I was surprised yesterday after 4 hours of trail-riding at Grey Rock ORV park north of Birmingham when I noticed I had burned over a quarter tank. I should have paid attention to the miles traveled but I didn't - couldn't have been over 10. We did easy to moderate stuff. Two unlimited Rubicons with auto trannys running AC due to heat, dust, and humidity. The other barely dropped off full tank and mine burned over a quarter.

My CJ will cruise the trails all day and not burn that much. On the Colorado trip last year the only time I ever got into my spare gas was on the interstate. I don't ever remember burning more than half a tank a day climbing over all those passes. My JK's apparent excessive fuel consumption on the trail has me concerned about future trips to CO and Moab. Has anyone had similar experience with limited off-road range?

 

I did maybe 40 miles over 2 days and burned 3/4 of a tank at trees ranch

/shrug

I figured being in 4L I'd burn alot so I wasn't surprised I guess.

I don't have a benchmark though, this is my first Jeep

 

and you didn't invite me?

I've yet to have a chance to really test out my new Rubicon Unlimited, but plan to get out to Gray Rock very soon. . . . .

 

make sure you were level when you checked this... i noticed that when going down a steep grade... my fuel will drop significantly if i have anything less than a half tank. For some reason, after leveling out, it takes a bit to correct itself... wierd...

 

Last Saturday, I did about 20 miles (8 hours) of tough off road, with much of it in 4lo and I used about 1/4 tank. Watch your RPM's and only go into lo and even hi, when absolutely needed. Also stay back a little from the person in front of you if you are in dry dusty climates as the dust will rob your engine of clean air and make it work harder.

 

I have used 1/2 a tank of gas on a 12 hour day of wheelin but it was a hell of a day and lots of deep holes.

 

I think a large part of it is driving style. There are those who greatest tool is the gas pedal, and those (like me) who avoid it if possible. Letting the Jeep idle over the trail made a huge different for my CJ. It got between 8-12 mpg on the highway! But, usually I could go two days of rock crawling on one 20+ gallon tank. However, if I had alot of fast hills (like Truckhaven), I'd go through alot more.

More gas pedal=more breakage also.

I'm hoping my JK's tank is large enough for the CO trails...

 

Well, it was hot, you ran AC, and you are surprised that quarter of a tank disappeared? Plus you don't know how many miles you put on in those 4 hours.

I usually go for 4-6hours and put on 40-50miles while wheeling in Pine Barrens, NJ and waste about 1/4 of a tank of gas. But there are some nasty mud holes there, so I've never used AC while wheeling. And wouldn't recommend running AC to anyone while going through water/mud. I've hear stories of people breaking their radiator fan fins off while going through mud/water. And when you run AC, radiator fan spins.

 

Pushing 100 degrees with 90% humidity and dusty as hell - forgive me father for I have sinned. I left the topless CJ at home and took the JK to the trail (and...... used the AC ).

If I had done 40-50 miles of hard trails I wouldn't have thought twice about burning well over a quarter tank. Grey Rock isn't that big - you could do every trail there and not come close to 50 miles - it's more of a playground for the big rigs with some easy-mod trails for the rest of us. If my old hopped up 258 CJ can run around up at Tellico all day long and burn a quarter tank - I would hope that the JK could fart around Grey Rock for a couple of hours on the same amount of gas.

BTW, the electric fan comes on when the thermostat tells it to, AC or no AC.


Lemme rephrase the question: Those of you who have taken your JK's over the mountain passes in CO or the long trails in Moab - did you ever find yourself running uncomfortably low on fuel?