average MPG towing with the ecodiesel

[jdn112011]

Hauling fencing home for a spring/summer project. Was a 2 hour trip got 18 or so pulling the trailer empty with bad crosswinds but hit a 20MPH headwind coming home and it was pretty rough. About 12MPG. But comparing it to a gas truck I won't complain. Pulling empty was same MPG you see in a gas v8 highway on a good day. So what's there to complain about?


Had 240' of 6' treated privacy fencing. Plus a crib and trip to Sam's Club in the back of the truck.

 

[jdn112011]

I was getting about 14 with this combo though a short trip. Was a bit tubby though.


Caught me a Hemi

 

[SuperTodd]

I have towed my 18' Custom Weld viper river sled from talent to Lk of the woods. 1500 ft elevation to 5500 ft elevation and seem to ave 18.5-20 mpg. boat weighs right around 3700lbs on the trailer. 3.55 ratio and use trailer mode

 

[jdn112011]

I have towed my 18' Custom Weld viper river sled from talent to Lk of the woods. 1500 ft elevation to 5500 ft elevation and seem to ave 18.5-20 mpg. boat weighs right around 3700lbs on the trailer. 3.55 ratio and use trailer mode

Mn/Canada Lake of the woods?

 

[SuperTodd]

Mn/Canada Lake of the woods?

Nope Southern Oregon Lake of the Woods in Klamath county

 

[k9s4hire]

Reading all these posts on MPG makes me really happy at our decision to purchase the EcoDiesel. I owned a 2001 2500 Cummings. The MPG hardly changed empty or loaded. The most I could get out of her was 18 MPG. Having a rig that can wear different hats for different needs is impressive. I am really looking forward to our time getting to know this truck.

 

[thawkins57]

I pull a 25' travel trailer - about 6500 lbs. Our trips are primarily to a campground 25 miles away. If you know anything about Reno, you know you can't go anywhere without changing significant elevation. My only trip this year, so far, and my first with the EcoDiesel, gave me 13 mpg.

I'm ecstatic, considering the same trip with my 2014 Hemi never gave me more than 8 mpg. I get 20 around town, unloaded, and 31 on the highway, in spite of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

 

[Stan Laurel]

Well I figured out why my mileage was so crappy while towing. I had left the truck in "Tow/Haul" mode 100% of the time while hitched to my 6500 lb camper. That's fine for everything except the highway as it turns out. Once I shut it off on the highway, allowing shifts into 8th gear, I started getting around 16-18 mpg. Much better.

 

[jdn112011]

Tow hall doesn't Merritt using overdrive. The low rpm and slight lugging of the engine cause transmission to overheat on the highway. You're better off to run higher rpm in 7th gear and if it's not needing the power so much then your MPG should remain the same in 7th as it would lugging in 8th. Just as acceleration in tow haul is longer use of individual gears using the engine and rpm band to bring you up to speed and keeping the torque converter locked rather than soft short shifts with a lot of riding the torque converter to feather shifts and rpm deviations creating a smoother ride.

Unless you're pulling a small trailer, flatbed, under 3000-4000# and low wind resistance in which case tow/haul would not be necessary.
Any enclosed trailer, camper, high profile or loaded deck trailer that has any significant size to it use the tow haul regardless of rpm's at highway speed. Regardless a larger trailer should not have any significant MPG difference in 7th rather than 8th with the exception you're not burying your foot to stay at speed in 8th essentially using the same amount of fuel.

 

[Stan Laurel]

Tow hall doesn't Merritt using overdrive. The low rpm and slight lugging of the engine cause transmission to overheat on the highway. You're better off to run higher rpm in 7th gear and if it's not needing the power so much then your MPG should remain the same in 7th as it would lugging in 8th. Just as acceleration in tow haul is longer use of individual gears using the engine and rpm band to bring you up to speed and keeping the torque converter locked rather than soft short shifts with a lot of riding the torque converter to feather shifts and rpm deviations creating a smoother ride.

Unless you're pulling a small trailer, flatbed, under 3000-4000# and low wind resistance in which case tow/haul would not be necessary.
Any enclosed trailer, camper, high profile or loaded deck trailer that has any significant size to it use the tow haul regardless of rpm's at highway speed. Regardless a larger trailer should not have any significant MPG difference in 7th rather than 8th with the exception you're not burying your foot to stay at speed in 8th essentially using the same amount of fuel.

How would you explain the fact that I was lucky to get 11 mpg towing my camper? Nobody else here has said they get such poor towing mileage.

 

[jdn112011]

How would you explain the fact that I was lucky to get 11 mpg towing my camper? Nobody else here has said they get such poor towing mileage.

What speeds do you tow at? 6500# trailer and you actually holding 8th gear tells me your foot was buried at remotely highway speed. I couldn't hold 8th with a 16' empty v-nose standard height enclosed trailer unless I'm going nearly 80 and holding high enough rpm for the Turbo to be fully spooled. Needless to say I went fast enough to determine the speed required to hold 8th and that was it.

If you have 3.92's you could maybe knock off 5MPH to maintain rpm

 

[ocn]

Last Spring I did a round trip from SC to CA and back towing an 18 ft. open car trailer with car on it. Routinely running 70-75 mph. Trip average by hand calc was a touch over 22 mpg. Last summer I did a similar trip towing a 24 ft enclosed car trailer with car in it. That checked in at around 7300 lbs. Averaged 14.7 mpg for the 6200+ miles, running anywhere from 65-75 mph. With the Tundra my ED replaced, I never saw more than 14 with the open trailer and 9 mpg with the enclosed trailer, at a minimum of 10 mph lower speeds.

2014 Big Horn short bed crew with 3.55.

 

[jdn112011]

Last Spring I did a round trip from SC to CA and back towing an 18 ft. open car trailer with car on it. Routinely running 70-75 mph. Trip average by hand calc was a touch over 22 mpg. Last summer I did a similar trip towing a 24 ft enclosed car trailer with car in it. That checked in at around 7300 lbs. Averaged 14.7 mpg for the 6200+ miles, running anywhere from 65-75 mph. With the Tundra my ED replaced, I never saw more than 14 with the open trailer and 9 mpg with the enclosed trailer, at a minimum of 10 mph lower speeds.

2014 Big Horn short bed crew with 3.55.

Well those two trips alone saved you near a truck payment worth of fuel expenses. It's amazing the differences you can see.

Toyota's are nice but they're also known for being particularly thirsty

 

[ocn]

Saved a big sum with those trips and other towing trips too. Covered somewhere around 23K in towing since getting the ED. Running back & forth to work empty I'm consistently 21-23 which is a lot better than the 14-15 of the Tundra for same trip. On the highway the Tundra never hit 20 mpg even feather footing it. ED has given me 29 running 75-80 empty on Interstates. Based on my records for ED and Tundra, over the first 65000 miles I've saved about $3130 on fuel costs.

 

[bobcat67]

Pulled an 18ft skeeter boat the other day in Montana on a very hilly road to a reservoir and got about 13-14 maintained 75 mph the whole way. Definitely not like pulling with a 3/4-1 ton, but overall I'm happy with its road manners

 

[Stan Laurel]

What speeds do you tow at? 6500# trailer and you actually holding 8th gear tells me your foot was buried at remotely highway speed. I couldn't hold 8th with a 16' empty v-nose standard height enclosed trailer unless I'm going nearly 80 and holding high enough rpm for the Turbo to be fully spooled. Needless to say I went fast enough to determine the speed required to hold 8th and that was it.

If you have 3.92's you could maybe knock off 5MPH to maintain rpm

I keep it at 65, and I have 3.55's. I understand what you're saying and it makes sense, but leaves me with my original issue - poor towing MPG relative to what others are experiencing with similar tow weights. No mountainous terrain, tires are always at proper pressure, and no, it doesn't hold 8th with any perceptible incline. So I have no problem using tow/haul, but would expect to see something higher than 11 MPG.

 

[JSchneib]

Stan, you have a very similar trailer to the one I have in length, weight and that flat, angled front panel. My first tow with it was from Colorado to Iowa and back. 11-13 mpg. The roads in Iowa and Eastern Nebraska are horrible and the wind blew in one direction or another the whole time. I just finished the second tow which was a longer trip Southwest. Better roads, very little wind more hills. I averaged 14.5 for the entire trip. The beginning of the trip was from my home an hour north of Denver to Breckinridge going I-70 through the Eisenhower Tunnel and stop and go (more stop than go) on I-76 for 30-40 minutes for an accident. This section got 12.4 mpg with the traffic delay and pulling up to the tunnel. This all got me thinking. I don't think the weight is the biggest factor. Travel Trailers seem like big parachutes in the wind and the drag kills mpg. Also, I noticed many Travel Trailers have a much more rounded 'bull nose' shape than ours do and I expect they go through the wind a little better. So I don't think you are off on the mileage you are seeing. Comparing trailers like ours to a boat or car hauler by weight is not a good comparison. Just my thoughts. On my recent trip I had a lot of time to observe different conditions and things like roads and wind also seem to have huge impacts on mpg.

 

[Lou]

did my first tow last week, empty car trailer from upstate NY to Portland Maine, the limit plus 5 to 8 all the way up, never used the truck lane at all pulled 18 mpg, coming back with a 4000 lb load on trailer so 5800 lbs approximately at the speed limit or plus till the second half of Vermont which we still pulled most of the grades at 50 to 55 backing done to 35-45 for the curves and then back to speed got 16.2 mpg. My normal warm weather mileage will vary from 22-25 mpg, my cold weather mileage will drop to high teens and about 22-23, it is not due to the fuel volume it is due to the emissions controls, we had an extremely mild winter and I could see the change in mileage even on the same tank from temperature differences.

Lou

 

[74 PowerWagon]

Just returned from a New Mexico to Alaska round trip. I was hauling 21ft slab front 3,900 lb full size travel trailer with 600 lbs of gear in the bed (covered by a BakFlip2) and 3 BIG guys in the cab. Tried to stay at the posted speed on whatever road I was on and got 13.5 mpg avg on the trip while towing and 25.1 avg mpg when unhooked. 2015 Big Horn 4X4, 3.55 rear, 4dr, short bed with a BakFlip 2 cover, 4 corner factory air suspension, Ranch Hand heavy front bumper and Michelin load range D A/T2s. Guess I cant complain except that the Alcan highway ate my windshield.

 

[Michel]

Last June, a trip to Newfoundland for about 4,200 miles. Averaged 15.9 mpg, with a trailer about 5,500 lbs.