Being that we use two types of fuel to travel Russia, it is interesting to me to watch fuel prices and see what we save by using one fuel over the other…
We have had many articles on the virtues of Sammy our Volga! One of the best virtues is dual fuel capacity. Now cheap parts and easy to fix are other very important virtues but the dual fuel issue is the icing on the cake…
When Sveta and I travel we use Propane and or Benzine. This last trip we just made and travel over 1000 kilometers, we paid a low of 13.9 rubles per liter for propane and a low of 23.9 rubles per liter for Benzine. They could be bought more expensive, but really why should you?
Now lets translate these rubles into dollars: 13,90 rubles = .46 dollars and 23.9 rubles is .79 dollars at the rate as of today (5/12/2012). Now lets turn liters into gallons…
1 US gallon = 3.78541178 liters so lets take 3.79 as a good round figure! 3.79 X 13.9 = 52.681 rubles and 3.79 X 23.9 = 90.581 ruble. Now we have 52.68 rubles for propane per gallon and 90.58 rubles per gallon of gasoline. Lets relate that to dollars…
52.68 = $1.74 a gallon for propane in Russia!
90.58 = $3.00 a gallon for gasoline in Russia!
Now lets carry this farther yet. We get 8.5 km per liter on propane. We get 10.2 km per liter on gasoline or benzine. So lets say we traveled 100 kilometers…
100 kilometers takes 11.76 liters on propane! Cost is 163.47 rubles or $5.41 to travel a 100 km…
100 kilometers takes 9.8 liters of gasoline! Cost is 234.22 rubles or $7.75 to travel a 100 km…
Now of course a hundred kilometers is not very far, about 62 miles. So a long trip means we save a bunch of fuel costs as we travel. We traveled over a thousand kilometers this trip and that means that we saved around, $23.40 in total fuel costs by just burning propane. That is a two good meals or a night in a Russian hotel, while you are out traveling, per 1000 km… (Actually in many towns in Russia that would be two nights stay, as we stay in peoples homes many times!)
Now that makes Sveta and I happy with our Volga. She is part of the family and when Boza, Sveta and I are in her, she seems to smile as we travel down the road. Being a station wagon she can hold tons of stuff and we can keep it dry as we travel. I have some plans for her and I am going to beef up the back springs and front springs. I am going to try to get a little more ground clearance to help us with the back roads in Russia. I figure a lift kit for the back leaf springs will do the trick and I just want to find some coil spring spacers for the front. A few inches will do the trick.
This trip I saw something that I really would like to have in Russia, a small travel trailer! It was perfect and would sleep us all as snug as a bug in a rug. Then we could stop and camp anywhere and in Russia you really can stop and camp anywhere. It is that great…
Trailers are very rare in Russia and we have only seen a very few of them, but I know that they are available and I would like to have one to travel Russia with Sveta and Boza…
But that is off the subject and fuel was the name of the game. So we travel Russia on two fuels and that my friend makes for a great time of traveling Russia. Just look in search for propane and or look up Sammy the Volga. That will take you to our articles on propane and Sammy…
Sammy the Volga Search Link >>>
Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia!