Fuel Consumption on a 2026 Ranger Tug R-43 S
Since we recently took delivery of our Ranger Tug R-43 Sedan we have been learning more and more about the boat. This weekend, while cruising the San Juan Islands, we conducted a little bit of fuel economy testing. We had 3 adults on board, about 220 gallons of fuel, and about 75 gallons of freshwater. The water was flat calm and we had little current. The 2026 R-43 comes with dual Volvo Penta D6 IPS 500 engines. These engines generate 380 horse power each and the IPS drives, facing forward, allegedly have better fuel consumption than a standard shaft drive with. While we were testing we were using the joystick driving mode on the IPS drives. We did not test each of these speeds during extended cruising. What we did instead was use the cruise control feature to bump the throttle in 200 RPM increments and then leaving it for several minutes at each RPM to let it stabilize at the new speed. Once we were at that new speed, we recorded the data. The results are in the grap...