Ep205 - How Fuel Prices Are Changing Camping

Join the conversation over on our Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/snowys

Head to snowys.com.au for all your gear needs:
https://www.snowys.com.au

Transcript

Ben 0:13

I'm pulling it in. Um, if you haven't already done so, you can you can subscribe to us via YouTube, your favourite podcast app, and join in in the conversation and the Snowy's Camping Banter Facebook group. Uh I'm joined by Lauren today, who's on a bit of a um science lesson today, trying to work out what that stuff is coming out the top of our hot drink. Is it molecule? Is it what is it? What is that stuff? No, I was like vapor.

Lauren 0:41

What? It's vapor, it's vapor, right? Obviously, because it's steam, but then the steam is quite granular looking. And if you look really hard, you're like, oh, look, there's actually little individual bits. Is that water? And you were like, it's vapor, it's vapor. And I was like, Yeah, but I know, I understand it's not it's not a solid and it's not a liquid, but is that actually water in those grains? I don't know. Do you know what I mean? I'm just like, what are the little grains that I can see in the steam out of my cup?

Ben 1:10

It's vapor. And then Lyra literally sat there for a minute just staring into what looked like open space.

Lauren 1:19

But it's really, it is cool. It's cool. It's just as maybe it's because of the podcast studio and the lighting we have above. Like when you're looking at it, it's like really yeah, it's just it's cool.

Ben 1:31

Anyway, it is a bit of a segue into today's episode talking about vapor because we're talking about fuel economy. Yeah. Um, if you put fuel out, it turns into vapor.

Lauren 1:42

Yeah. Like as in inside a combustion chamber. Is that what you're talking about?

Ben 1:49

Oh, well, it just evaporates. Oh. Turns into vapor, fuel vapor. Okay. I don't know if you'd see that if you just held it up though.

Lauren 1:58

You can kind of see like Yeah, well, you know, you know the shimmer of um the shim, like the shimmery thing you get on the road when it's really hot. You get that same sort of mirage-y effect, right? With the vapor on fuel.

Ben 2:13

So you know about fuel vapor, but you don't know what's coming out of your hot vapor.

Lauren 2:16

Yeah, but what is fuel vapor?

Ben 2:18

It's vapor.

Lauren 2:22

Can somebody who is intelligent and science-y please describe what vapor is?

Ben 2:29

We might put a short link or something if you want to skip the rubbish at the start of this episode. Just go straight to five minutes, something. Um, anyway, today we are talking about fuel economy, a quiet topical at the moment because uh fuel prices uh I think reached in Victoria somewhere over three dollars for diesel. I'm pretty sure. Possibly, I'm not sure. Actually, I don't know if that was diesel or just.

Lauren 2:52

It got well, it got to over three dollars in Adelaide.

Ben 2:55

For regular fuel?

Lauren 2:57

No, diesel. Diesel did, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know where. Sorry, I don't know what regular fuel.

Ben 3:00

Anyway, it got super expensive uh thanks to the whole um Strait of Humus issue. Not going to get political in this episode. Uh fuels expensive, Lauren.

Lauren 3:12

No, it was that we was that pointed to me.

Ben 3:15

No, it wasn't. Well, a little bit. I know you might say some things, but we're not, we just don't want to turn into a big political discussion because that's not what we're here for. We're here to talk about uh fuel economy. I understand. Um because it's expensive um to go just to drive to somewhere now. It always has been expensive. But if I think I wrote some stats, I did it the other day, and I can't remember where I've written it. But uh percentage-wise, like it I think I was paying $1.70 something for fuel for diesel, my my um patrol. I filled up yesterday at a cheaper price at $2.09. Um, and it was $2.70 or $2.80 or something. So that's you know, we're getting close to double the price. So a camping trip suddenly just for fuel, which is a significant cost, is suddenly 40, 50%, or no, sorry, more than that, 60, 70% at least more expensive.

Lauren 4:08

Definitely. And I think the other thing is also um that not just for people who are traveling, but if you live in regional areas, like you're already paying more for fuel than people in mate, like, you know, built up urban areas.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Yeah.

Lauren 4:26

Like, not let's not talk about supply even, because you know, supposedly that's all gonna be fine again at some point. Um but the cost is never gonna go back to what it was. It will it will stay. And I think the we were talking about the fuel excise before, right? And how you know that's sort of the cost the price of fuel's gone down a bit with that, the cuts to the fuel excise or whatever. But like I said to you before, and not getting political really, but it's like someone's still paying for that. So, you know, like we we pay for it in other ways, it just not at the pump, right? Yeah, but it's like that's not gonna last forever.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Yeah.

Lauren 5:08

So, you know, I just think we can all accept that it's not gonna be going back to the way that it was. I think so.

Ben 5:15

So I think now, given where fuel is now, there's a government rebate and those sort of things in there. But I think if you did a few a trip now, you'd be paying about 20% more at least in fuel than you were same trip last year, same time last year, at least.

Lauren 5:28

And then you also have, I know like the the the peak of it, I guess, all came about just before Easter, right? Is that that's correct, right? Just before that Easter weekend? Because because there was all that stuff in the news everywhere about caravan parks and everywhere having all these cancellations and being essentially desolate because everybody or a lot of people cancelled their Easter plans purely because they couldn't afford to go.

Ben 5:53

Yeah. Um, petrol prices are probably back to where they were, but whether it's going to stay there or not, I don't know. There's a big uptake of electric vehicles, um, which I think is probably good for close-to-home trips, but I know there's we're not quite there with electric vehicles from my research with outback touring. Oh, totally, yeah. Um, just the the charging um infrastructure, the range of the vehicles um isn't quite there yet for uh what we need for for long distance touring. Um so the redu reducing the cost of what you spend fuel in your in your vehicle is kind of what what a lot of people are falling back to. How am I gonna just reduce the cost of what I I have to spend in my vehicle? Which is what we are gonna discuss today. Our ideas on how we think you can reduce the cost of um your fuel bill on any trip. And it does come down to weight and everything you strap on a car. So we'll start off with weight. That is the biggest factor because weight is a really easy one that we can just load stuff up, especially if we've got the space, we fill it, throw roof racks on the car, we just carry more and more and more. We're asking that engine to lug more and more stuff all the time, and that's just increasing fuel usage. So really stopping to think about what you're packing and not taking too many just in case items, especially the heavy things. I take take what you need. Sorry, I just tapped my microphone there. Um I like to apply a and I think we've really talked about this before, and I I was probably doing a lot of this before the whole fuel thing anyway, and trying to always trying to reduce my fuel bill and being efficient. Um items that have dual purposes, so don't take um I've always got a good example for hiking, but not so much camping, I suppose. But um like a if you've got a long-handled shovel strapped to the roof for recovery, you probably don't need to take a second shovel or a smaller shovel to dig your camp toilet or prod your fire. Like just use the one shovel for everything. People may or already do that. That's probably not a a good example. Um, I find a a campfire prod or a camp oven lid lifter is actually an item that has multiple uses. Yeah. I can um I can use that to to move logs around the fire and lift the lid off my camp oven and also use it on a gas stove. If the billy handle's hot, you can use it to lift off of that. It's one item that does a lot of things. Um, I'd love to hear other people's ideas. I couldn't think of any really quickly when I was putting these notes together, but I'd love to hear other people's ideas of what do you take, one item that does multiple jobs. So you don't have to take three things, you can take one that does all of those three things.

Lauren 8:49

I think some of the other ideas, like um, is is you know, you might be somebody who takes a camp kitchen with you, but instead you could just take a table and just make do with that table. And that might mean that, you know, you might take a tub with you that has your kitchen stuff, and maybe at the end of the day, you can pack your stove up and chuck it in the tub, and then you've got a table that you can use for games like or or eat reading, or I don't know. But I I think it's just one of those things where I feel like the landscape of chain camping has already started to change a little bit. Um, and I feel like we just we're starting to see more and more people come in with mid-range sort of SUV or wagon type vehicles um coming into store than we do four-wheel drives. I mean, obviously, you're always gonna have four wheel drives. It's full driving, right? So um, but like I had there was somebody in the car park the other day that had like an older um, like an all-wheel drive Volvo station wagon, and that was sort of kitted out. We're seeing the um, you know, the older model foresters, their all-wheel drives, like some ones like just lots of people really getting out and about in those smaller, more economical cars.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

Yep.

Lauren 10:10

And I think like I have a my car is certainly not a camping car, right? It's just a golf wagon and it's for around the city. Because I used to have the little hatchback, and then I decided to upgrade to the wagon version because you just fit a little bit more stuff, dog sport, you know, all that day-to-day living. And I often think to myself, man, like if only I'd opted for a dual cabo or I'd opted for something else that just a little bit more versatility for that vehicle. But now I'm loving it because, for example, you know, if I want to go and visit my sister who's a two and a half hour drive away or a two-hour drive away, it's literally like a maybe a quarter of a tank of fuel for me to get all the way out to the York Peninsula and back, and that's in my little diesel because my fuel economy is amazing. And it's like the same if I want to go and visit a friend in the Riverland, but then there's obviously a lot of limitations to that. If it was just me, not so much limitations because I can fit everything I need in that car just for one person, but it's family type stuff. That's I think where people might be getting stuck and and why there we're seeing like a lot of cancellations in caravan parks and people taking those sort of family trips.

Ben 11:32

Do you know what your uh usage per hundred litres is in that car? Because it's it's a smaller wagon, I suppose, isn't it? Your Volvo, yeah.

Lauren 11:43

Yeah, um it's a golf, Volkswagen Golf. Yeah, yeah.

Ben 11:46

So that is um it's the wagon, not the hatch, it's the wagon version, it's got a bit of extra.

Lauren 11:50

Yeah, yeah. It's uh if I'm sort of doing my day today around the city, it's around about five point, anywhere between five point four to five point seven. But if I've got a hundred kilometres. Yeah, but if I'm out on the road, like for example, driving up to my sister's house, it's like 4.8.

Ben 12:10

It's crazy.

Lauren 12:11

So it's unbelievably economical. And so that's why I think that we're going to see a lot more people making decisions about their vehicles because it's not realistic to have just a dedicated camping vehicle. And I know lots of people do, but the overwhelming majority of people will camp out of their daily drivers. And so I think we're starting to, I think we'll start to see more and more of a shift into how people can do that and therefore what gear is going to facilitate that more.

Ben 12:48

We'll touch on it a little bit later in the episode, but it really comes down to aerodynamics uh and and weight. I mean, my patrol, I it uses less than, but I usually calculate for 15 litres per 100 kilometres. Holy moly. So that's nearly three times what what you're using. And we'll touch on aerodynamics and stuff a little bit later. And uh, and this isn't my research, uh not first hand research. This is me just reading articles and being part of forums and sort of getting approximate figures and stuff on fuel increases and that sort of thing throughout this episode. But um, you know, you start to do the calculations when we're talking, you know, 10% increase, 20% increase. If you're adding that to your car versus a patrol, the difference it can make in the amount of fuel that you use can be quite significant because the patrol is not that aerodynamic, it's boxy. It's uh it's a 2011 patrol, so it's not the latest aerodynamic sort of body shape. Your golf is more streamlined, 100% moves easier once you you're out in the opiate, it's just is there's less wind resistance.

Lauren 13:52

I don't have roof racks, you know, it's low to the ground, like yeah.

Ben 13:56

Yeah, and we touched on all of that shortly as well. Gear on the roof is another big one, but um, back to weight, um choosing lighter, more compact gear, which is really relevant. So the SUV, yeah, more aerodynamic, travel smoother, more comfortable ride, less fuel. I'm often sitting in my patrol, I love it, right? But I'm driving along and it's bumpy and it's loud, and I'm thinking I could be in like a uh a RAV 4 or a Hyundai Tucson or something, which I've driven before, and they're really nice and quiet and smooth, and I've got all drive, and I probably get to 60, 70, 80 percent of the places I would want to go to. Yeah. Um, not full four-wheel drive, but probably still get to most of those places with some upgraded tyres and use less fuel. And I often think, what am I doing? Why am I driving this?

Lauren 14:39

Yeah.

Ben 14:40

Um, but to fit into those cars, you do need I'd need to change some of the stuff I take. Like I probably wouldn't want to strap an R V5 on top of your golf. No way, yeah. You could. Yeah, absolutely could destroy things. So you've got to think about the camping gear you're taking. There is a lot more options now for far more compact camping gear in the likes of Helenox chairs uh and that type of chair that isn't like what we're sitting in now. These are probably four to six kilos, these chairs that we're sitting in now, and they pack up big. Yeah, you could fit probably three to four Helenox chairs in the volume and weight of one of these.

Lauren 15:15

100%, probably even five, depending on the models you choose. And a table. And I think it's one of those things though, talking about Helenox, like that it comes at a price though, and that's the thing that I'm I'm interested because lots, sorry, my brain's jumping around a bit here, but often we sort of get asked, or lots of people ask in the community, oh, you know, where do you think the future of camping's going or whatever? And I think about I think the future of camping is going to be what we're seeing from Helen Ox, but more accessible and affordable to the out to the average person.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Yeah.

Lauren 15:54

Because, you know, it can't, it, it, I don't think it's sustainable for that sort of like Helenox is amazing. It is top-notch. I've got cheaper versions and rip-off versions, and I've also got Helenox versions, and you literally can't fault it. Like it's it is that price for a reason. But I just think we're gonna be starting to see a lot of brands doing more Me Too products of the Helenox gear for this exact reason, which will be good because it'll make it more accessible.

Ben 16:23

But have a think about if you think about it holistically, so I'm getting over a bit of a cold at the moment.

Lauren 16:28

No, that's right.

Ben 16:29

Um, let's say Helenox chair costs $50 to $100 more per chair. You buy two chairs, you spend an extra $100 to $150. It costs me over $200 to fill up my tank. Yeah, yeah, that is true. If I'm doing multiple trips and I and I I get eight, $800 to $800 Ks out of that's that tank. A significantly long trip or multiple trips, I'm gonna have saved that money easily by if I had a smaller car that probably not quite the efficiency you're getting, but even if it dropped down to below 10 litres per 100 Ks, you'd be laughing and saving money. So, so yeah, I think if you're setting up your cam kit, think about it holistically with the fuel costs as well. And that initial cost in you it's it's like the payback thing with solar, right? It's gonna pay itself back over time because you've you've taken up less weight in your car, you've been able to use a smaller car, you haven't strapped it on the outside of your car. Yeah, it's all gonna save in what what do they say?

Lauren 17:32

You've got to spend money to save money.

Ben 17:34

Yeah, that's it.

Lauren 17:34

Yeah, yeah.

Ben 17:35

Yeah, yeah, that's actually a really good idea. Here we are working for uh, you know, we're in snowies in in retail, so you've got to spend money to make money. Sounds a bit hypocritical, but um no, it's it's uh on it, it's not not just trying to make you buy expensive gear. This is our honesty.

Lauren 17:49

But it's definitely it's definitely a valid point. And it's I guess it's the same as saying, like, you know, you if you get stuff that maybe that whole sort of you get what you pay for thing, if you're replacing a chair or you're replacing some gear a few times in a five, six-year period, how much you're really spending versus if you've got that one piece of gear that's going to last you 10 years.

Ben 18:14

Yeah, same theory. If you do want to get the bulky stuff, a bigger table, a bigger chair, have a look at aluminium frames over steel frames, because that can trim weight. You might you might cut it back back a kilo per chair, but that's four kilos for four chairs um plus a kilo for the table, and it all it all adds up. If you think about that across your whole camp kit, it all adds up. Definitely. Um, water is heavy. Now, I don't want to go and say don't take enough water because if there's one thing that you don't want to run out, if you're remote, yeah, it's water. So you need to have a think about having enough to make sure you can safely get to where you're going. But don't take like 10 times more than you need if you can fill up when you get there. If there's fill ports and that sort of thing. Your caravan, um, do you need to fill all your tanks up from the get-go? Or can you just put enough in for one night and then fill up when you get to somewhere? If you're going really remote, you don't know if you're going to get water, yeah, you need to fill up then. But if you're just on a black top and there's plenty of places along the way that you can fill up, then make sure you're allowed to fill up as well. Yeah. Um but just have a think about how much you're carting from that moment you drive out of your driveway. Do you need to be carrying all of that then and there?

Lauren 19:25

Yeah, that's a really good point.

Ben 19:28

Um so that's weight, that's the total weight of the vehicle. But on top of that, there is uh the aerodynamics of the car and gear on the roof. Um now the uh so I've read articles. Uh so if you put stuff on the roof, right? Awning, rooftop tent, tying swags up there or whatever, you're impacting the aerodynamics of the car. You're you're increasing the the wind drag of the car. Now, in various places that I've read, so this isn't tested data, but uh fuel consumption just by uh having a with just with a roof rack, 10 to 25 percent increase in fuel consumption just by having the roof rack with nothing on it. And I do think I've also read, once again, not tested, but I have also read that cars like yours, where it is aerodynamic, the actual impact of a roof rack is more on an aerodynamic car than it is a patrol like mine that's already not overly aerodynamic. That would make sense because it has more impact on uh has a larger impact on an already an efficient system. Yeah. Whereas a a roof rack on a slightly less efficient system has has less impact on it, if that makes sense.

Lauren 20:39

But and and I mean, I guess the other element to that is that your car, which already is an aerodynamic, you're already budgeting for a ridiculous amount of fuel, right? Whereas someone like me, I'm not budgeting for a ridiculous amount of fuel. Like legitimately, I I think to fill up my tank now, it's like 120. It used to be about 7580. Um, so you know, that's gone up like 50% or whatever. But to fill up my car now on average would be anywhere between 100 and 120. And I do that once a month.

Ben 21:15

Yep. Wow.

Lauren 21:16

Whereas if I was going to, and that that's sort of what I budget for, right? Um maybe a little bit more than that if I've got a if I'm planning to go on a road trip, whatever. But for me to then put roof racks on, you know, whereas if you put roof racks on, the a bit of the extra money you would need to pull out of your budget to fuel for that.

Ben 21:38

It's more manageable.

Lauren 21:39

More manageable than it would be for someone like me.

Ben 21:42

Yeah.

Lauren 21:42

So yeah, that's a really good point.

Ben 21:45

So on top of um obviously impacting the handling of the car, more weight up on the top, lugging more weight around, the aerodynamics are obviously significantly impacted. So having that weight low. And having less weight is gonna help. So you haven't got all that weight on the top. Move it all if you can inside the car. Can you pack more in the car, inside that aerodrome aerodynamic space, and lessen the weight of that? A lot of questions around this because roof racks are pretty handy. It's pretty easy to chuck stuff up there, tie it all down. Not sure if I need it. I'll just chuck it on the roof rack and tie it down. All impacting your fuel economy. If you're okay with that, then strap as much as you want up there. Try and do it within the weight limits. But be wary, your car's gonna handle differently. You're gonna spend more on fuel. Um, rooftop tents, are great. Not saying don't get a rooftop tent. You need to know that you're putting, I've said 50 plus kilos. I mean, we've got rooftop tents that are from 34 kilos up to 110, 110 probably kilos. That's a fair bit of weight to throw on top of your vehicle. Um, plus the wind drag, all the air going between all the gaps and that sort of thing. You've you've impacted the wind drag. Um so it's a lot of extra cost, wind drag, weight to sleep two people. There are other options that you could throw in the mix. And if we go down the path of comparing, let's just use a RAT4, for example, quite aerodynamic make. You throw roof racks and a rooftop tent on top of that, you're probably going to impact the fuel economy of that twofold, threefold, probably, because it's already an aerodynamic uh sort of vehicle. You could opt for a lighter weight tent, but um Zenpai is a really good uh example here. Uh shapeshifter or their aerospeed uh uh tents, you can get a 10 speed a 10 person aerospeed tent that packs up small like this for is it I think 14-15 kilos? Yeah. As opposed to 50. Yeah and you actually get more living space in that. Now you do also need to throw um airbeds or like mattresses and that sort of thing in in on top of that, but it's still gonna be less than the weight of the rooftop tent, and you're not impacting the drag of the vehicle. So I'm not saying don't get a rooftop tent, but I'm saying if you're serious about reducing fuel costs, then what's on top of your vehicle is gonna throw that or increase that significantly.

Lauren 24:06

Also, I I reckon if you had like a small trailer, that would be significantly more economical than trucking on your roof, wouldn't it?

Ben 24:16

So I have said towing or roof rack in in our next section. So obviously you haven't read the show notes. Sorry.

Lauren 24:22

I didn't realise I had to flip the page.

Ben 24:25

Um, so yeah, I have covered off a little bit on whether you tow or or do a roof rack and I got a few figures around that as well. Oh nice. Um awning as well. Have a real I I've I've taken my awning off, I've put it back on. Uh when it was off, I didn't need it. I put it back on when I did need it for one trip, and then I haven't used it since, and that was a few years ago. Do I need the awning on the car? Probably not. It's I'm probably easy just to put it on on the occasional trip that I do need it. It's a really good point. Even when I did take it, I only used it for one night. And I took it because I thought, oh, it's gonna be rainy. I need a bit of extra shelter. Better put the awning on. And I used it for one night.

Lauren 25:03

Oh, it's maybe if you've got an awning on your car, actually sit down and count the amount of days a year that you would actually use it.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Yeah.

Lauren 25:11

And if you don't use it that often, if you're not using it once a week, consider something like Rax Bracks. So you can take it on and you can just easily go click on, click off.

Ben 25:21

Yeah, the same thing can be said for the rooftop tent. Have a think about if you're not sure if you want to buy it, you want to put it on and off, have a think of a lighter weight tent. Um, we've covered off before on um beating our microphones up today, haven't we?

Lauren 25:32

I know Larry uh has put our microphones in a different position and they're just getting smashed.

Ben 25:36

So um lighter weight tents from uh 20 through zero have got a lot of um, but in spite overland I've got 30, 40 kilotents, easier to take on and off um when you don't need it for the trip. Um, so have a real think about that stuff on top, how much you're actually using it, how much it's contributing to your fuel bill. And if you're serious about getting it down, then you need to weigh up which of those is the most beneficial for you. Yeah, towing or a roof rack. This is an interesting one. Um I think you could debate on whether the gear on the roof uses more fuel than towing. I don't have any solid data for it. Once again, I've just read Forum's trustworthy articles, kind of got my own take on it, I suppose, uh, and talking about it here. Um I've read in once again various articles and things that towing can increase fuel consumption by 20 to 50 percent. Interesting. So 10 to 25 for the roof, 20 to 50 for towing. Um I think we can probably say they both increase fuel economy by roughly the same. It's gonna be very much varied depending on what you're towing. If it's a massive caravan that sits higher than your vehicle, it's probably gonna be closer to that 50% category. If it's a little box trailer, probably not so much. It's probably not gonna be an issue. So, in that instance, yeah, it may be better to actually tow us like you to your question before, it may be better to tow a small box trailer. Yeah, throw your gear in there, get it off the roof. Um and the benefit of that is you can leave the trailer at the campsite and you've got your car free of stuff to drive around when you're there as well. So have a think about that. Um, trailer, you you are carting more weight, though. So there is more strain on the vehicle. So we talked about reducing weight. Now we've gone through a trailer on the back and we go, we just chuck it all in the trailer, that's fine. Your car's still towing that weight. Trailer, unladen trailer, 200 kilos for maybe a small box trailer, up to 2,000 kilos plus for a big caravan. So yeah, that's that's a lot of extra weight. And you with that's a lot more than a rooftop tent on the top of your car towing a 2,000 kilo trailer, uh like a caravan. So yeah, uh, but you've got the convenience of it. So, you know, you you've got to weigh all these things up. So um towing also adds aerodynamic drag. So you've added the weight and you've added aerodynamic drag. So there's uh depending on the shape of your trailer, they're made to be as efficient as they can, but you've got a lot of air swirling around and a lot more um resistance of wind against your vehicle, so it's going to increase the drag. Once again, varying on the type of trailer that you're cutting. So that's you've you've now got weight and aerodynamic drag contributing to fuel costs if you are towing. Um I think I put this point in the wrong spot. I said roof rack is limited to about 100 kilos. If you follow the rules, I think that was just me referring to bearing in mind how much weight you put in certain places. But if I I think I might have put it here because um if you've got more than 200 kilos, more than 100 kilos, you probably need to put it in a trailer. So there's there's this whole toss up here about what am I going to do to get the most out of my fuel economy. But once again, it comes back to if you're really serious about reducing your fuel economy, you probably don't want stuff on the roof, you probably don't want a tow. You need to try and get a kit that fits in the back of your car. That's not easy easily easier said than done to fit an entire camping kit, especially if it's for a family in the back of a Hyundai Tucson or a RAV 4. But that's probably what you need to do to reduce that fuel cost. Can be done, but higher initial costs with all the compact stuff to reduce fuel costs over time. Uh slightly different camping, so you don't have these big chairs that you can just kind of lay back in like this. They're they're a bit more comp, they're still comfortable, they're just a bit more compact. So, yeah, towing has us benefits, but still got to increase uh fuel economy. Yeah. Um probably safer in many ways to pull the weight off the top of your car to go into uh towing a trailer. That's another another another conversation, yeah. Caravan sort of touched on that just then. Obviously, bigger the caravan, the more aerodynamic. Um uh sorry, what uh what is the word?

Lauren 29:53

Um you mean the bigger the caravan, the less aerodynamic?

Ben 29:57

Yeah, aerodynamic drag is is the word always going down the right path. Okay. Um I've heard uh that you've got those toolboxes and things that go in the front of a caravan too, that can just throw out the whole aerodynamics. So once again, it's that whole mindset of like, oh, just put this here, I can chuck, I can strap it on here, I can put it on there, I can fit heaps of stuff on. All of that's contributing to weight and aerodynamic drain.

Lauren 30:20

I did do an episode with Kev early like early, early on, season one, maybe season two, around packing your caravan, like how to pack it for safe and efficient towing.

Ben 30:34

Yeah.

Lauren 30:34

So it might be worth looking at that.

Ben 30:36

Yeah, a caravan, once again, is a big space that you can think, I'll just chuck it in the caravan, just chuck it in the caravan. It's all adding to the weight that your vehicle is trying to haul and it's going to increase your fuel economy, uh, increase your um uh your fuel economy or efficiency, however you want to look at it.

Lauren 30:55

Yeah.

Ben 30:56

Uh, and obviously the size of the caravan there is some massive caravans out here. But if you've got a little um RAV4, or if you decide to tow a caravan in your vehicle and you get a massive caravan out the back that sits up way higher than the vehicle, you're now towing an extra 500, 1,000, whatever kilos that your vehicle allows it to tow. Yeah. Plus, you've got all of that drag sitting up above your vehicle already. So your five litres per 100k is probably suddenly going to increase significantly.

Lauren 31:27

You definitely the also the other consideration is if your vehicle's not matched to what you're towing, you're gonna have additional costs, aren't you? Like, you know, your tires and your engine and your service, like everything. If your car's just working way harder than it's designed to work, yeah, you are you're asking for trouble.

Ben 31:47

Yep. Um, the last one I've got here refers to the vehicle itself. Um doing all of these things just benefits the vehicle uh uh economy uh and also the stress on your vehicle, so the longer term costs as well, which you just touched on them. Um obvious things are like servicing at regular intervals, making your car making sure your car's running efficiency, yes, uh efficiently, yeah, is going to help with fuel economy. So block blocked air filters, uh fuel system um filters that need replacing, all of that impacts the efficiency of your vehicle. And I know we're probably talking to people who go, Yeah, of course, I know that. I'm hoping we're talking to a heap of people who go, okay, aren't aware of that too. Yeah. Uh so some of these will be obvious to many. Um, but a good service um efficiently running car is going to equal less uh fuel costs over a long, a long distance, a lot of driving. Tires, we all love big, chunky and mud tires on our cars, they look great. Bigger tires, they increase rolling resistance. Um, the heavier they're adding the weight to your car, they equal more weight.

Lauren 32:59

So if you're doing a whole lot of highway kilometers, weigh up the importance of how your car looks versus yeah, and they do it, and and it's not even just the weight, they just don't drive efficiently on on the blacktop, do they?

Ben 33:18

Noisy, they wear out quicker. So mud tyres, unless you're spending a lot of time in the mud, are there to look cool.

Lauren 33:25

Um having said that, having said that though, there are quite a lot of two-wheel drive vehicles that you could probably get away with taking them to places that they're not designed to go if you just get some better tires.

Ben 33:41

Bigger tires, yeah, a bit of clearance and stuff. I mean, that's just a forward drive.

Lauren 33:46

But I mean, do you know what I mean? It sort of works in both ways. So it's like you could potentially save yourself some money because you don't actually need a full-wheel drive.

Ben 33:55

I see where you're going.

Lauren 33:56

That's sort of what I'm saying. It's like if you've got a full drive, great, you're already pumping out heaps of fuel. Do you need the massive tires that make that worse? How often are you actually full driving and doing what you need to require those tires? That's one thing. The second thing is if you want fuel economy and you don't want to have to power a massive big four-wheel drive, you can actually do a lot of things in a two-wheel drive that you could do in a four-wheel drive with some up spec tires.

Ben 34:27

That's a good point. And it doesn't have to be mud tie, like we're talking all-terrain tyres. So um a lot of the outback tracks, um, if you've got a if you've got a sprinter, right? Or you or you have or had had a sprinter that would normally have like highway tires for running around the city, but you put some good all-terrain tyres on that, yeah. You can do Udnodata track and streslecky track and most of those things pretty comfortably with upgraded suspension and tyres.

Lauren 34:55

Um well, you know, Michael, who works here, he has an eye load. Yeah. He's done the Simpson Desert in his eye load.

Ben 35:04

Yeah, right now. Okay.

Lauren 35:05

And he's done the Udnadata track in his eye load. Yeah. So, you know, there's you don't have to have a massive big four-wheel drive.

Ben 35:13

No, it could be more comfortable if you put certain tires and suspension on, but you don't have to. And you you will need to drive or tackle things accordingly. You can't just go and tackle a sand dune like a four-wheel drive did in the same manner in a two-wheel drive. Um, you need to have a think about whether there's an alternative better.

Lauren 35:34

And I've actually seen videos of him just like full sending his ILOad in a convoy with his other full drive mates. At no problems. I was like, man, eye loads, okay, it's a hidden gem.

Ben 35:46

I do think that we are a little obsessed with the need for a big kitted out full drive with all the bells and whistles in order to get to most places that we we can around this country.

Lauren 36:00

Yeah.

Ben 36:01

Um, so really have a think about your tire types. And you know what? You could always, if you don't want to upgrade your vehicle, you could always have two sets of tires. Put your muddies or your on if you if you want to do a bit of mud driving on a weekend, just get a set of muddies on and some sun razor rims, put them on for when you want to do that, and then put your your highway tires on after you've got to store them. But look, it it maybe in the long run, if you're doing a good option. Enough uh highway Ks, the benefit might pay off in the long run. Uh tire sizes, I mentioned, larger tires, uh increased rolling resistance, they look cool, a bit of extra clearance for four-wheel drive. So then you've got to weigh up do I want that technical ability, or am I doing so many highway Ks that that technical ability is the bit that I'm gonna sacrifice on in order to make my highway kilometers more efficient and more comfortable? Tyre pressures, just be all over your tire pressures. Yeah. Probably one of the simplest things you can do while you're out there is adjust your tire pressures according to the road. So stick with your highway pressures when you're on the highway, adjust a little bit if you're towing, speak to your tyre when you get your tires replaced, speak to the people at the tire place, say what should I be running it at? Play with some different uh pressures if you like, stick to those pressures, drop them on uh dirt roads. Um, even a a higher higher pressure on a highway is gonna give you more efficiency. Questionable whether that does that on a dirt road. Firstly, it's gonna increase the risk of like sidewall punctures and that sort of thing. But if you're bumping around a whole lot more, you work the vehicle's working harder trying to get traction. You let them down a little bit, it just rolls a bit smoother over uh over the surfaces. So lesser pressure on a dirt road and a smoother drive might actually make you drive more smoothly and save fuel as well. So understand your tie pressures. Now these are obvious ones, right? Slow down.

Lauren 37:52

It's hard though, right? I like driving.

Ben 37:55

It's not if you just so accelerate if you push the accelerator down, it goes faster. If you take your foot up, it slows down.

Lauren 38:01

I know. I like to have a nice, fast cruising speed, personally, but also it is a really good point because you know, sitting at 80 versus 100, your fuel economy is drastically different. You just have to account for the additional time.

Ben 38:19

Yeah. If you're not in a rush, I guess if you're in a rush, it's different. But I know like 90 to 100 is a pretty comfortable speed for the patrol. Um, if I've got a tailwind, I can push it up over 100. But I kind of get to that point where you kind of feel like I'm pushing the vehicle here versus I'm just cruising along. Yeah, I understand what you mean. Just that I'm just cruising along once you get to know your vehicle is is a nice space to be. You can get in behind a truck, maybe just be comfortable driving behind a truck, sit in the slipstream, yeah, just back a little bit so you've got it safe and just do it safely. You're gonna save a heap of fuel. I don't like driving behind trucks, don't get me wrong. I like to have open space behind me, but at night it's safe because they're clearing the road in front of you. Yeah, definitely. Uh, smooth driving too is a big one, like flat out off the lights, around the city, um, hard braking all contributes to fuel, uh, extra fuel usage, uh, just rolling up to the lights, smooth acceleration, smooth braking, all of those things all contribute to a little bit more secure economy.

Lauren 39:22

Um, I remember my grandfather saying to me once, like when I first got my first car with a diesel, drive with your big toe. Oh, yeah. That's what he said. He said, You don't need, don't drive with your whole foot. Oh, you don't drive. You're in a diesel. Just drive with your big toe.

Ben 39:37

Yeah, okay.

Lauren 39:38

And I was like, what do you mean? And then it makes sense because at the lights, you just drive with your big toe. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's like that's how you should drive a diesel.

Ben 39:47

Yeah.

Lauren 39:48

I was like, wow, that's actually and I've actually applied that my whole life, and it's slow and great for economy, right?

Ben 39:54

I had to uh duck out quickly from the petrol station last night because it's just cars just didn't stop and I had a gap and I explored it. And then I looked in the rearview mirror and there's just all this smoke. And my car's running efficiently, but just because I had that quick acceleration trying to make it go fast, it just dumps just panic too much, and and it's and it's it's not an efficient way to drive. Whereas yeah, slow off the mark is so much more efficient. Uh I I did read something about RPM, which I thought was interesting, being on top of your the the RPM of your vehicle. Now I know I reckon my car sits comfortably around that sort of 1800 to 1900, or maybe up to 2000 RPM. If I'm pushing up over 2000 RPM, that's when I feel like I'm trying to push, push the accelerator to keep the vehicle there. Um, but yeah, maybe just uh if you've got a a taco in your car, just understand where that sits, what where a comfortable space is. Yeah. Diesel journey likes to run uh at that higher RPM once it's warm. I don't know where a petrol car is comfortable at once uh once it gets to the higher gears, but um just be wary about how much your car is revving. Because if it's revving really high, turning over more, using more fuel. So just keep an eye on that. Yeah. Um and know the vehicle's range is the last one I've got here. So if you've got uh uh like I can get about 800 Ks, maybe up to I'm say about 800 Ks out of my uh vehicle. If I'm driving somewhere, um now I guess I'll consider two things. I could fill up when I'm there, but if fuel's gonna be twice as expensive when I'm there, then I'm probably better filling up before I go, even though the fuel economy is gonna be less because I'm using more. But if I can fill up somewhere when I'm there at the same price as where I left and I only need 300 kilometres worth of fuel, it doesn't make sense to fill up 125 litres in my patrol and lug that to 200ks using more fuel on the way there. Totally agree. So just fill up what I need plus a buffer in case I've got side trips or you know, I don't have stops on the way, and fill up when you come back. So just take as much fuel as you need, and that's um keeping that total vehicle weight down. That's my take. If I was to go down a project now and think how am I going to make my vehicle more fuel efficient, yeah, that's what I'd do. I've summarised it into three things that I think people could do right now. If they've got camping trips lined up and want to spend less on fuel, first one's maintain your vehicle, get a service, make sure it's running well. Air filters and those sort of things are big ones just to uh improve uh efficiency. Pack less or tow less. Try and get it all inside the car. Yeah, have a real think about what you're putting on top. That swag on top takes up a heap of space. Can you take it apart and pack it inside the vehicle? If you've got a back scent, you're not taking kids. Like if I didn't have kids, I can fit my double swag across the back so it wouldn't go on the roof rack. If I didn't have kids, I wouldn't need a roof rack. Yeah. Um and the big one I reckon is just slow down. I'm not in a rush. Just drive a little bit slower, keep the res down a little bit in that comfortable space and enjoy the drive.

Lauren 43:02

Yeah, definitely.

Ben 43:04

That's my take, but um really just getting the conversation started because this is just my research and what I'd do. And I would love the conversation to go further about what other people do to or what hacks they've had to improve their fuel economy. I know you can go down the path of fuel additives and shipping your vehicle for better uh fuel efficiency and that sort of stuff. I'm no expert on those things. I haven't used them before, so I can't really talk to that. Um, but these are things that I actively do to try and increase my fuel efficiency, and I'd love to hear about our communities take.

Lauren 43:33

The other thing that we sort of didn't touch on at all is think about how you're also using your vehicle in your day-to-day life to account for being able to use it more for trips. Yep. So it's like, for example, even you know, we've already talked about how efficient my vehicle is, but even still in South Australia, I don't know what it's like in other places, but in South Australia, you pay $10 a month for a student for public transport. So all my kids, they just have them, their Metro cards, 10 bucks a month, 30 bucks a month. They can go anywhere they want. So instead of thinking, oh, I'm gonna always have to drive them places, if they've got the option to use public transport, use public transport. I've got the option to ride my bike to work. I'm really fortunate, it's only like eight, eight and a half Ks or something and a pretty easy ride. So I can ride my bike to work, I can ride my bike home, we can walk to the shops, take the dog, walk up to the shops with a backpack, don't necessarily have to do one massive shop a week. I've even found that I'm doing a lot more shopping online now and having it delivered because that's actually ends up saving me petrol. It it works out to be less. So working out how to be more fuel economical in your day-to-day life means that you've got room in your budget to pay for that 20% or 40% extra fuel cost when you want to go away.

Ben 44:52

Yeah.

Lauren 44:53

Um, and that that really helps.

Ben 44:55

Yeah. So that's thinking about it holistically. What do I do now to save or be able to maintain that lifestyle?

Lauren 45:02

Yeah, I'd really love to go and this is how much petrol I need. And instead of doing my normal petrol budget each week, I'll cut that in half and I'll put the extra 50 bucks or whatever into that account ready so I can pay for what I need to fuel-wise for that trip.

Ben 45:18

Cool. Let us know your thoughts, uh, your ideas, your hacks, how you save fuel, whether you think we're um totally wrong on any of these ideas here.

Lauren 45:28

I think maybe we're at a point, aren't we, where nobody's right or nobody's wrong. We're just sort of working it out, like as in where we are as a community as a whole. Like, you know, it's a relatively new space to be in, I guess.

Ben 45:41

So thanks guys for tuning in. Uh jump on the Facebook group uh or leave a comment on our YouTube uh video. Uh, keep the conversation going. Um that's it for another episode. We'll see you next time. Catch you later.