THE TEST THE NUMBERS
A run up to the shops and back wouldn’t cut
it. To achieve a meaningful result, I figured
a couple of hundred kilometres per van was
required. At Goldstream’s Pakenham, Vic,
headquarters, I first hitched up the pop-top to
my Isuzu MU-X and headed to the nearest fuel
station, where I topped up the diesel to the
point that it was almost overflowing. THE POP-TOP
From there, I headed east towards Traralgon,
a regional Victorian city about two hours
from Melbourne. In Traralgon, I intentionally
spent 15 minutes in stop-start traffic before
heading back.
On refilling at the same Pakenham servo,
it was revealed that by towing the pop-top
for 209.8km, the 4WD’s 3L engine guzzled
30.63L of diesel.
Towing the pop-top – which had been loaded
up to closely match the full-height caravan in
weight – on a highway for a couple of hours,
throwing in a bit of around-town traffic, saw
the MU-X use 14.6L/100km of diesel. This
equates to 6.85km/L.
THE CARAVAN
Towing the full-height caravan on the same
course, and matching my driving style to that
of the first run as much as possible, saw the
vehicle consume 16.7L/100km, equating to
6km/L.
Time for the second test. I repeated the
scenario described above, this time with the
full-height van hitched up.
On the highway, for both tests, I kept my
speed to about 95km/h, keeping to fifth gear
as much as possible, and driving as smoothly
as conditions allowed.
The pop-top saw the vehicle
consume 30.63L over 209.8km.
After almost six hours of continuous driving, I
pulled into the servo near Goldstream for the
third time that day. The odometer, which I’d
zeroed before departing for the second run,
read exactly as the previous test: 209.8km.
Pleased, I refilled, sure that my vehicle had used
more fuel on this second test. I was surprised,
though, when the diesel pump returned a figure
of 34.96L – an increase of 4.33L.
That seemed like a lot. But was it really?
14 \
As expected, the full-height caravan
was more expensive to tow.