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Fuel Consumption


Beaver

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Anyone keep track of how much fuel they burn per hour?

BenBu has given me some figures, just curious what everyone else says.

Make sure to mention whether with ballast, without, wedge, no wedge, etc.

Beaver

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Our 06 VLX gets 5-5.5 gal per hr with a combination of ballast, wedge, and just cruizing.

Joe

Yea, but you don't have a monsoon...

I keep religious notes on my burn rate, of course it is averaged across each tank (so I can't tell you the different rates for crusin, ballast etc..

The notes are in the boat, of course... but off the top of my head, I've seen tank burn rates as low as ~3.8+ gph, and as high as ~5.8gph... I usually estimate 5gph just to be safe, but usually it is in the high 4gph

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you can,t compare these numbers beaver,my boat runs on lpg/propane so fuel consumption is a little higher.5 gallons is 19 liters,that would be nice but 25 liters

(6.5 gallon) an hour would be my average.We did burn more with some extra weight,6 people & wedge down.

some lpg bottles last longer then others.

a normal tank can hold 34 liters,to bad it has a 80% safety fill.So it will have only 27 liters lpg.The safety is for the temperature changes.Lpg has a very low boiling point and on a hot sunny day the tank gets real hot so the lpg inside the bottle will expand.if the pressure inside the tank will reach 17 bar the lpg will flow out of the safety valve....but that will almost never happen....unless you remove the safety fill.

75% of all the boatowners that run on lpg (clubs schools and a few privat owners) do remove the 80% fill safety so they can carry the full 34 liters.

(they all have a hose connected to the safety valve,the hose goes outside the boat) a fresh filled tank wil last +/- 1,5 hour.On a hot day the fully loaded tanks will leak thru the safety fill,if the bottle is lying on its side it will leak liquid lpg and if it is standing upright it will leak in a gasform untill it reaches the 80% safety marge.This is why most people keep their spare botles in the water to cool them down.i don,t because i use a starting pontoon,and just leave my bottles in the sun

protected by a white towel to keep most of the heat awayfrom the black tanks.

i asked malibu not to install the rear tanks they use for europe,but give the stock tanks instead,i will instal them myself on top of the rear compartment floor.

build a box or something and i will be able to take 4 bottles at once.2 on each side

this way it can go for at least 4/5 hours without changeing bottles.

a bit of a hassle,BUT IT SURE BEATS $ 6.54 a GALLON Tongue.gif

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First of all, let me explain why I am being so anal about this consumption thing.

(I have been asking BenBu alot of questions about LPG and consumption for a while now)

Our new 2006 VLX is for our wakeboard club here in Germany. Our old boat was

a 1989 Glastron with a 130 hp Mercruiser. We used about 3 Gallons an hour with the old boat. I would like to tell everyone what we pay per DAY of wakeboarding per person, but I am afraid that when someone hears about it, then we won´t be able to fight off all of the people wanting to ride behind the new VLX because it´s so cheap. Usually you pay about $1.50-2.00 per MINUTE here in Germany. Do 2 sets per day and it gets pretty expensive. We don´t pay for the upkeep on the boat by paying for sets, we do it buy throwing killer partys (bierfest). What we pay for one set is only to compensate for gas.

Let me get to the point. Last year I kinda mentioned to everybody that a new boat would be cool. Everybody thought "cool!" and somehow we started looking for boats that cost 25-30 thousand $. And then some idiot convinced everybody that a new VLX wouldn´t be bad either. For the life of me I can´t remember who that idiot was!

So I did this really big fancy calculation where I figured out that it would cost us

slightly more to run the VLX per hour with propane than the old glastron with gasoline. So, now that it´s to late, and the boat is on the way I decided to double check and see if my math was correct or not.

So it sounds like I am still on the safe side. I was pretty much going with an average in the low 20´s which is about 5-6 gallons and adding 10-15% to that for figuring out how much propane we will need. But I guess next year in March/April we will know for sure!!!

Thanks for everyone´s input and keep it coming!

Andy

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Here's my stats over the last 2 summers. (Note my boat specs and usage as well .... because gas consumption is obviously dependent on that.)

Although I don't use my boat a lot, I keep record of every drop.

2004 Summer:

Hours used: 53.3

Gas consumed: 149 Cdn Gallons

Consumption Rate: 2.80 Cdn gph; or 12.72 litres per hour; or 3.36 US gph

2005 Summer:

Hours used: 43.8

Gas Consumed: 125 Cdn Gallons

Consumption Rate: 2.85 Cdn gph; or 12.96 litres per hour; or 3.42 US gph

TOTAL for BOTH years:

Hours used: 97.1

Gas Consumed: 274 Cdn Gallons

Consumption Rate: 2.82 Cdn gph; or 12.82 litres per hour; or 3.39 US gph

Boat Specs and Usage:

1998 Response LX; 310 carb

Fuel used: octane 89

Boat Weight: 2450 pounds; no fat sacks or tower or wedge; Usually 3-4 people in the boat (including skier)

Usage (approx):

2004: 50% slalom; 25% W-Board; 25% touring

2005: 75% slalom: 25% W-board

Hope this helps

Edited by doughickey
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Was at my summer place July/August. No web capability. Hence, in a MalibuCrew vaccuum.

Started a new career in Sept. After 30 yrs at IBM (engineering/manufacturing/sales/mktg/consulting/e-business.... I went back to school and got my certification to teach. Now teaching math (surprise surprise) at a high school full time. Never been busier or happier.

Alas, the downside is no time to cruise The Crew. Still drop in occasionally.

Not gone, or sulking, or in prison, or dead, or moved to Zimbabwe. Just darn occupied.

Thanks for the welcome back. Will still drop in occasionally.

Edited by doughickey
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Was at my summer place July/August. No web capability. Hence, in a MalibuCrew vaccuum.

Started a new career in Sept. After 30 yrs at IBM (engineering/manufacturing/sales/mktg/consulting/e-business.... I went back to school and got my certification to teach. Now teaching math (surprise surprise) at a high school full time. Never been busier or happier.

That's the key. If you're happy with your new job, that's all that matters. Congrats on the career/life change.

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I thought this was great as well when I read Doug's update and had already e-mailed him a congratulations for doing exactly what I'd love to do (just not math...well, in fact, I don't think I'm smart enough in anything)

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Mine uses about 5gph for boarding but jumps to 7gph for surfing. Pretty noticable difference.

Sounds about right to me. I have had days where I went through a whole tank Shocking.gif Those are days where I am there all day, like 6-6 or so. I had to pull out once and hit the pump just to finish the day.

It is REALLY important (lucky) to have friends that pitch in on gas!!

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Good to hear from you Doug. Good luck on your new job. Your numbers are about right on with mine. Smaller lighter hulls use less. I burn 93 oct. which appears to make no difference.

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