Hi Harry ..
I wish your local fuel economy could get over 15mpg.  Fortunately the
price of gas is getting lower and lower lately, though who knows how
long that will hold.
   I would hope for at least 17 in town and 20ish on the highway.

Your 16's are not overly large are they ?   I doubt it, and really big
tires can eat power and fuel .
I drove on similar to yours and I had to keep it pretty reved out to
have any power. Wonder if that's a factor.

On 11/23/2012 5:38 PM, Harry Hoffman wrote:
> Good points, Scott.
> In my particular case it's the stock trans from my 89 2.1L manual. My engine is the bostig 2L.
>   I'm running a set of 16" rims.
>
> Cheers,
>   Harry
>
> Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi you guys,
>> in order to have a useful talk about vanagon fuel economy ..
>> you have to say Which Transimission , and what engine of course.
>>
>> This is what I've found ...
>> 85 Weekender, 2.1 waterboxer engine, auto trans - an atrocious 16.5 driven nicely on the freeway, and only 14.2 in town, in the winter.
>> 85 Westy , 1.9 wbxr engine, manual trans   20.5 summertime on the highway ...driving 60 to 65 ..
>> including passing a truck downhill hitting 80 mph..  Even got 21 mpg on one leg on that trip. .  This is about the best gasoline fuel economy I've ever seen in a Vanagon ..low 20's tops, with 18 being about 'par.'
>>
>> if the air-cooled Westy has an auto trans you can expect poor mpg #'s like low 17's.
>> Even if manual trans ..
>>    I'd hardly expect to see 20mph highway very often.
>>
>> gotta say what trans too, heck even tire size, plus what engine.
>>
>>
>> On 11/23/2012 4:34 PM, Harry Hoffman wrote:
>>
>> I don't know how much this will help, since I have a bostig conversion... But I routinely get ~ 15mpg local roads and 19mpg highway miles. I've been told that I'm on the low end of fuel economy and that should be 19mpg - 21mpg. Even before I made the switch my mileage never got about 19mpg in my 2.1L water cooled. I'd love to see actual data on the 25mpg people. I hear of them but it seems more like a pipe dream to me. Cheers, Harry On 11/23/2012 07:06 PM, J B wrote:
>>
>> We just got back from our trip to San Jose. Was planning on going to a pre-Thanksgiving meet organized by VWCamperFamily which was close by but unfortunately couldn't make it - maybe next year. Anyway, I had a question as to fuel economy and what I should be getting. I have read anywhere from 18-25mpg is normal for the air-cooled campers but the best I can get is in the low 17's. This trip got 14.2 with one tank and that was mostly highway at 55-60mph, and the best only 15.5mpg. (81 air-cooled westy) Also updated my blog, please feel free to take a look http://1981vwcamper.blogspot.com/
>>
>>