Towing mpg's?
 

What kind of mpg are you guys getting while towing? The last thing I towed was a 2000 lb car tailer with my Chevelle on it and was running about 13 mpg at 75 mph. That was before I got my chip.

12 to 13 pulling a 10,500 5'er. Secret. If you have cruise, use it while towing. MPG's will go up.

I get 14 when towing my backhoe.......real heavy stuff

21k GCVW and 65mph I get right at 14.
70-75, high 12's to low 13's.

i got 16 towing my jeep last time at 70 mph.. all flat land though.. totaly weight of jeep and trailer was prob 5,500 lbs

The 07 Dodge 3500 with the 6.7, a service body, and a trailer weighing just a hair under 10,000 lbs, makes between 5 and 7 on the freeway.

The 06 2500 with the 5.9 never sees under 15 with a full load and heavy trailer.

What is really strange is that the 5.9 will also out pull the 6.7, it is not even close and they have the same diff ratio's.

I get about 13or 14 towing this

I tow a 23ft Chaparral that with trailer and full fuel (72 gallons) weighs about 6000lbs and average about 13.4mpg hand calculated

I tow an Alpenlite 5th wheel about 15 to 20k miles a year and wind up averaging between 11 and 12 mpg. Trailer weighs 11600 lbs...This is with a 01 3500 with 4:10s and auto

Man hawg hunter does that really work. I know with out a trailer I can get better MPG than the cruise. Ill have to try it.:c:

Yeah, it works...even with the autos towing out of OD, running them in cruise makes a difference.

steved

i run my overdrive..

UNLESS im coming up to a grade. then i hit the button.

Yeah I did too, my little 215HP didn't have enough snort to hold OD on some of the bigger grades between New Mexico and Pennsylvania though...towing in OD really isn't a good idea...hard on the tranny.

My tranny would hunt in OD, even on flat ground, trying to run with the cruise. In 3rd, it did just fine with the 3.55s and cruise...even got me 14.5 avearge for the entire trip...and that was towing a 2100# trailer with my M37 on top (or around 8000#s total weight).

This new truck will run 6th with cruise pulling 6k with no issues.

steved

Same here. I found that setting the cruise on between 63 and 65 works best for my setup. Tends to hang on better.

yah the reason you dont want to run overdrive is to keep the transmission from shifting between gears rapiddly. it starts hunting immediatly hit the overdrive button and it will go down into 3rd.

but if you are holding a gear its better to turn the od on as it will drop your rpms 400rpms or so and youll get better mpg.

IF IT STARTS SHIFTING IMMEDIATLY HIT THE MAGIC BUTTON, IF YOUR COMING UP TO A HILL HIT THE BUTTON.

you will kill your trans if you dont.

I have pulled for years and truck to truck has been real similar...12-16 depending on load, but I pull heavy like Whit. Empty trailer is 7000# and we will put up to 20k on the deck!

I also have a bobcat and dump trailer combo, and will pull up to 17k on the bumper. When you pull this heavy, mileage over 10mpg is a real bonus. Years ago we did this with a 454 chev and got all horny when we broke 4mpg....things have changed.

Keep in mind, that semi tractors only get 4-7 mpg and they are designed to do nothing other than pull!

16-17mpg with my 32' 5th wheel toybox (14,800 loaded). I will get to see what it is with my new one soon, 41', 19,000lbs. 6th gear, use cruise, NEVER dropped a gear to keep speed. Pulled on a buddies supercharged F150 that was pulling a sub 3000lb boat going up a 5% grade too. Had to pass him because I got tired of dropping speed to not rear end him.

Oh, longhorn, have you seen the milage out of the Mercedes in the newer freightshakers? 11-12mpg loaded. With 80,000lbs total.

Father in-law is running an 06 and he hasnt done that good yet, but high 8's to 9 is common. He loves it!

depends what im towing
with the 40' gooseneck and 16,000 lbs about 12.7
if i tow the 15' goosneck with the 7' box its 7.5 to 8.5
the 8.5 is with the new air deflector otherwise it was 7.5 loaded or empty

i just did 4 different google searches trying to find more info on your above quote.....i couldn't find anything, if you could provide more info or a link, i would appreciate it......

thanks

keep in mind that the mercedes motor is pretty much a detroit 60 series
DC bought up detroit diesel a few yrs ago now
found this out when i was pricing and building a freightliner m2
and was flopping on putting a detroit 60 or a MB engine in it
sales man grabbed 2 brochures and said now whats the difference besides the valve cover

I don't have a big trailer now but I get 18.5/19 town and country with my open car trailer and 41 Willys aboard. About 5000 #'s. Don't even know it's back there.

Son's "Burb" gets 10 on a good day pulling the same thing.

Towing 20' goose neck with a couple of horses, total weight around 11000lbs getting about 14mpg. My truck only has 3500kms on it hope to see some improvement when I get some more kms on her.

with my 6 spd, running at about 70-75 mph, and my car trailer and jeep (about 6500 lbs) I get about 14.5 mpg.
Scott

I get about 12 to 13 with 28' nomad weight is 8360 dry and I ran 315 bfg's

God to have a manual!

I average about 10 if I stay on the highway, problem is I never get a long enough stretch to do it (alot of stop/turn/stop/turn/stop/go/etc.). And I'm sure the 3.54s don't help in that situtation either. Tend to come across the scales b/w 22k and 27k loaded and around 12,750lbs. empty with my stock trailer.

With the amount of towing I do, Im starting to wish I had an auto.. I just love the punch it and GO! Rowing through the gears can get a bit old sometimes.
Scott

MPG's
 

Funny, i tow a 3500 lb Boat from Orlando to tampa often with my 7.3 powerstroke Dually and my last run was 23.6mpg doing 75mph, my other car (4 banger) got 25, so i guess i am doing pretty good!:ok1:

Damn right you are!!!!

I get about 16 unloaded around town and on the interstate.

This past weekend i got about 11mpg pulling a 10K lb camper between 65-70mph on US Hwy 280 between I-85 and Birmingham, AL. It's a pretty hilly stretch of hwy and some of them are rather steep...guessing 10% grades or more? I was able to keep it in 6th gear on all the hills...would loose speed but never enough to have to down shift. had her pushed to the floor alot!!! Really need to get me some gauges so i know how high my EGT's are getting

MPG's
 

We left Washington state on a vacation pulling a 29 foot 5th wheel camp trailer all the way to Michigan. The Ford 6.0 only had 800 miles on it and I averaged 15-19 mpg. Cruise does help. Now at 59000 miles, I'm getting 19-22 mpg.

14.5 towing the BBQ trailer :jump:

I got 13~14 pulling my 01 Mallard 5er'; when i had my smaller camper (1986 25' nomad 5er') I got between 18~19. It was no where near as heavy: ~4,500lbs vs. ~12,000lbs. This is going from Hill Country Texas to the Coast and back...:pca1:

i just went on my first big trip this weekend southern ohio to virginia beach pulling about 5500 pounds and on flat ground running about 75 or so i was averaging around 17 and in the mountains i was getting around 14... truck is amazing..:jump:

Ok, I need some help here then. I just got back from Hermiston, OR where I bought our 'new' 04 Desert Fox 28K Toy Hauler. My truck hates this new trailer. It has to shift out of over drive on almost every hill. What is worse is when I figured out my mileage. From Boise to Twin I had about 135 miles on that tank and it used about 5/8 of it. I calculated it out at 6.35 mpg.
This trailer is supposed to be 28'. I weighed it at 8,560 empty. The only problem with these is that they are very tall. But I really didn't expect to see that bad of mileage.
What is going on here? Why am I out of power and using that much fuel?

WOW, just over 6mpg... I think big rigs even get better than that towing heavier loads! Several things to consider: transmission, pumpkin gears, programmer, terrain (lots of hills), speed...

When I did my first big pull on my 01 all stock, it was miserable: not enough power to fight a 40mph head wind, horrrrrrible fuel consumption, difficulty maintaining hwy speeds in 5th or 6th. Moded the truck with programmer, exhaust, intake: now I can yank my 30' 5th wheel (~12,000lbs) around with ease, and I am at 12~13mpg pulling and 20~21mpg empty!

Something else I just thought of... aero dynamics of the truck and trailer: factory bumpers, while not the most attractive serve the purpose of re-directing the air flow around and past things like the under carriage. Typically, when these are removed, there is sufferage in the mpg department, but minimal, just ~1 mpg; this of course depends on the amount of lift, tires ect.

If the truck can't handle the load on a grade in OD, then it is best to turn it off. You will get higher RPM's, but at least you won't smoke the tranny! I have read that if you run with out OD, not only is it better for the tranny, but it doesn't affect the over all mpg's while towing...

Just my nickle's worth of useless knowledge! Good Luck...:pca1::c:

How tall is really tall and how wide? Frontal area and drag can destroy the fuel economy of anything. Regardless of how heavy the trailer is, if you're trying to pull a wall through the air at highway speeds, you will see terrible fuel economy. How fast were you driving? How steep were the grades? Was it windy? There's a lot of things that can factor into this... If your truck is running properly otherwise, I'd attribute the poor performance just to drag.

13 to 14 pulling my 5500# Jayco.

I am happy with any thing in the teens pulling a stock trailer.:nope:

11 mpg pulling 10000 lbs. not the greatest but awesome power.

11 mpg, mostly in hills and mountains. Plenty of power and temps are fine. Used to get 7mpg with a Suburban and 454, with not as much power as the 6.7 cummins. TT usually around 8-9k.