Gas milage with bigger vehicle

[bushido41]

Hello Everyone,

As you can see from my signature info I own a Nissan Titan. The Titan will give you around 13/14 miles in the city and 18/19 on the highway. When I two my TTT I do not think I drop more than 1 mile while driving on the highway. In preparation for the long trip to Nebraska this summer to attend the ITG, I was considering to purchase a smaller vehicle that will give me better gas milage. The question is will I do better with a 6 cylinder vehicle that might be stress more by the load of the trailer?
Or the difference will be a wash?

I will appreciate all the comments you can offer. By the way the Titan is paid off and has low millage for the year, 2004 with 65000 miles.

Thank you

[ANNA&STEVE]

We tow with a 2006 chevy malibu v6 and get 28mpg with the camp inn and 32mpg without it on the highway.

[Pottercounty]

We tow our 1100 lb teardrop with our GMC 1500 V8 and got 21 mpg on the highway last year. The down side is that its a 22 gallon tank...

[TheBizMan]

My teardrop weights 1550 lbs. and I pull it with a 2003 ford f150 6 cyl. I get 17 mpg without the TD and 16 pulling it.

[dguff]

If you are thinking of a new truck which gets better mileage do some arithmetic. If you get 5 mpg better on a 4000 mile trip you would save the purchase of 80 gallons of gas. At $4 per gallon you would save $320. Consider how long it would take to break even on a new vehicle saving $1280 per year on gas (assuming 16000 miles per year). Since your Titan is paid for and only has 65000 miles you can buy an awful lot of gas during its useful life rather than replacing it. Don't do it.

Jerome

[caseydog]

Like Jerome, I would not trade-in the Titan just for this trip. Now, if you are wanting something more fuel efficient overall and for the long term, then there are probably plenty of vehicles that will get a lot better milage than your Titan, and still tow a trailer.

BTW, at highway speeds, aerodynamic drag effects fuel economy WAY more than the weight of a trailer.

Your Titan is already a big brick trying to move air out of the way, so the trailer shouldn't make much difference.

CD

[eamarquardt]

I get about 20-22 mpg on trips in my Ford Windstar van with a 3.6 V6. It drops to about 17-18 hwy when I tow my dump trailer (weighs empty 2000#).

I've read "in theory gas engines are most economical when run at full throttle (no pumping losses just like a diesel-no energy lost pulling a vacuum in the intake manifold). In reality it seems as though the more lightly loaded your engine, the better economy you get. IE: a big engine lightly loaded seems to get better economy than a small engine heavily loaded.

I'd avoid a 4 banger and go with V6 not a V8 as overall I think, IMHO, that the V6 will get the best economy combination when towing/not towing and save money over the 4 (when towing) and 8 (when not towing).

Conjecture no facts.

Cheers,

Gus

[aggie79]

After totalling my Honda CR-V in a wreck during a February ice storm, I purchased an F-150 with the 5.0liter V-8. It is rated at 15 mpg in town and 21 mpg on the highway.

There were two smaller V-6s available. The 3.7 liter is rated at 17 and 23 mpg and the turbocharged 3.5 liter V-6 is rated at 16 and 22 mpg. There's not much difference between the V-6s and the 5.0L V-8. And the turbocharged (EcoBoost) V-6 adds $1200+ to the price of the truck compared to the V-8.

By the computer, on a recent camping trip to Oklahoma, I averaged about 18 mpg pulling my teardrop at 65-70 mph. Normally I get around 18.4-18.7 on the highway, so there's not that much difference with or without the teardrop.

The Titan is a great truck. I would keep it and not have the expense of a new vehicle.

[asianflava]

We used to tow our tear with my wife's 4-cyl Highlander. It had no problem hauling it over the hump on the way to IRG. Mileage suffered, it dropped to 18-19 when we normally get 25-26. Since mileage dropped and the tank stayed the same, our range dropped so I had to look for gas at 250mi.

I now tow the same trailer with my V8 Tundra it drops to 16-17 when towing but I normally get 17-18 without. The added range and extra room are worth the minimal hit to fuel economy. Just keep the speeds down and your mileage won't suffer (as much).

BTW: I'll be in Palm Bay tomorrow visiting my folks.

[eamarquardt]

We used to tow our tear with my wife's 4-cyl Highlander. It had no problem hauling it over the hump on the way to IRG. Mileage suffered, it dropped to 18-19 when we normally get 25-26. Since mileage dropped and the tank stayed the same, our range dropped so I had to look for gas at 250mi.

I now tow the same trailer with my V8 Tundra it drops to 16-17 when towing but I normally get 17-18 without. The added range and extra room are worth the minimal hit to fuel economy. Just keep the speeds down and your mileage won't suffer (as much).

BTW: I'll be in Palm Bay tomorrow visiting my folks.

Above is exactly what I tried to say earlier. A small engine will take a bigger hit when towing than a big engine. Not sure why as the little engine (in theory) should be running closer to full throttle and maximum efficiency????

Cheers,

Gus

[caseydog]

We used to tow our tear with my wife's 4-cyl Highlander. It had no problem hauling it over the hump on the way to IRG. Mileage suffered, it dropped to 18-19 when we normally get 25-26. Since mileage dropped and the tank stayed the same, our range dropped so I had to look for gas at 250mi.

I now tow the same trailer with my V8 Tundra it drops to 16-17 when towing but I normally get 17-18 without. The added range and extra room are worth the minimal hit to fuel economy. Just keep the speeds down and your mileage won't suffer (as much).

BTW: I'll be in Palm Bay tomorrow visiting my folks.

Above is exactly what I tried to say earlier. A small engine will take a bigger hit when towing than a big engine.

Unless it is a diesel. Diesels tend to be less effected by towing than gasoline engines.

Ford was going to offer a 4.4 litre diesel in the F150, but went the EcoBoost route, instead. I think a small turbo-diesel in a half ton pickup would sell as fast as they can build them.

The Ford F150 EcoBoost is a step in the right direction. More power than the 5.0 V8, and fuel economy almost the same as the base V6.

Only and Aggie would pass that up.

CD

[Gage]

Above is exactly what I tried to say earlier. A small engine will take a bigger hit when towing than a big engine. Not sure why as the little engine (in theory) should be running closer to full throttle and maximum efficiency????
Cheers,
Gus

The smaller enging is working harder and uses more gas. Where as the big engine isn't to pull the same weight. Does that make sense?

[emiller]

I got around 19 MPG in my 2004 Nissan Titan fully loaded with camping gear and my 5 wide. I now get 19 MPG on a good day with our 2007 Chevy Equinox v-6 and a four wide teardrop and less camping gear. Going to Lake Perris I got 16 because of wind. I wish I had the Titan still. But the Equinox gets around 24 MPG not towing. Lots of hills here on the west coast so I prefer a larger vehicle with a larger engine.

[eamarquardt]

Above is exactly what I tried to say earlier. A small engine will take a bigger hit when towing than a big engine. Not sure why as the little engine (in theory) should be running closer to full throttle and maximum efficiency????
Cheers,
Gus

The smaller enging is working harder and uses more gas. Where as the big engine isn't to pull the same weight. Does that make sense?

Thanks for the response. I know what you're saying is true. However: It takes the same amount of energy to move the tow vehicle and trailer down the road whether the engine generating the power is big or small. So it must be the efficiency of the tranmission/engine displacement/engine rpm that causes the difference in efficiency.

Interesting reading:

http://www.viragotech.com/fixit/FuelEco ... Power.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/autom ... .html?_r=1

http://www.allbusiness.com/transportati ... 815-1.html

Don't have time/energy/sobriety(pain killers) right now to read and digest all that.

I'm sure there is a "curve" defining where, for a given load, a certain displacement engine would be optimum. Give that a tow vehicle sometimes tows and sometimes doesn't I currently think, IMHO, that perhaps a 6 cyl is an appropriate compromise (everything in life is a compromise). Maybe, maybe not!

It's kinda a mute point for me (but understanding the topic is fun and enlightening) as the the type of vehicle (van or crossover) that I purchase next is usually available only with a 6 cyl (perhaps two different sizes) so there is little choice.

V8s seem to be gradually fading away in all but trucks and a few "muscle cars".

Cheers,

Gus

[eamarquardt]

Unless it is a diesel. Diesels tend to be less effected by towing than gasoline engines. CD

Probably because diesels develop their torque sooner so can run at lower rpms and don't have the "pumping losses" of a gas engine.

Interesting reading:

http://www.compacttractorreview.com/art ... R-Gas.aspx

At one time all my vehicles were diesel. '79 VW 1500cc rabbit, '85 BMW 2.4 L turbo diesel, and an '85 2.4 L turbo diesel Toyota PU. Loved em.

Cheers,

Gus