaded it back up and considered her week over until I can go thru the motor completely see what my mistake cost me?!
