Gas mileage ?

All about towing and tow vehicles

Postby StandUpGuy » Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:46 pm

I disagree. There is a reason or series of reasons all about supply and demand. We need to get smart and demand that drilling be allowed again in the Gulf. I know one person myself who is out of a job on a drilling platform in the Gulf. Restrictions need to be lifted and we need to start drilling for additional oil in the USA. That small percentage increase on the world market would be profound.
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Postby Constrictor » Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:28 am

StandUpGuy wrote:I disagree. There is a reason or series of reasons all about supply and demand. We need to get smart and demand that drilling be allowed again in the Gulf. I know one person myself who is out of a job on a drilling platform in the Gulf. Restrictions need to be lifted and we need to start drilling for additional oil in the USA. That small percentage increase on the world market would be profound.
Then it is back to politics as being the reason after all!
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Postby Shug » Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:05 am

In the UK 1 litre of petrol is about £0.47 a litre.
Of course once the government adds on its tax it becomes £1.31 a litre.
And they have the cheek to blame the markets for the price.
Thats £4.92 for a gallon. (or $8.02 a gallon) Apparently its more expensive in Germany. In venezuela I think, its about 2p a litre.
Thats why anything less than 35mpg gets a bit stressful for me! My current motor does 40mpg on a long run, about 25 in the city. Dunno yet what teardrop towing will do to that. :worship:
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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby apopj » Wed Jul 01, 2015 2:28 pm

I just towed a 2012 Little Guy 5 Wide home to Ohio from Tallahassee, FL.... I tow with a 2012 Ford Focus Titanium, 4 cyl, 6 speed auto. Going down, cruise set at 70, not towing anything, I averaged 38-39 MPG.... coming back with the Little Guy empty, cruise set at 65 I averaged 29-29 MPG. So, yes, abut a 10 MPG drop seems to be right. Nothing changed but the trailer and speed, so this should be fairly accurate. :thinking:
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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby dguff » Wed Jul 01, 2015 4:30 pm

I recently put a hitch on my 2013 Toyota Highlander specifically to tow my teardrop. It is a V6 with automatic and AWD. On previous trips the car averaged about 24 mpg.
Towing the teardrop three weeks ago I averaged about 19 mpg for nearly 2000 miles. A 5 mpg drop or about 20%.

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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby S. Heisley » Wed Jul 01, 2015 5:09 pm

When I made my 5,000 mile trip, I kept track of my mileage. My tow vehicle, a 2009 V6 Jeep Liberty, gets 19 mpg highway and 15 mpg city. With the trailer in tow, I lost just 4 mpg total; or, stated differently, I got 15 mpg overall, including both city and highway driving (but mostly highway driving).
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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby Cosmo » Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:55 pm

2015 Subaru Forester loaded with gear 25mpg average over not flat terrain.@60 mpg towing my TD.

Not towing over same terrain rsame speed 33mpg average.

My measurements come out the same for the last several trips.
Am happy with the mpg I am getting while towing.


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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby canned o minimum » Mon Jul 13, 2015 9:27 pm

As sumone so eloquently put it...Kinda like rollin a wheelbarrow empty as opposed to full...a little problematic to git rollin, but then nice an easy until ya hafta stop. Simple physics actually.Whilst I'm certain thaty sum "scientist" will give us all the "particulars", but plain and simple... lighter is better ( till ya git too light) and simple is better than complex and over built. As fer gas mileage...I DON'T CARE ! I love to drive my 65 VW beetle AND tow ,my teardrop behind it ! I doesn't has a $500 a month car payment and I can fix it MYSELF !
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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby stoneycoyote » Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:36 am

On our first time out. 2010 subaru , dropped 2 mpg is all.
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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby Vedette » Tue Jul 14, 2015 10:44 am

We get better gas mileage with Miss Piggy in tow behind Sandi's Hyundai Santa Fe than we do with out it.
But, my 46 Studebaker is a different story.
So "Draft" plays a factor in mileage also.
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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby Cosmo » Mon Jul 20, 2015 7:16 pm

Was out again last week. 550 miles over rolling new England landscape. This time at a steady 65 - 60 mph I managed to get 26MPG average towing with the 2015 Subaru forester. Car was pretty loaded up with gear. Nothing on the roof.

I found this article to agree with my fuel economy results.
http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/driveHabits.jsp


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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby TechScott » Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:23 am

Reading this thread everyone alludes to the same factors that effect mileage when towing:

    Trailer Weight
    Aerodynamics (width or resistance)
    Aerodynamics (shape or drag)
    Tow Speed (breakdown of aerodynamics)

Missing is the relationship of the horsepower, torque and aerodynamic efficiency of the tow vehicle.

Many vehicles are optimized to provide the proper horsepower and torque to maintain the best possible fuel mileage at a certain weight and drag. One of the posters has a Golf TDI, this is a highly optimized diesel that get great mileage; when you operate it a certain way. A couple of years ago I went on a trip with friends. We budgeted out money to share the expense of a long drive across Germany and France. We took out funds at the bank to cover the whole trip before we left to avoid ATM fees on the road. Then we met a couple of Americans backpacking across Europe who need to get to Frankfurt to return home to deal with a family emergency. No problem we were heading to Frankfurt anyway and they had plenty of time to make their flight. The problem, the additional weight of our passengers and gear (about 350 lbs by my estimate) total threw off the fuel mileage. The finely setup TDI dropped 8-10 MPG! We were driving on the same roads at the same speeds! I did notice we were: downshifting earlier on inclines, and lost some aerodynamic efficiency as the front end was slightly higher. I also noticed we were spending more money on fuel and ATM fees. But how could the addition of two passengers and a couple of backpacks cause so much havoc to the mileage?

The additional weight and loss of aerodynamics threw the diesel engine outside its most efficient operating range.
This is why cars with small engines and great gas mileage loose so much efficiency when adding a trailer.

They have the perfect weight to power and torque ratio until you add the trailer.

That's my 2 cents worth,

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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby DrewsBrews » Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:21 pm

Comparing the MPG drop between vehicles look less spectacular when you look at the % loss. 40mpg normal and 30 towing, a 10mpg drop, is a 25% reduction. 25mpg down to 19, a 6mpg drop, is a 24% reduction.
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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby bobhav » Mon Jul 27, 2015 4:16 pm

I just got back from CRA 2015. We were camping in a canvas covered Vardo that has 6'3"stand up space. My tow vehicle, a 1500 Chevy PU with a 4.3 L V6 regularly gets 19.5 MPG. Towing the Vardo up and down the hills in Spencer, In we got 13.5 MPG. That is a large percentage, 33.3% For the fun we had, I can easily live with that.

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Re: Gas mileage ?

Postby Dunenutt » Wed Jul 29, 2015 6:22 pm

<<<< Mine get's 10MPG. Down hill, up hill, city, county, Hwy. I don't expect it to change much with a teardrop behind it. LOL
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