One of the problems with the E450 chassis is that the dashboard is fairly crude by modern automotive standards. After six months of calculating my gas mileage by hand, and becoming a bit suspicious about the temperature gauge that never seemed to move, I stumbled across the ScanGaugeII™ by Linear-Logic. The ScanGauge plugs into the ODBII Port on many vehicles, not just the Ford E450, and provides a wealth of useful information that any RV’er can put to good use.
ODBII, or “On Board Diagnostics, version two” refers to vehicle’s on-board diagnostics capability, and is incorporated into all cars and light trucks sold in the United States and Canada. The ScanGauge plugs into the ODBII port, a small connector usually located near the steering column, underneath the dashboard, and provides real-time access to many of the vehicle’s diagnostic features. This is useful if your vehicle has a less-than-robust set of gauges from the factory, as does my E450, because you can setup the ScanGauge to display just the information you want to see. I have mine configured to display; engine temperature, transmission temperature, intake air temperature and gas mileage. All of this information is displayed instantly, in real-time. Just step on the gas and you will instantly see your gas mileage get halved!
The ScanGauge also functions as a fairly sophisticated trip computer. Once it has been configured for the vehicle’s engine size and fuel tank size, it can display numerous parameters based on the current day’s travel, the previous day’s travel, the current tank of fuel, or the previous tank of fuel. Usually I keep this display on the “miles to empty” setting which, of course, shows how many estimated miles are left on the current tank of fuel. It is a common feature in most new cars today and I am glad to now have it in my E450, too. But the ScanGauge can display a lot of other information about your trip (or tank), like how many miles you covered, what your average speed was, how much fuel you used, etc.
Installing the ScanGauge is a breeze, and does not require any tools – although I used zip-ties to secure the cable behind the dashboard. The gauge itself sits on top of the steering column, and is not obtrusive. The ScanGauge is a useful gadget that plugs some holes in the rather utilitarian dashboard of my E450 chassis.
