Fool, idiot, what where you thinking of? where's the petrol tanker to follow you? and many many more exclamations came my way when people saw me in my Jeep. OK in the good old US of A petrol is dirt cheap, but over here in merry old England it's a rip off ! 88p a litre and increasing all the time! Our Government has promised us £1.00+ per litre in the very near future! So petrol consumption is going to be important.
Yeah I know, I'll be lucky to get 18 mpg and that's driving it like a little old lady, but, and its a big but, what a vehicle!. You have to drive the monster to understand why.
Fact is I started getting only 15 mpg at first, that's now up to 17 mpg by adding a set of Splitfire spark plugs and some ZX1 engine oil treatment, both things I've added to previous vehicles and seen improvements on.
I then fitted a replacement performance air filter with surprising results. OK, the old one was very dirty, but I was surprised by the increase in performance as I really wasn't expecting any. The mpg figure seems to have increased too, up to 18 mpg, although this could be just coincidence as the weather is warming up.
I then purchased an electric fan from Pacet. It was supposed to be the super slimline fan (code : SCF1400P) which would fit in the narrow space. It was the normal Thinline fan instead, first impression was that it was going to be difficult to fit as their isn't much space to work with and it was!. I was hoping this would make the biggest difference to the fuel economy, but it only gave an increase of 1 mpg, so I now get 19 mpg.
If you want to read about the fan conversion press here to go to Page 1 or Page 2 of the saga.
A free flowing exhaust would probably help to, but they are very expensive and I don't need a new one yet, maybe when I come to replace this one.
Next in line might be removing the catalytic converter, that should get me up to 20 mpg, although there is some legal difficulty with this, so watch this space on that one.
Another alternative is to convert to LPG, although the conversion is quite expensive at the moment, but with our government rumoured to be wanting the price of petrol at £7 a gallon, in the long run it looks a wise idea!
I'm going to have to fit some side steps soon as my young ones need grappling hooks to get in at the moment. I like the look of the bars best but they look a little weak. Anyone out there who has fitted some (e.g. Manik or Smittybilt nerf bars) please let me know how much weight they can support ( I need to use them to reach the middle of the roof!) and how easy are they to fit. When I've done it, I'll let you all know.
If anyone out there has any other ideas, knows of good LPG conversions or just wants to say Hi, please feel free to e-mail me.
I have a description for fitting a new set of front brake pads on the site now, courtesy of a well known manual producer. If you want to read it press here.
But its not all about economy, the thing oozes style to me. It's fully loaded too, air con, leather interior, electric seats, cruise control matched to an excellent auto gearbox. The ride is almost car like with very little body roll so it's an absolute joy to drive! You sit in a commanding position, but not too high as in some 4x4's. It really is a magnificent beast!
As my mate Ian says - "Well Sorted, Gripped ! "
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"you may not understand, it's a Jeep thing!"
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Tech information on new models
try this mainly French site, it's pretty good ( to be translated soon)
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