Towing MPG Thread

[VMacKenzie]

OK KTA did his ultimate MPG thread, how about a towing MPG thread.

State truck config/trans, type and weight of load, speed towed at, RPM, and conditions (type of highway, headwind, etc) and any other pertinent details

Vaughn

[flashgordon]

OK KTA did his ultimate MPG thread, how about a towing MPG thread.

State truck config/trans, type and weight of load, speed towed at, RPM, and conditions (type of highway, headwind, etc) and any other pertinent details

Vaughn

15 MPG, 18' flat bed trailer, 93 honda Civic. 85 mph most of the time.........Every thing you see in my sign Below........The Gear Vender Overdrive had most to do with it w/4:10 Gears

Flash

[JD730]

12.5MPG, 93, club cab, 47RH, POD's, 96 dodge club cab CTD, puts GCWR somewhere between 18 and 19k lbs. 65 to 75MPH on rollings hills coming down rt 81 out of NY. This is the trip that cooked my trans front clutch, wouldn't find out till much later.

[oldestof11]

1993 W250 5 spd, 4.10's, 24ft GN Keifer Bilt.

The trailer had the flooring replaced with SOLID OAK custom cut 3"x8". Took a load of shingles to New Orleans. Probably weighed about/close to 20K combined. 70mph the whole way. Up and down hills, head winds, tail winds, rain, fog, almost no visibility to sweltering 80*. Got 12 mpg down and 14 on the way back minus the shingles.

Mods, 3200 rpm spring (life saver!), swiss cheesed air box, open 3" exhaust to 6" stacks, stock tires.

[GO OVRIT]

My 93 5spd with 2.5 turns on the fuel screw and straight piped got 13.5 towing my jeep and 20' tilt deck through the mountains. I was running between 75 and 35 depending on the grades and saw a peak of 1400 on the guage. Oh and that was with 37" tires.

[Philip]

93 W350 dually,518 auto, 3:08 gears, load was a 73 Olds Cutless on a tandem trailer. Weight was around 7k for a gross of 14k. Cruise set at 70MPH. I didn't have a tach at that time. All fuel stops hand figured came out at 13 MPG. This was from south of Tulsa to Peru, IN total milage was 775.

I made a total of three trips loaded with varis items. All three trips were 13 MPG loaded. All loads were in the gross range of 13 to 14k.

Going down empty I ran 18 MPG at 80 MPH all three times.

[SChandler]

Towed my dad's 93 Chevy pickup on a flatbed trailer with my 92. With three of us in the cab and bricks and sandbags in the bed for traction gross weight was approx. 16k. Towed up and down hills (a couple 6% grades), speed varied between 30 and 55 due to snow and ice on the roads (never got out of 4th gear). I got 15.4 on that tank with 200mi towing and the rest regular highway driving. EGT's never went over 1050.
Edit: That's with 3.54 gears.

[KTA]

1993 W350 370injectors, pump maxed, 4" exhaust, hx40/16 23000lbs gross, 70-75mph, 3.54gear, nv4500, 10mpg.

[dpuckett]

1993 D350 C&C steel flatbed Getrag and 3.54. 1-2 turns of fuel screw, H1C/18, straight pipe, AFC tinkering, timing bump. stock injectors. Haluing hay in '02.

Loaded GCVW of 23-24K. Averaged 13-14mpg, depending on wind. Averaged 65mph, 5th gear.

Empty truck and trailer (20ft car hauler), 9200#GW, 18.5mpg.

Empty truck- 19mpg.

[VMacKenzie]

Thanks for the info. I was interested to see how you guys compared to my 2nd Gen 12V trucks. . . overall looks like you all are getting a little better MPG towing than I do with either of my trucks ('96 4x4CC 5-speed and '98 4x2CC auto). Both get around 13 towing a light travel trailer, ~15 towing a flatbed with a car loaded on doing highway speeds (65).

Vaughn

[MunK]

1992 W350/5spd Wis-Nebraska. 24' enclosed car hauler loaded with furniture when we moved. 65 mph mpg in the 10-13mpg range. Figured out latter (after blowing 3 tires in 500 miles) that maybe the trailer was loaded a little heavy.

Next trip... smaller load.. 15mpg, same route, same truck, same speeds.
Same truck,empty trailer,70 mph it managed 15.2.

Last trip... 10.7 average...REAL heavy. Getrag died...hooked trailer to motorhome..(ugh) and managed to achieve a all time low of 4mpg at 55mph in camper. (the next 6bt swap)


NoRM

[CAJUN 93]

my truck in sig minus 4" straight exh (stock exh at the time ) with 20' open car trailer. covington, la to ft walton empty trailer- ft walton to sulphur, la with member tomtom's d250 on trailer and back to covington, la empty trailer. average 16.2 for entire 886 mile trip. that was one FUN weekend .

daryl

[greasemonkey]

I may be obsessive about some things, so I cleaned it up into a list so it's easier to scan through.

Truck Config/Trans: sig
Tires: 285/75-16 Dueler AT's
Load Wt: ~14k(contractor body 3500HD chevy on a GN)
Approx. speed: 50-65
RPM: 1700-2000
Terrain: up/down a 6% grade 40 miles, valley floor; 400 mi round trip
any other pertinent details: California has a 55mph speed limit for anything with a trailer.
Mileage: 15 mpg

Truck Config/Trans: sig
Tires: 305/70-16 procomp x-terrains (horrible anywhere near pavement)
Load Wt: typical- 5-7k, car/LT on a bumper pull 22ft flatbed
Approx. speed: 55
RPM: 1900
Terrain: flat for a few hundred miles, road might curve or veer every 5 miles or so, random stop signs or towns/city.
any other pertinent details: CA is retarded, requiring a 55mph speed for trailers.
Mileage: 17...only good thing about the low speed limit! that number makes the pwrstroke guys mad, they can't get that empty driving like gramps.


if you're lazy, just copy/paste that...

Truck Config/Trans:
Tires:
Load Wt:
Approx. speed:
RPM:
Terrain:
any other pertinent details:
Mileage:

[SChandler]

Mileage: 17...only good thing about the low speed limit! that number makes the pwrstroke guys mad, they can't get that empty driving like gramps.

I gave my dad a bad time about that. I got the same fuel mileage towing his truck (93 Chevy extended cab with 6.5L diesel) as he gets driving it empty.

[1tondodge]

little old thread but...

I got 17 mpg towing my fat pig of a jeep on an open car trailer back from Bend Or recently, plus going up and over the cascades, around 6.5k total with all the other crap I was hauling. I was pretty pleased but I didnt go over 63 mph. I wished the truck didnt have 410s so I could tow a little faster and still get decent milage.