Questions reg potential purchase, 1984 Minnie Winne in Sweden

[Niklas.L]

Hi,

Brand new to the forum and as the subject says, I'm looking at potentially buying a Winnebago Minnie Winnie.

As I live in Norway and it was imported new to Norway it is quite unusual over here. The overall condition looks to be more or less prestine, and it was sold to the current owner from the original owner in 2020. Well looked after with tons of documentation. So I'm not that worried about the condition of the rig. The price is resonable also. Specially keeping in mind the prices of similar size European rigs. Although these are newer and diesel.

What has me hesitating is the fuel economy since it has a 350 v8 in it, and it weighs a bit. The current owner says, as far as he know it gets 23 miles to the gallon. He hasn't driven it much and I find it hard to believe those figures. I'm betting more on 10 mpg´s. What are you guys getting in your rigs with similar engine and weight?

The current fuel price in Norway is about 23 NOK per litre. Roughly translated to 9,35 dollars per gallon. So with estimated 10 miles to the gallon it's going to be quite expensive to drive around. And sadly the fuel prices is hardly coming down either. So the question is what can be done to maximise fuel economy? It currently is a GM 6.2 diesel with a TH700 for sale in the town I live in for 340 dollars. Not sure this would drastically improve the fuel economy, but the diesel is cheaper than petrol. Sometimes almost a dollar per gallon. But this would require a lot of work and the condition of that engine is unknown. The original engine only has 54.000 well maintained miles on it. So what can be done with the standard 350 to increase mpg´s, and what improvement do you think one can achieve within reasonable money? Or is a full diesel conversion my best bet?

Regards
Niklas

[Oz]

Hello and welcome!  We've had many European owners over the years and we know petrol cost there is very high

You can spend a LOT of money trying to improve the mileage, but even so, you'll never get more than one, possibly 2 miles per gallon better.

So, what have our European members done?

Converted the existing engine to run on propane.

Read this topic completely, including any links to other topics.  There's helpful info about the process and, aside from propane costing less, the negatives about conversion.

Past that, you can read our existing info on improving mileage with your petrol engine.

[Mlw]

Hi Niklas,

Welcome to the forum. 23 miles to the gallon, I wish there was a v8 with those numbers.

With 10 miles to the gallon you are more accurate but I have seen numbers here like 8 miles to the gallon or less certainly when you are living in a mountain area, not uncommon in Norway?

We had a similar RV way back in the 80's when I was a kid and it drove 1 liter to 4 kilometers about 15 USA miles to the gallon average, but my father was never in a hurry in the RV causing a lot of roadrage here and there on country roads

But I also remember one time he wanted to get us to our holiday destination faster because we would go skying the next morning so driving 65 tops (104 km) in stead of the usual 55. It burned an extra tank of fuel on a trip of 1000 km and I vividly remember him saying "I will never ever do that again", and that in a time fuelprices where quite diffrent from what they are now (but even then prices were allready high compared to the prices in the USA)

A lot depends on how heavy your foot is. And the sound man, the sound, to this day i think it's priceless. No diesel can ever beat that, but yes give you much better torque.

You buy a rig like this for the experiences you will get with it. There is just something special to those RV's from the 70's 80's area and either you connect to this feeling or you don't and if you don't the maybe it's better for you to get an RV with a better fuel mileage to begin with.

I know everytime I start up mine now you see heads turning. so yes, if you do like it a lot but worry about the price of gas, switching over to LG like Oz suggested sure is an option, certainly with an engine in a condition like yours.

[skloon]

I would be thinking 10 to the imperial gallon 4.54l would be optimistic depending on the roads- that is what I get on a newer one with a four speed automatic driven usually around 95 km/hr

[eXodus]

The 350 comes from a time where gas was almost free.
When you add fuel injection you can get like 1-2 mpg better, but that's it.  I've done almost every tweak imaginable and I'm running 12mpg (20L/100km) on good day going 55mph (90km/h)

I've strapped Bikes to the back of the RV - so anywhere I stop at the camp ground - we bike around.
Saves more fuel then short trips with the camper.

Drop a nice 2.5L or 3L VW or BMW Diesel in it

Would love to get the 3L BMW diesel but it never made it to the US.  (30d or 35d)

[Elandan2]

eXodus, you could always look for one of these.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vixen_(RV)

[eXodus]

would love to get one of those Vixen

That concept with a modern Diesel (280HP / 500ft/lb BMW inline six vs the 115HP it came with) or even as an Electric vehicle (Tesla drive train (500hp / 1000 ft/lb should fit nicely in the back) would be amazing.

But we are getting off topic here - or Nordic friend here needs some advice.  I got the 350 - it's a fine engine but not for European fuel prices. (and probably North American as well - saw gas at 4.80$ a gallon - that's still cheaper then Europe - but a far cry from 2015 levels when I started RVing and Gas was at $1.60 a gallon.

The GM 6.2L Diesel would be a tad better for fuel economy but is really a weak engine.  130hp and 240ft/lb of torque.   
Any of half the displacement Euro Diesel where making more power for a lot better MPG.

My Volvo 850 has 2.5L Diesel with something around 140hp and 330 ft/lb  @46mpg  much better engine then the 6.2L  @22mpg

Yeah in Sweden and Norway you should be able find a ton of Volvo Diesel engines.  The 1995-2003 TDI engines are amazing - 1 Million km easy. Might be able to fit one of those into the Winnie