Alfashark

Aaand as of today, the Supplier/Staff cards clicked over to 20c/L discount...

This means the SuperCard should be jumping up to 18c/L Pete.

Given how many of the new-gen Ranger/BT50 are out there, the ones with gremlins are a small minority - I've just covered a half million clicks in two of them.

As far as "crap" gearboxes, there was a known weak spot in the manual box used for the first 6-12 months of production - Hence the 3350kg towing limit on those early ones.

After that, they switched to a different box with the same ratios and it's back up to the full fruit 3500kg rating.

I tow all day every day, and rate them highly - Far far far superior to the smaller 4-cylinder models they replaced, tons of torque, steering that gives feedback and a cab that's quiet and comfortable.

Unsure if tanged or not, but there's been a red RWD 626 on what looks like red anodised modgies, parked at the local tire shop for the last couple of days.

I suspect it belongs to the young guy there, that based on pics that appear on here, looks like a younger Seedy Al.

Dunno, I'd say so.  I just saw that pop up on my FB feed today.

The old man got seconded into a recovery unit in North Africa for a while as he was about the only person aside from the tank drivers themselves, that had any experience on big gear.

 

A New Zealand Scammel transporter carrying a Sherman tank, rumbles through the town of Sora, Italy, on its way forward during the Italian Campaign. June 3 1944

Not any more... That pin has been pulled.

You don't need to get that close to reap the benefits - A decent length line-haul rig gets along at a fair pace these days, so slotting in behind one of them at even 4 seconds difference will drop a chunk off your consumption.

 

BMW M6 being repowered by a dry sumped 6 Rotor in South Africa.

Correct, and the 4wd ones aren't in 4wd while being driven on the road - when in 4wd High and Low, it locks the rear diff and center diff... I'm sure through a combination of button stabbing it can be disabled.

On the odd occasion I've borrowed one of the rep's ones for the day, I can drop the consumption down to 2wd flat-deck levels by simply not driving it like I stole it - By default our reps seem to use all of the revs and frequently forget that there is also a 5th and 6th gear...

Simply knowing and understanding the characteristics of the engine you're behind will go a long way to improving your mileage.

I know my BT-50 at work makes it's peak torque at 2k, and peak power at 3k - It spends most of the day with a ton on the deck and 1 or 2 ton on the trailer...

Despite this, I can only think of one spot on my travels where I exceed 2800rpm.  Average consumption on this ute in particular is 9.0/100 - Not bad, but it's only 3 weeks old and still toight like a toiger.

The ute it replaced, an identical BT-50 3.2 5-pot with 299,000km on the clock was turning in low 8/high 7's per 100 under the same conditions.

Our in-store reps run these too, albeit in 4x4 wellside w/canopy and can't seem to better 9.5/100 despite never having any load at all in them.

In that case I think the only practical way you can measure is to fill the tank back up to the "click" at the same gas station each time.

This. And use Fuelly, it's free and a convenient way to actually record what you're feeding the beast.

Agreed, there's been some serious advances in the last 10 or so years.

The bro-in-law's Octavia could still be pedaled down to 6.0/100km, which is fuckin outstanding for a 1.8L 20v turbo with over 300,000km on the clock and it's been re-mapped to around 225hp for over 200,000 of those.

The sweet spot for the BSFC in that car, both prior to and after the re-map was 5th gear and pulling just on 3k/rpm at 115-120kph on a GPS.

You don't have to baby your wagon along to get some sweet mpg, just a little bit more situational awareness as to what the road/traffic conditions are like ahead.

Case in point; When shifting the brother in law from Auckland to Ohope, I drove his Maloo with a shitload of stuff in the tray. He drove his Octavia, again packed to bursting point and the wife drove her car.

They know I'm always trying to reach a new personal best in mpg and give me shit about driving like a nana...

All set off at the same time, and I arrived in Ohope about 2 minutes after they did - despite the fact I'd stopped for a dart and taken a slash. 

Dash read-out in the Maloo showed 8.0L/100km and filling it worked out at 8.1

I bailed on a game of chicken with the fuel gauge in our Superb recently, I swear the needle was beginning to bend since it was already pegged on the E and it said I had 50km left.

Still, 1200km on a $42 fill was more than adequate...

Lesson learned - he has a massive amount of friends on FB and had rather lax privacy settings, and was pretty much giving hour by hour updates of the trip from Ohope to Auckland, and then from Ohope down to here.

El 5-0 reckoned they pretty much knew where the car would be at a particular time and worked accordingly.

Amen!

This is the bro-in-laws, finally living out his dream of owning a triangle powered vehicle.

He drove it daily with no problems until one morning when we went to start it and the coolant light came on... 

Closer inspection revealed coolant everywhere under the bonnet, which I suspect is the result of a burst hose occurring shortly after shutdown the previous evening.

Also of note, is the fact that the Hilux/trailer/FD combo had been in the driveway for mere minutes before some cheeky cunt tried to remove the trailer and disappear into the sunset with the FD.