I am Johan le Roux from South Africa and I own a Winnebago Brave

[johan le roux]

I am Johan le Roux from South Africa and as we have no agents or representatives here for Winnebago I am somewhat at a loss to get any information. There are only a few Winnebagos in Africa and as they are left hand drive one is not allowed to import any new ones. What is therefore here is all we have. I would very much appreciate it if someone could please tell me what fuel consumption may be expected as reasonable. We use kilometers per liter but I shall convert the miles per gallon if I know what that is. I have a Winnebago Brave 1994 with the 454 V8 engine and gearbox which is totally original and in a new condition with 50,725 miles registered. I have always had it garaged when not in use and even the paint is fresh and new. I would appreciate your assistance very much as we are, as mentioned, somewhat cut off from the modern world.

 

[Back2PA]

Welcome to the forum!


You can probably expect approximately 6-9 miles per gallon depending on speed and terrain

 

[Gizmo100]

Welcome to the RV Forum johan le roux

As stated the 6 - 9 MPG seems to be the numbers that most people experience.

Of course that will depend on the type of driving you will use.

 

[johan le roux]

Thank you very much sir, it is much appreciated.

 

[SargeW]

Welcome Johan, we will be interested to hear of your travels in South Africa. Welcome to the RV world!

 

[Arch Hoagland]

Welcome to the forum!  I too would be interested to hear of your travels in South Africa. 

I agree with the others about the fuel mileage....about 6 to 9 miles per gallon.

 

[johan le roux]

Thank you all for taking the time to attend to my question. It helps a lot as I now do not have to wonder or have any unrealistic expectations.
South Africa is a beautiful country with probably the best weather in the world. There are so many beautiful places to visit that I would not know where to start or where to recommend. We have everything here that make traveling with a RV an absolute pleasure. But big motorhomes/RVs here are very rare. They mostly use Mercedes Benz or Iveco chassis on which the build smaller motorhomes (that is what they call a RV here).
We have beautiful coastal resorts and of course some of the best wild life sanctuaries in the world. The best known being the Kruger National Park that have the big five namely Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Leopard and Rhino. We have areas that are desert with others being lush forests and lots of bushfeld. We have many game farms that people from all over the world come to hunt on. We have a very big variety of buck like Eland, Kudu, Impala, Blue Wildebeest, Njala and many more other species. We also have Hiena, Wild dog, Cheeta. A hunters paradise. I personally do not hunt at all but I love photographing them. We also have a magnificent bird life that makes "birding" an absolute pleasure' I am a birder. We unfortunately do not have a very stable government and have one of the highest crime and murder rates in the world. It is a great pity as we really have a magnificent country that is well worth visiting. You just have to exercise caution and be well informed as to where you where and what you wish to visit.

I apologize but I am new to the forum and don't quite know how it works and shall therefore welcome any suggestions from all or any. I must just point out that our spelling of some words are somewhat different to that of the USA. Thank you kindly.

 

[IBTripping]

Don't worry about your spelling. For some of us, English is a foreign language.  ;D There's also regional differences in what words are used. For instance, here we call a tow behind RV a "travel trailer." In England, New Zealand, and other places, it's a "caravan." Not a big deal.

I've talked to a number of people who have visited South Africa. They've all said it is a very beautiful place well worth visiting. 

 

[ArdraF]

Welcome to the RV Forum, Johan!  Yes, you do indeed live in a beautiful country.  We have been there twice (work-related) but managed to have some wonderful vacation time while there.  The wildlife is amazing!

As to your motorhome's fuel consumption, we owned a 1994 LazyDaze Class C 30-foot motorhome with the Chevy 454 engine.  We took delivery of our new motorhome in California in January 1994 and owned it for just over 4.5 years, driving it all around the USA, Canada east to Newfoundland, and up to Alaska.  We are conservative drivers who ease away from traffic lights and try to maintain an even throttle.  This vehicle had a vacuum gauge which was helpful in monitoring fuel usage.

At 50,550 miles we bought a cute little Geo Tracker for towing.  Prior to towing we averaged 9.6 mpg.  We also had a generator that affected the mileage a little.  Adjusting for the generator fuel usage we had 9.7 "true" mpg after towing.  We sold the motorhome in August 1998 and the odometer had 67,864 miles on it with an average of 9.4 mpg.  After adjusting for the 94 hours of generator fuel usage the "true" number was 9.5 mpg.  Also, at 54,900 miles our fuel was changed to MTBE (oxygenated) which was expected to lower mpg.  Our "true" mpg to that point was 9.7 mpg so it had some affect but not much.

People tend to worry about lessening the mpg when they start towing or using a generator, but as you can see from these real-world numbers, they really don't affect mpg that much.  We figure a generator uses about 1/2-gallon per hour.  What does change the numbers is people who drive with a heavy foot on the gas pedal, people who "floor it" when starting from stopped, or who keep cruise control on when driving up mountains (the cruise tries to keep the speed up which wastes fuel).  I hope this helps!

ArdraF

 

[johan le roux]

Thank you very much for your replies.What does the Ardraf and IBTripping stand for? When I reply to what has been sent to me do I have to reply to each individual or do other parties also have insight in my reply?I do not wish to be rude and would therefore like thank all who took the trouble to reply.

 

[Rene T]

Thank you very much for your replies.What does the Ardraf and IBTripping stand for? When I reply to what has been sent to me do I have to reply to each individual or do other parties also have insight in my reply?I do not wish to be rude and would therefore like thank all who took the trouble to reply.

1st. Welcome to the forum.
The whole world will see your reply. If you want to keep it private, you can send the person a PM (Personal Message) by clicking on the symbol under their avatar.  Or you can send them a E-mail, by clicking on the envelope symbol under their avatar.

 

[ArdraF]

Thank you very much for your replies. What does the Ardraf and IBTripping stand for? When I reply to what has been sent to me do I have to reply to each individual or do other parties also have insight in my reply? I do not wish to be rude and would therefore like thank all who took the trouble to reply.

First, Ardra is my given name and F is the first letter of my surname. But not everyone uses their real name.  IBTripping is the nom de plume that person has chosen to be known by, in this case a colloquial version that probably stands for "I Be Traveling".

No, you don't have to reply to everyone individually.  There are too many posts to reply to everyone so it's not considered rude to answer a few or none.  If we want to reply to something specific we quote that comment as I did above by using the Insert Quote button above and then pasting your comment in it.  Yes, everyone will see your replies unless you use the Private Message feature which takes it out of view.  It takes a while to figure it all out, but we have a Member Practice Board where you can try various things to see how they work.  Your biggest problem might be trying to figure out our Americanisms.  Just ask if you don't understand what someone has said.

ArdraF

 

[johan le roux]

Thank you sir. Much appreciated. Have a good evening.

 

[kdbgoat]

That "sir" is actually a "mam". Her husband is Jerry. It's all good though, you'll catch on. My user name comes from my initials and part of my actual nickname which is Billygoat. The username"Billygoat" wasn't available when I signed up, so I had to come up with something else.

 

[johan le roux]

I am amazed at the helpful-and-kindness of the RV community. It is really refreshing and comforting being able to speak with people from another country not only sharing that which is important to me but also having feedback with regard RVs from people that have obviously a lot of experience and knowledge. Here in SA there are very few RVs but thousands of caravans. People here like camping and because there are so many wonderful places to visit, the caravan parks have everything you may need when caravaning but nothing like you have in the US for RVs. We have the most pleasant weather in the world with lots of sunshine and the most beautiful sunsets. People therefore spend very little time indoors. We only have snow in the winter but then also only on the highest mountains and only in certain parts of the country. We don't have snow like you have in the US. I live on a farm in the North West province where it is beautiful and green with very lush plant growth and trees and we also have big mountains. I live close to the Hartbeespoortdam which is a big dam on which they do a lot of boating and water sports. The Magaliesburg mountain range which borders my farm have the bigest concentration of Leopards in the country. They prey mainly on Baboons but sometimes take some livestock. They are however very shy and very few people will probably ever see one. When you go to the Kruger National Park however, you have a better chance of seeing one. Just a little info to people that have never been to Africa. It is now 22:47 here and time to go to bed. Depending on where you live in the US we are between 7-9 hours ahead of you.   

 

[Arch Hoagland]

We have a lady friend, a teacher by profession, who took in a foreign exchange student from South Africa. The student was a teenage girl whose father was the chief of a tribe there in South Africa. 

Our friend has been to your country several times and says it is beautiful.  I'm enjoying reading your replies and hope you will continue telling us more about your country.

 

[RockyHill]

What type farming?  We farm and have a motorhome; guess which one determines our activities? LOL

Looking forward to hearing about rv-ing and farming in your area. 

Shelia

 

[ArdraF]

I googled the Magaliesburg mountain range and it certainly looks like a pretty area.  We tried to find leopards but weren't lucky.  We did see baboons down at the cape though.  They can be very nasty!

I'm curious about your name too.  I'm guessing Johan would be Afrikaans but le Roux sounds French.  Were you born in South Africa?

ArdraF (yes Mrs. ;D )

 

[johan le roux]

Yes, I was born in South Africa 70 years ago. My mother comes from a Dutch family and you guessed correctly, my father was a French gentleman. Johan is an Afrikaans name. A lot of my American friends find it difficult to pronounce my name correctly. I guess my name in English would be similar to the name John. May I inquire what your surname is? You did say that your name is Adra. What is your nationality?

 

[ArdraF]

My married name is FitzGerald, but ethnically I'm mostly Irish, Scot, English and German.

ArdraF