Your guide to eco-safe driving in your motorhome

Eco-safe driving has many benefits, from reducing your carbon footprint to making the roads safer for other road users. In this blog, we’ll go through what eco-safe driving is, our tips on practising it in your motorhome, and what it can help us achieve.

Which driving technique can help you save fuel?

Eco-safe driving (also known as fuel-efficient driving) is a driving technique that helps you save fuel and become more aware of your fuel consumption. As a result, eco-safe driving can also have a positive impact on the environment by reducing your carbon footprint and make the roads a safer place for other road users.

What is eco-safe driving?

Driving eco-safely requires making a few small changes to your usual approach to driving to help reduce the amount of fuel you’re using. Practising eco-safe driving also makes you more aware of the amount of fuel you’re using and how the decisions you make while driving can impact your fuel consumption. These changes could be anything from the way you brake and accelerate to planning your route ahead of time to avoid hazards.

How to drive eco-safely in a motorhome

If you’re wondering how to start practising eco-safe driving in your motorhome, check out our 6 tips below:

1. Keep your motorhome well-maintained with regular service checks

Ensuring your motorhome is well maintained will also help make it more fuel-efficient. Carrying out regular checks and taking your motorhome to be serviced regularly will ensure you don’t miss anything that could be affecting its performance. For example, regularly checking the tyre pressure and making sure your tyres are properly inflated will stop the tread from wearing out as quickly and reduce drag while you drive.

2. Plan your journey ahead of time

Taking the time to plan your journey and checking the condition of the roads on sat nav apps such as Google Maps can help you avoid dense traffic and road hazards. Avoiding traffic when you can will also help save fuel as you’ll be braking and accelerating less frequently. Driving outside of peak times will also lessen the likelihood that you’ll encounter traffic.

If you’re planning a longer holiday, such as driving to Europe in your motorhome, researching your journey ahead of time is particularly important to ensure you’re aware of the road rules in the country you’re travelling through. It’s also best to research the differing rules around environmental driving zones, as these vary from country to country.

Expert tip from Motorhome Matt:

“If you pre-plan your journey, you also have the opportunity to use apps that will plot out the cheapest petrol stations along your route. This will also help ensure you don’t let your fuel tank run too low, as you can damage your fuel pump in the long run if you keep running your motorhome on fumes.”

3. Reduce the amount of unnecessary weight in your motorhome

When packing for a holiday, it can be easy to pack more than you need. However, try to only pack the motorhome holiday essentials, as the heavier your vehicle is, the more drag you’ll create and the more fuel you’ll use as a result. The same can also be said for anything you carry on the roof rack. Although motorhomes aren’t designed to be particularly aerodynamic, the more you add to your roof rack, the more you’ll add to the drag.

4. Brake and accelerate gently

Whenever you need to brake or accelerate, try to do so gently. Harsher braking and accelerating will use up more fuel and, over time, can have a detrimental effect on the efficiency of your brake pads. You can also lessen your need to brake harshly by leaving a safe distance between your motorhome and the vehicle in front. A safe distance is considered to be a two-second gap between you and the car in front, but this should be longer in bad weather as your stopping distance will increase.

Expert tip from Motorhome Matt:

“Braking and accelerating harshly can decrease your fuel efficiency by as much as 30%. Using your pedals gently is far better for fuel economy and may even save you money on getting your brake pads fixed.”

5. Try reverse parking instead of front bay parking

Manoeuvring with the engine already warm uses less fuel, so it’s better to reverse park than to front bay park and reverse out. Of course, motorhomes have blind spots, so make sure you have someone standing at the back of the motorhome to check or install some reversing cameras to help.

6. Turn your engine off

If you find you’re waiting with your engine idle and you don’t think you’ll be moving off anytime soon, it’s best to turn your engine off. The longer you leave your engine running, the more fuel you’ll be using unnecessarily. The engine of a medium-sized car can use up to 0.5 gallons of fuel per hour when left idling, and the bigger the engine, the more fuel you’ll use. So, depending on the type of motorhome you have, you could be wasting a lot of fuel by letting the engine run idle for long periods.

Expert tip from Motorhome Matt:

“All of the above tips will go towards making you a more eco-safe motorhome driver. While holidaying in your motorhome, consider supporting local businesses at farmers’ markets or by visiting independent shops, too.

“This will help you pack less for the journey, and you’ll be contributing to local communities and economies at the same time. Eco-safe driving doesn’t have to mean making huge changes to your usual holiday routine, but small adjustments can have a big impact in looking after our planet.

What are the benefits of eco-safe driving?

By practising eco-safe driving techniques in your motorhome, you’re helping to:

• lower your carbon footprint and therefore, your impact on the environment
• improve road safety for yourself and other road users by being a more conscientious driver
• reduce your fuel costs and the wear and tear inflicted on your motorhome
• limit congestion on the roads by pre-planning your journeys around peak times and heavy traffic

Specialist motorhome insurance through Ripe

While practising eco-safe driving can help you become a more thoughtful motorhome driver, it doesn’t protect your motorhome against damage or theft, and accidents can still happen.

Specialist motorhome insurance through Ripe allows you to build your policy so you can tailor your cover to suit you and protect your motorhome against things like theft, fire, flood, and accidental damage.

Find out more about specialist motorhome insurance through Ripe and get a free online quote today.