260DA fuel consumption

S

Steve.Lynette

New Member
Sep 9, 2008
193
Eagan, mn
Boat Info
2006 320DA
Engines
T-260
Bravo III
We will take posession of our new 260DA as soon as the ice is off the river. Having never owned a cruiser, I am curious about mileage. I've read in various threads about optimum cruising speeds, and I think I have a good handle on that...but what if we want to "putt around" at no wake speeds? Is that hard on the engine? Will I use less/more fuel?
 
I believe that your model will average 12-14 GPH. It's heavier than my older model. I also don't have as many ponies as your MAG, but I like my burn rate at 8.5 GPH cruising around 30MPH/26 knots
 
So when motoring slowly at 6-8MPH with no particular destination in mind, what would my mileage look like? Still 12-14gph?
 
Steve.Lynette said:
So when motoring slowly at 6-8MPH with no particular destination in mind, what would my mileage look like? Still 12-14gph?
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. I was talking about cruising speed. I haven't crunched the numbers on that speed.
 
You should have Smartcraft on your new boat. It will tell you quickly at that speed what your fuel burn will be.
 
Steve

I have copied a previous post of mine below which will give you some idea of your fuel burn at various RPMS since our boats are virtually identical. I have my Chartplotter interfaced to Smartcraft and it gives me all that information. Going slow can burn significantly more fuel at speeds above 8 mph up to planing speed. Look at the consumption stats and you will see what I mean.

Dave

----------------------------------------------------------

Fuel burn numbers for my 2006 260DA
I mentioned in a couple of my other postings that I would get some accurate fuel burn numbers on my 260DA from my Smartcraft enabled Chartplotter. I was able to do that today and I have posted the numbers below. First off this is what the Chartplotter tells me in real time.

DSC03096.jpg


This picture was taken as I was idling out of the Marina. All speeds are GPS SOG. The temperature was 85 degrees and the lake was like glass. As you can see we had roughly half a tank of fuel and about the same in the freshwater tank. Only my wife and I were on board. No tabs were used...........only the outdrive was trimmed for the best performance. Please note............some of these numbers may be off a fraction or two because as I was driving along I was shouting them off to my wife who was writing them down and since that takes a bit of time some of the numbers may have flucuated ever so slightly ....such as fuel flow or consumption. I guess what I am trying to say is if any of you math wizards start computing this stuff by hand, it may not exactly match by a hundredth or two here or there. :lol: Since the consumption numbers are stated in gallons per nautical mile , the lower the number the less the consumption. And I need to remind everyone that a nautical mile is roughly 1.151 road miles too in case someone is trying to verify the math. :smt018

Speed/ RPM / Fuel Flow/Consumption

07.7/ 1540/ 02.32/ .36
09.7/ 2410/ 05.86/ .69
15.7/ 3120/ 10.78/ .78
25.3/ 3570/ 12.08/ .55
27.9/ 3950/ 13.37/ .55
31.7/ 4380/ 17.50/ .62
35.2/ 4680/ 20.24/ .65

Running between 25 and 28 mph seems to yield the best overall consumption numbers.
__________________
 
Last edited:
Dave S said:
Running between 25 and 28 mph seems to yield the best overall consumption numbers.
__________________
Click to expand...

I have to agree with you on this one, Dave. I normally cruise at about 26, which is around 3400 RPMs and 13 GPH with the 496 Mag HO. Pretty close to your 3570 RPM numbers. That appears to be the sweet spot for the late model 260 hulls.

The one big difference is that by 4600 RPM, I'm above 40 MPH and sucking over 22 GPH... If gas prices stay close to where they are now, that 496 is going to be begging for a winter layup by June. :thumbsup:

Michael
 
In my limited use of our 2006 260 w/6.2 it looks like she uses around 12.6 gph at 25-26 mph and 13.1 gph at 27-28 mph.

Idling around the smartcraft says 1 gph.

Our numbers were with 2 adults and 2 little ones on board with a full tank of gas, no water in storage or waste.

Hope this helps.
 
You guys are amazing! Thank you for all the info. I've got alot to learn...but I'm sure I will enjoy the process :)
 
I have the 496 Mag in my 2006 260. We typically cruise 28-30 MPH and burn 14-15 GPH. Boattest.com (back in 2005) reported that my boat should cruise most efficiently at 25.1 MPH and burn 13.6 GPH. Boattest also reported that at 4.0 MPH, the GPH was 1.21. It should probably be noted that the test boat had 2 people and minimal gear on board, 1/4 tank of fuel, and no water.
 
Our boat is a little lighter than yours but we have the same engine. I get best economy around 26 MPH; at that speed we burn at a rate of 10 GPH thus yielding 2.6 MPG.
 
Dave S.:

We have a Navman 5500 chartplotter (looks just like yours) and I was wondering if you know what we need (if it can be done) to enable it with our Smartcraft system.

Thanks!
 
240da said:
Dave S.:

We have a Navman 5500 chartplotter (looks just like yours) and I was wondering if you know what we need (if it can be done) to enable it with our Smartcraft system.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

The Navman 5500 does not have Smartcraft Capabilities. You need the 5505 for that. Sorry.

Dave
 
Dave:

Thanks for the quick response.:smt001

I figured that was the case (you know how it goes); now I need my 5500 to "die" so I'll have a good excuse to upgrade to the 5505.:grin:

Take care.
 
My 2004/260 with 350/300hp///////////////////// BRAVO3 cruises at 20-22 mph full load fuel/water/cooler:}}12 gph..More speed =more fuel..tops out 33mph with vacumn cleaner sucking of fuel..ck out boatest.com for reviewsof your boat with actual fuel burn charts..enjoy
 
Dave:

What was involved in changing out your 5500 to the Northstar (Navman) 550? Were the mounting holes the same and were you able to just plug into the back of the tachometer for Smartcraft data?

Thanks
 
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