Getting to know you..

We made it back from Lake George and I immediately drove the RV into the Parameter shop to have them check the brakes. This was after I had them do an alignment for me at really short notice. Got me in and out on time for the trip. After a check of the system they said it was "immaculate" so my fears that some previous owner goofed up my brakes was put to rest.

Ring and pinion: what makes your RV go in the back. Be kind to it at all times.

Now, with that positive result I gave the go ahead to prep for the rear end gear swap. I've debated on this a long time since the first year of trips and wanting to travel further but not at 5MPG. The RV gets up to speed just fine but the engine RPM is about 3200 at 65mph so that's not really in the optimal range to run a big block 454. I'd love to be in the 1800-2600 range but will settle for a bit on the higher range of that scale.

The RV has for some reason a 4.10 rear end. That gets me the 3200 RPM at highway speed and I'm happy to know that other Allegros were equipped with 4.88 rear ends (holy cow! that puts you at about 3800 RPM at highway speed! YIKES!). No thank you! At $3 plus a gallon I need to find ways to reduce my fuel consumption at cruise and I'm not expecting to tow anything with this RV.

Obviously sometime early last year with the under $3/gallon for 93.

After researching on the interwebs I thought I found a 3.55 set but that's only available in the 8.5" diameter set, not the 10.5" set in the RV. The one I found is a 3.42 ratio which would drop the cruising RPM's down to about 2500 or so. Not bad.

While I don't think that this is the way to substantially increase my mileage, I figure it can't hurt on the long trips we're planning next year and at $300.00 a tank full it's worth it to get the MPG up from 5 to somewhere around 8 or so with this and some adjustments on the timing.That's saving about 60% and each tank full is about 85 gallons or about $305.00 per tank. If you can stretch your mileage out from 5 to 8 mpg then you go from 425 miles/tank to 680 miles/tank. Going cross country at about 3000 miles you would go from filling the tank over 7 times to 4.5 times or a savings of $763 over the trip. You just paid for the swap in one cross country trip then some.

By the way, if you are running way past half on the temp gauge, below half on the oil pressure and just showing nothin on the amp gauge (not to mention below E on the gas...) you are in some serious trouble.....

I will be updating everyone on the swap work in the next week or so after we get back and plan the next trip once the swap is done.

Save RV'ing Everyone!!