Is 12 mpg an acceptable number?

[cpaharley2008]

That truck is in my sight,if I can get a good price I may get one. I estimate my truck and $15k but getting 20 mpg towing would make it palatable.

[gbaglo]

Price of gas today in Vancouver, BC is $1.559 per litre or $5.90 / US gallon.

[cpaharley2008]

Wow, $6/gallon is going to hurt the RV industry.

[gbaglo]

Makes smaller, light weight trailers more attractive.

[dave macrae]

And fuel efficient tow vehicles. It seems the car companys are finally getting the message . I always get peeved off when I hear a corporarte type say " oh we are not sure the North American market wants this", so they will sell smaller diesel and effiecent vehicles in the rest of the world and make us suffer because of 30 year old corporate thinking

[Seef]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Price of gas today in Vancouver, BC is $1.559 per litre or $5.90 / US gallon.

We would love to pay that overhere.

Price today in the Netherlands for:

Petrol 95 € 1,859 = CD $ 2,43 = US $ 2,38
Diesel € 1,51 = CD $ 1,98 = US $ 1,93

per litre that is, no complaining please.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Wow, $6/gallon is going to hurt the RV industry.

I doubt it. When availability of gas was a problem (remember line-ups and rationing?) people were unwilling to buy RVs. When people were losing their jobs by the millions they were unable or unwilling to buy (remember 2008?). On the other hand, the price of fuel has climbed over the decades and people continue to buy it to run both RVs and an ever-increasing array of engine-equipped toys.

When I bought my first car gasoline was about $0.32 per litre here. Now someone starting the same job I had then makes three times as much money, and gas is roughly $1.20/litre... not a big difference compared to the other costs of owing and operating an RV.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by Seef

Price today in the Netherlands for:

Petrol 95 € 1,859 = CD $ 2,43 = US $ 2,38

I assume the "95" means 95 octane... that would be "premium" here. In Vancouver with regular gas at C$150/L, premium is about C$1.70/L... still cheap compared to Europe, expensive compared to most U.S. states, and about the highest price in Canada.

[daveandsandyclink]

I have never know a fuel price run up to keep folks home. I believe they just stay put longer in a campsite and spend less at roadside restaurants, tourist traps, and such. There was a 14% increase in sales of RVs in 2012. A very large percentage of the RV crowd are seniors with disposable income, fat market accounts, pensions, and medical coverage. A high fuel price is not going to keep me home. I'll put the tent in the hybrid first.

The US oil production is at it's highest and finished product ( motor fuel) and LPG is being exported overseas for increased profits over US sales. Greed runs rampant at every level in the US energy sector. The cost of fuel is a factor in everything you consume and will add to the cost of just plain living.

What drives up the cost of fuel in Canada? Taxes or supply and demand? I seen more Canadians at the gas stations than locals while visiting border regions of MN & WI. Diesel prices are about 50 cents lower here in the south @ $3.57.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by daveandsandyclink

What drives up the cost of fuel in Canada? Taxes or supply and demand? I seen more Canadians at the gas stations than locals while visiting border regions of MN & WI.

Depends where you live in Canada. There are vast differences province to province. Lucky Brian lives in Alberta where prices are much lower. In BC prices are higher, usually the highest in Canada, and in the Vancouver area much higher, even with oil refineries in the area. Lucky us have to pay ever increasing additional taxes for mass transit as well as a carbon tax

As a heads up to anyone visiting Escape, they're just outside the area that charges extra taxes so fill up before you head to Vancouver. Better yet, fill up in Sumas, WA, much cheaper.

Ron

[Brian B-P]

I'm leery of this turning into a pointless and off-topic discussion of a controversial topic, but in direct answer to a question...

Originally Posted by daveandsandyclink

What drives up the cost of fuel in Canada? Taxes or supply and demand? I seen more Canadians at the gas stations than locals while visiting border regions of MN & WI.

Primarily taxes, relative to the U.S.

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

Depends where you live in Canada. There are vast differences province to province. Lucky Brian lives in Alberta where prices are much lower. In BC prices are higher, usually the highest in Canada, and in the Vancouver area much higher, even with oil refineries in the area. Lucky us have to pay ever increasing additional taxes for mass transit as well as a carbon tax

As a heads up to anyone visiting Escape, they're just outside the area that charges extra taxes so fill up before you head to Vancouver

As Ron has explained, the variation between provinces, and even between areas in B.C., is largely taxes. Supply/distribution and demand factors are the next effect, but I doubt that they are very different from the U.S.

While there is a Chevron refinery in Vancouver, the taxes and high local demand appear to overwhelm any supply advantage. The area of less expensive gas in B.C. is within an easy delivery truck range of Kamloops, where there is a distribution terminal fed with refined products (fuel) by the Trans Mountain pipeline from Alberta; the same pipeline feeds oil to Chevron in Vancouver as well as refineries in the U.S. northwest.

This information is all quite readily available - I checked (and corrected!) my facts for this response with simple Google searches for phrases such as "Vancouver refinery".

[Cypherian]

And mean while in the US ....

A bipartisan Senate proposal emerged Wednesday to rescue beleaguered federal transportation funding by raising the tax on gasoline by 12 cents a gallon.
The proposal to hike the 18.4-cent federal tax for the first time since 1993 came from Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and won quick endorsement from an array of advocates ranging from road builders to AAA.
In addition to increasing the tax by 6 cents in each of the next two years, the senators want the rate indexed to inflation. Failure to keep pace with inflation over the past 20 years, along with steadily increasing fuel economy, has caused the Federal Highway Trust Fund that receives the money to sink to a dangerous level.

A bump at the pump? Senators propose a 12-cent hike in federal gas tax. - The Washington Post

[gbaglo]

The problem with taxing fuel is that people stop using it, which reduces the amount of money for roads etc.
When carbon tax is successful, it ultimately fails.

[daveandsandyclink]

[QUOTE=Brian B-P;56406]I'm leery of this turning into a pointless and off-topic discussion of a controversial topic, but in direct answer to a question...

Thanks for the answer Brian...I suppose we have talked this subject to death but please feel free to stay out of the conversation of any thread that you deem has gone off topic or controversial.

[cpaharley2008]

I think we all need to regroup…..

[Ray N]

Not towing, and on somewhat flat ground, our 4.6 L, six-speed Tundra will get 20-22 mpg at 60-65mph; at 70-75mph it lowers to 18-20 mpg. Around town it's more like 14-15 mpg.

Towing the 21' Escape, at 60-65mph, we got 13-14 mpg. We never took it any faster, but going slower, in the mountains, didn't seem to decrease mileage much at all, probably because we did slow down to 50-55mph in many of the mountains.

All in all, I was happy with the results - about the same as with our old EggCamper, (14 mpg), except I used to take it at the legal speed limit, which here in Florida is usually 75mph. (I had the high-speed Kumho tires on it.)

[NuthatchBC]

I've been meaning to post this for a while but just haven't gotten a round tuit.

For our longer trips, we're averaging 14.5 miles/US gal., or 15.8 L/100km.

Equipment is a 2012 Toyota Tacoma Crew Cab, 2012 Escape 19.

I don't think this is too bad.

Doug

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by NuthatchBC

I've been meaning to post this for a while but just haven't gotten a round tuit.

OK, here you go. Sorry, couldn't resist.

[dbailey]

Another data point for those keeping track. We just returned from a big trip (14500km) which included flat, hills, mountains (crowsnest pass in BC, beartooth out of Yellowstone), head winds, cross winds and tail winds. We averaged 15.6l/100km according to our trip computer. That's an Escape 19 behind a Nissan Frontier (4l).

[gbaglo]

Sounds about where I am with a 17B behind a RAV4 V6. You should be happy, I think.
I used more than 16 L/100K on my last tank. Maybe 50 kilometres towing on the flat from Chilliwack and the rest around town. I'm not happy.