Ranger Mods

On our recent trip April to June to the NT and WA we covered a total distance of 14,132 kilometres.
We started off with a full fuel tank and I religiously recorded the litres of fuel we topped up the tank with - to the nearest litre - not rounded up or down - nor did I concern myself with the cost per litre, that would have been depressing as it varied from around $2.20 to 3.50 per litre depending on the remote location.

On our return home I again topped up the tank so we knew exactly how much fuel we had used.
Okay, the total fuel used was 1556 litres. that works out to 11.0 litres per 100 kilometres and for the most part that was towing our 2.3 tonne off-road camper-trailer. The two water tanks in the trailer were empty saving 200 kgs. We had the 125 litre tank in the Wildtrak and this was more than sufficient while we were touring.
I did note that on the return journey over the Eyre Highway gloing east we had a 90 kph tail wind for close to three days and almost 1000 kilometres that the gauge on the dash indicated a fuel consumption of just 6 L/ 100K so that would have been a contributing factor in our very low fuel consumption.
On this trip we didn't do a great deal of off-road touring, I'd estimate thet we did less than 100 kms off road in all and that my tyre pressures were cold 48 fronts, 50 rears and the trailer also at 50 psi, all the Tyre sizes are 285/70R17 - ( BFG KO-2 ) our normal cruising speeds were in Sports mode (5th gear) 86 kph at arround 1680 rpm.

Not very good.
I tow a 2.5ton full sized van at 100 (104 on speedo) and return 15.3 lts/100 at its worst.
Sports mode manual 5th gear.
Tail wind certainly helped you.

RossPat wrote: ↑Mon Oct 09, 2023 11:04 am Not very good.
I tow a 2.5ton full sized van at 100 (104 on speedo) and return 15.3 lts/100 at its worst.
Sports mode manual 5th gear.
Tail wind certainly helped you.

I agree, that tail wind certainly assisted us big time but I'm happy with any fuel economy under 15l/100k, most Rangers towing any size trailer seem to be in the 17-20l/100k zone.

Hi Boyide,

I just joined up onto this forum just now a couple minutes ago, so this is the very first post I have read and would like to respond to. I think you got very good fuel economy / consumption of only 11L/100km on your 14,000 trip while towing your 2.3 tonne off-road camper-trailer.

I would like to ask you about the tyre pressures you set on your vehicle. I have the exact same 285/70R17  BFG KO-2 factory-fitted tyres on my new next-gen Raptor that you are also using. My owners manual says that with a heavy load, the maximum pressures on both the front and rear tyres should not exceed 40psi, but you have pumped up your tyres to a very high 48 fronts, 50 rears at cold temp. 

This seems to be a very excessively high pressure, so why do you want to have your pressures so much higher than what they should be according to my owners manual? What does your owners manual or the sticker on your door jamb say to have you psi set to under a heavy load? I think you are wearing out the tread on your tyres very rapidly. What mileage do you get out of your BFG KO-2's.

Also can I ask you, have you used Forscan to do any mods and if so, what have you changed? What would you recommend I modify on my new Raptor?

Thanks very much.

- Darren

Darren777 wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 10:44 am Hi Boyide,

I just joined up onto this forum just now a couple minutes ago, so this is the very first post I have read and would like to respond to. I think you got very good fuel economy / consumption of only 11L/100km on your 14,000 trip while towing your 2.3 tonne off-road camper-trailer.

I would like to ask you about the tyre pressures you set on your vehicle. I have the exact same 285/70R17  BFG KO-2 factory-fitted tyres on my new next-gen Raptor that you are also using. My owners manual says that with a heavy load, the maximum pressures on both the front and rear tyres should not exceed 40psi, but you have pumped up your tyres to a very high 48 fronts, 50 rears at cold temp. 

This seems to be a very excessively high pressure, so why do you want to have your pressures so much higher than what they should be according to my owners manual? What does your owners manual or the sticker on your door jamb say to have you psi set to under a heavy load? I think you are wearing out the tread on your tyres very rapidly. What mileage do you get out of your BFG KO-2's.

Also can I ask you, have you used Forscan to do any mods and if so, what have you changed? What would you recommend I modify on my new Raptor?

Thanks very much.

- Darren

Okay.
The tyres are stamped that they must not exceed cold 80 psi and 50 is well below that and the higher the tyre pressure the lower the rolling force is required so the less energy the motor is required to turn them, the downside is the higher the tyre pressure the harsher the ride.

On bitumen I run 48 fronts, 50 rears, on soft sand say on the Simpson, Fraser Island and the CSR I drop down to 14 fronts, 16 rears, on "graded" dirt tracks like the Tanami Track I set them on 24 and 36 - I dont think any two Rangers are idential. I had the GVM on my Wildtrak increased from 3200kg to 3500kg from new, the 17" rims while added to the tyre plaque doesnt list a tyre pressure.

Yes, I have an Ultrascan, igt monitors the selected gear, RPM, Engine Coolant temperature, ATF Temperature, Voltage and Boost , I also have a Redarc gauge thet also indicates boost Oil Pressure and Exhaust Gas Temperature

I hope this helps you