Milage

[rayman]

hi all,when i was away the other week, i got talking to a mature,"experienced" boater, and the subject of higher diesel prices came up. I asked if it would seriously affect all boaters, his reply was, if you use £50 of diesel up you done some serious boating.

I know he may not do a lot of boating,and £50 may be a lot of miles to him,but, what milage do you get for £50?,taking into account different engines,average speeds,worn engines etc, i was on a hire boat the other week, cruised 7 hours a day for 6 days, was my tank nearlyempty,or had i just took the top off it? thanks, ray.

[Liam]

Single Cylinder engine.. 10hp at 1800rpm - 750cc. It's pushing a very light (part fitted) 30ft narrowboat along

 

The last time I filled up with Diesel was around this time last year, and since then I've been to Chester and back, done loads of weekend cruising and ran the engine for charging the batteries etc, and I've still around half a tank left.

[rog guiver]

On our 72 foot narrowboat we have just finished a three week cruise, £120 of deisel used at 50p/ltr.

[bottle]

Fuel consumption cannot be calculated in miles but the consumption given for a Beta-Marine 43HP is approxiamately 1.25 Litre per hour at max torque/cruising speed but rises rapidly towards 2.5 at max power. You would never use max power unless on a river or very short bursts.

 

Therefore a 150 Litre tank would last about 120 hours, now if you could maintain 4mph that would be 480 miles but of course you would not get that mileage.

 

All this is approximate.

[Richard Bustens]

When i came from Atherton on the Coventry up to Audlem i started with a full tank and toped up just before getting there it took 23 ltr and according to the maps is about 92 miles. works out at a gallon a day doing 9-10 hour days

[Paul Evans]

Our 3 week trip this year (Buckby-Limehouse-Brentford-Buckby with a side trip to Aylesbury) covered about 220 miles and 225 locks with total engine running time of around 130 hours. Our BMC 1.8 litre engine used around 130 litres of fuel. At the time that didn't seem to much but now that I've written it down I'm starting to wonder!

[rayman]

26 gallon= 500miles? sounds bad. get that at 60 mile an hour, unless (in a van!) i'm totally wrong

[Liam]

Our 3 week trip this year (Buckby-Limehouse-Brentford-Buckby with a side trip to Aylesbury) covered about 220 miles and 225 locks with total engine running time of around 130 hours. Our BMC 1.8 litre engine used around 130 litres of fuel. At the time that didn't seem to much but now that I've written it down I'm starting to wonder!

30582[/snapback]

Paul, a litre an hour? wow.

[DHutch]

Our boats done about 14years and never used a drop...

 

 

...ok, i'll shut up now, but when all you guys start talking about diesel and the like, i get all left out!

 

 

Daniel

[bottle]

Our boats done about 14years and never used a drop...

...ok, i'll shut up now, but when all you guys start talking about diesel and the like, i get all left out!

Daniel

30592[/snapback]

 

All together now aaaargh

[ChrisPy]

All together now aaaargh

30620[/snapback]

was that like

 

AAARRGGHH !!

 

or more like

 

 

ahhhhh !

[Keeping Up]

Paul, a litre an hour? wow.

30589[/snapback]

 

Overall my boat averages 1.5 litres an hour (2 litres an hour while actually running, but then there's time spent in locks etc etc)

 

That means I use about 1000 litres a year - so the fuel price increases really hurt.

 

Allan

[davidandheather]

Overall my boat averages 1.5 litres an hour (2 litres an hour while actually running, but then there's time spent in locks etc etc)

 

That means I use about 1000 litres a year - so the fuel price increases really hurt.

 

Allan

30658[/snapback]

Hi our Beta B43 in its first 45hrs used 60 lts of fuel. this includes a small amount for the central heating.I know you should not need heating in the summer but Heathers all ways cold LOL

David

[stuart]

My boat has used about £30 worth of fuel in 180 lock miles. Think thats about

 

66litres @ 45pence or about 2.7 miles per litre...

[Keeping Up]

My boat has used about £30 worth of fuel in 180 lock miles.  Think thats about

 

66litres @ 45pence or about 2.7 miles per litre...

30696[/snapback]

No that's 2.7 LOCK-MILES per litre which is very different; if you spend all day going down a long flight (like Tardebigge) you will use hardly any fuel and do only a couple of miles, but you'll do a lot of lock-miles.

 

On our most recent trip, a typical mix of canals and rivers, we used 750 litres of diesel to cover 1051 miles and 655 locks in 492 hours.

[Oliver]

We have just done 209 locks & 146 miles in 93 engine hours and we used somewhere between 80 & 90 litres of fuel. We went upstream on the Severn at a fair rate so I think that means we will have used more fuel than if we had been on a canal. Plus we had the Eberspacher on for a couple of half hours to give us hot water on teh days we weren't cruising.

 

Betamarine 43.

Edited September 12, 2005 by Oliver

[awatsonbcp]

i know ours is only 35ft and usually only has two of us on it ,but for the last 25 yrs it has averaged between a gallon and a gallon and a half a day. if you double for a 70 footer and cruise 7 to 10 hrs a day thats about the same

[DHutch]

If you double for a 70 footer and cruise 7 to 10 hrs a day thats about the same

A 70ft'er wont use twice as much fuel as a 35ft, as its the bow/stern that cause the majorarty of the drag/load.

 

 

Daniel

[Paul Evans]

Paul, a litre an hour? wow.

30589[/snapback]

Perhaps I had less fuel in the tank when we started than I thought! I could be missing a few weekend trips out of my calculations but even so I'd better have another think. I put 46 litres in at Uxbridge - after about 46 hours - and the rest when we got back so it still seems like 1 litre per hour which seems a bit on the high side.

[colinjw]

Very soon after getting my boat, I got Canal Planner/Logger and from my previous logs, I have averaged 1 lt/mile including lock work.

[bottle]

Perhaps I had less fuel in the tank when we started than I thought! I could be missing a few weekend trips out of my calculations but even so I'd better have another think. I put 46 litres in at Uxbridge - after about 46 hours - and the rest when we got back so it still seems like 1 litre per hour which seems a bit on the high side.

30791[/snapback]

 

Paul if you go back through this, you will notice you are getting the average (1L/h) as every one else. The only way to get lower consumption is to leave the engine on tick-over or not run it at all.

[John Orentas]

As has been said it is quite meaningless to talk about miles/kilometres per gallon/litres on boats. The fuel usage especially with diesel engines is closely proportion to the energy expended.

 

They say it takes about 3 horsepower to propel a narrowboat at 3 mph which sounds about right. I attempted once to measure fuel consumption, at canal speeds it came close to 3 hours per gallon, on the river Severn it was nearer to 3 gallons per mile, this sounds extreme but it is the difference between using 3 hp and 30 hp.

 

Pushing a displacement boat through water is a unique problem, I remember a TV programme about the conversion of the Atlantic liner 'France' into a new role as a cruise ship. Three huge propellers were replaced by one small one as a consequence it's top speed was reduced from about 35 to 20 knots, a massive reduction in thrust for less that 50% loss off speed, presumably the fuel costs showed a similar disproportional difference.

[Alastair]

I use about 5l per hour. More if pushing a fast current, less if idling along.

[bottle]

I use about 5l per hour.  More if pushing a fast current, less if idling along.

30840[/snapback]

 

You are talking about a boat?

 

Or

 

You personally require just over a gallon of alcohol

[ChrisK]

Boat does about the same as me - around 2 pints to the hour at canal speed.