Long Range Fuel Tank - Ford Ranger

hi Newby,
we tow a 2.6 tonne dirt road van and we would like to go to some of the remote places that we use to go to with a tent and a Cortina 440l mk2, back in the 70's, only this time we would like to be out of the dirt, the fuel is used when your camped up and you go off the next morning on your daily excursions, where there are no fuel stations within 300 klm, and you do 200 on a day trip in four wheel drive, OK we are not towing the van, but we will be when we move off to out next camp spot. with the range we are getting at the moment, a long range tank seems our only option. but as we have only had the vehicle for a few weeks yet everything is open for discussion

Hi Les,
the Ranger is stock standard at the moment except for the Hayman Reese hitch, and the fuel milage was worked on three very short trips, by pencil and paper and a calculator, with the amount of fuel actualy put into the tank and the milage on the odometer, at one fill it was up to 23.9 but that was going through some pretty hilly country, came home a different way and it came back to 19.9, but we had a tail wind and the van was missing 160 liters of water, it makes a difference.
Just a quick question does your long range tank read accurately on the fuel gauge?????.
thanks for you input it is greatly appreciated.

Read you are towing, so would expect about that especially if hilly terrain in your initial short drives.
I assume you were towing on those drives ?

For sure the wind direction and strength is either a godsend or a curse, with or without something hitched up !!

My tank when topped off stays there until I've done pretty much 400km, when the needle is right on the gauge full mark.
I know then I have a safe 80lt up my sleeve.
From the full mark, the gauge goes down relatively evenly per 1/4 marks on the gauge, usually about 20lt per mark, so on blacktop drives without a lot of terrain, no wind to speak of, and siting on 100 / 110, I get around the 800km range on top of the first 400km.

I'd be looking at ways to better tune the engine for best economy.
Maybe a chip / exhaust will help with the towing, allow you to not push it as hard, have some up your sleeve power wise, you just have to drive them easy as with better power / torque people sometimes 'use' it instead of nursing along, and use same or more in fuel / 100.

It's hard to say if you could / should be getting much better than high teens with your caravan, there are so many variables with weights, if an auto and may be better towing out of overdrive, etc.

I know if I do around the limit I get low to high 10s, if I drop to 90 I get about 0.5 to 1lt better econ, it's usually not worth worrying about.

It might take you a trip or three more to get the feel for things, best way to use the Ranger gearing, right pedal, etc.

thanks Frank,
Ill check out the web site forum sounds interesting and get back to you later.

Found it!
Look at SAEB Build up PX2, page 3 onwards. The guy is a genius, it's mindblowing
You will need some analysis gear or a friend/tame mechanic who has it.
Cheers

Hi RMD, the Nissan was the ti550 station wagon with a v6 diesel engine, and every bit of computer type wizardry that man had invented in it, half of the stuff it had, I never worked out how to use, to complicated for me. At the moment the ford is still stock standard and has only done 4437 klm.
We have looked at putting a air deflector on the ute, but I have to decide what canopy I am going to fit, and that is an option that we may have to visit if the fuel economy doesn't improve in the future.
thank you very much for your input and different train of thought.

Hi Eagle, would you mind telling me which Ranger you have because I have been talking to a mate of min and his fuel economy is around 16 and he has a van similar to ours but his ranger is a pk, He also fitted the long range tank but talking to him this morning he does have issues with the gauges.

I will get back to you soon as I have no 240v power at the moment. Ranger is a px . I will try and find the distance to empty thread fix for a long-range tank on new ranger forum.

Always remember, many take their fuel as an overall trip with the van on, they don't count the K's when they have nothing on the back during that trip.

Tomorrow I maybe able to help find that thread on distance to empty with a long-range tank.

The information is on the newranger forum by saeb and stewart using dte in the search.

A forscan tool was used to adjust code parameters, from memory one of the people are on the development team for forscan.

Happy reading as there is a lot of it or you could become a member and send a message to saeb for more information.

Hi
Interested in this last comment. Have a PX with LRT but would like to know if this will actually cut out well before fuel is actually used. Can anyone give a definitive view rather than just heresay.

On my Brown Davis 145 litre installation in my BT50 I can use all the useable fuel in the tank. Ie all but the last few litres.

I too have heard various stories - that it will cut out when the OEM DTE says 0km to go, or that it allows you to go 20 or 30 km past 0 then cuts out, etc.

I tested mine. I was carrying spare fuel just in case it ran out. I went 30 km past the 0 and not wanting it to run dry as that can cause damage I filled up. The tank took 135 litres from memory, so I think I could keep going and use most of the remaining 10 litres.

I have calibrated my Scangauge so it exactly matches calculated fuel consumption measured over thousands of km and many refills. I now use that as my primary fuel gauge.

Hi frank, please excuse my lack of knowledge but what is a scan gauge and how does it work ????

Broodie,

It's a device that plugs into the diagnostics port under the bin near the driver's right knee (BT50 and Ranger). It can display any four of about 30 items and if you have codes available you can program it to display custom items.

On the issue of fuel, you can set up the tank size and then after a couple if fills and some adjustment according to the instructions, it is then calibrated and can pretty accurately show you litres remaining in the tank, distance to empty, etc

Most useful to me are Litres remaining, DTE, coolant temperature and transmission temperature, but any four of what is available can be displayed.

According to their website the Aussie distributor, Ample Outdoors, has closed down, so eBay is probably your best bet.

Scanguage link

Cheers