Driving long distance.... any advice?

ngoni615 said:
Well when i went to Jozi i put a full tank and i got there without refilling if i am not mistaken? i normally do not put full tanks since i do not travel long distances much

How long did the drive take you
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About 4 hours, but I drove really slow at some stage because I came across some wild life on the road, missed one thingymabob by just a meter or so. I don't like driving at night anymore, used to do it without thinking twice but nowadays I almost always have the kids with me so I'm a lot more cautious.
 
ngoni615 said:
On average a little over 400km .... but i will check properly. Does fuel consumption get affected by the type of road? most of the time i do not maintain constant speed due to the different roads and stuff.
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More open road normally means more kilometers on a tank. I get around 700 to 800 km per tank in town, over 1200km per tank on the open road. How small is the tank on the cruze? Even my wife's car with a 30 liter tank get over 500km per tank. So either your car is bloody heavy on fuel, or the tank is small. Or you have a bloody heavy foot.
 
Cr4ig said:
More open road normally means more kilometers on a tank. I get around 700 to 800 km per tank in town, over 1200km per tank on the open road. How small is the tank on the cruze? Even my wife's car with a 30 liter tank get over 500km per tank. So either your car is bloody heavy on fuel, or the tank is small. Or you have a bloody heavy foot.
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Well when i went to Jozi i did not refill on a full tank i believe so thats good right? I still had a bit more. My chev has a 60 litre tank i believe obviously one way trip. to come back i had to refill. id do not believe it is an efficient car in terms of fuel consumption and then air conditioner.
 
ngoni615 said:
Well when i went to Jozi i did not refill on a full tank i believe so thats good right? I still had a bit more. My chev has a 60 litre tank i believe obviously one way trip. to come back i had to refill.
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How many kilometers is that? Sounds like the car is heavy on fuel. Hopefully on this trip you'll get better consumption.
 
Cr4ig said:
How many kilometers is that? Sounds like the car is heavy on fuel. Hopefully on this trip you'll get better consumption.
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Around 570km to 600Km. Does aircon use that much fuel?
 
ngoni615 said:
Well when i went to Jozi i did not refill on a full tank i believe so thats good right? I still had a bit more. My chev has a 60 litre tank i believe
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So open road you talking about 10km per litre. So to be safe you will start looking for a place refuel at about 500km distance travelled.
 
ghostim said:
So open road you talking about 10km per litre. So to be safe you will start looking for a place refuel at about 500km distance travelled.
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I think so yeah.... do you reckon packing maybe a 5 liter or a ten-liter bottle of fuel in the boot case you do not make it to the refill station?
 
ngoni615 said:
Around 570km to 600Km. Does aircon use that much fuel?
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Try this: drive up a steepish hill with the aircon on. When the car starts to loose speed don't change gears but switch the aircon off. If the car picks up speed/revs then aircon will have an effect on fuel consumption.
 
ngoni615 said:
I think so yeah.... do you reckon packing maybe a 5 liter or a ten-liter bottle of fuel in the boot case you do not make it to the refill station?
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Rather get a proper 10 liter fuel container. Yeah it might help, especially in Namibia.
And to calculate total probable fuel costs: take the round trip kilometers divide by 10 and times by current fuel price.
I would say if you keep rekord of kilometers travelled and liters filled between fuel stops you should have a good idea about how far a tank would last.
 
ngoni615 said:
I think so yeah.... do you reckon packing maybe a 5 liter or a ten-liter bottle of fuel in the boot case you do not make it to the refill station?
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Fuel in the boot is a good way to get a headache and fall asleep behind the wheel. Would never do that.
 
My advice, take it, dont take it

Dont stop every 2hours. Or every hour. Stop when you need to stop. I always find myself trying to make up the time i lost due to the stop. Ending up speeding and being worse off.

Your car got serviced last month? Dont service it now again, just asking for issues,

You should be able to do 700ish a day comfortably. Plan on that.

Keep a bottle or three of water in the car and a pillow,

enable roaming on your phone, incase you get into nam and cant find a sim car for what ever reason

Dont rush the N3, there are always roadworks on there. Just drive and be safe
 
Don't forget to pop in and visit @Mortymoose when you hit Swakopmund. I'm sure he'll ply you with copious amounts of beer and vleis!

All jokes aside, travel safe, watch out for idiots, stop regularly, and enjoy the trip. I hope you plan it to reach Swakop around sunset. I drove the Swakop / Walvis route many years ago at sunset and was awestruck by the sheer beauty of red desert to my left and blue ocean to the right.
 
Agent_Smith said:
Don't forget to pop in and visit @Mortymoose when you hit Swakopmund. I'm sure he'll ply you with copious amounts of beer and vleis!

All jokes aside, travel safe, watch out for idiots, stop regularly, and enjoy the trip. I hope you plan it to reach Swakop around sunset. I drove the Swakop / Walvis route many years ago at sunset and was awestruck by the sheer beauty of red desert to my left and blue ocean to the right.
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Moose is back in Oranjemund.
 
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