An Unexpected Benefit

Good idea. Get a bigger/heavier toad and make money by selling your excess gas.

But, you better do it quickly. Once this catches on with RVers we'll have to pay to dispose of all the extra gas we're creating. :B

You're most likely correct. The higher profile fills in the low pressure area behind the RV.

I get better fuel economy towing my Fiesta behind the van than I do solo, although I'm probably driving a little more conservatively with the car than I realize.

One 150 mile trip compared to 5 years experience is not a fair comparison. There are way too many variables. Come back in 5 years comparing 5 years of towing the Miata with 5 years of towing the Equinox.

DownTheAvenue wrote:
One 150 mile trip compared to 5 years experience is not a fair comparison.

You are correct, Sir. One data point does not make a Theorem, but it should be pointed out that in the 5 years of towing a Miata, I NEVER, even towing downhill with a tail wind (which we all know NEVER happens) got 10.6 MPG.

Even if the mileage towing the 1,000# heavier "Nox" is the same as towing the Miata, I am happy with it. 1 MPG more is icing.

Tim

I do believe also that the tow car helps to smooth out the air flow. I have often thought about a flexible fabric that would attach to the top and sides of the MH and then attach to the tow car producing a more laminar flow and keeping the tow car clean at the same time. I have tracked every gal of gas over 80k miles, 20k with no tow and 60k towing and see no difference in MPG. Individual reading range from a high of 12.6 to a low of 5.7 mpg but I average 8.6 mpg towing or not towing a 2500 lb Toyota Corolla. So I believe (rightly or wrongly) the better flow from the tow car offsets the weight of the car. I know others say the tow car reduces their MPG by 1 MPG its just not my experience.

Dang. I have yet to pick up my 2007 Itasca Impulse 31' Class C but all the info I have researched said to expect no more than around 9 mpg without towing. I'm afraid of what mpg I'll get towing our trailer with 2 motorcycles in it.

In dash MPG calculators are notoriously in-accurate. I don't have one and would not use it if I did. Simple spreadsheet with columns for all the info.

My Winnebago View shows 17.539 mpg over 17 fillups and about 4000 miles. Those are the numbers since I bought it.

My '91 Ranger pickup now has 296K+ miles on it and I started the spread sheet in late 2011. Since the beginning of the spreadsheet, has put on 34,133 miles, and 121 fillups (it is basically an extra vehicle) and averages 24.559 mpg which gets down to 20 mpg on tanks where I pull the 5x10 lawn type trailer. This thing just about cannot get out of its own way.

My '04 Pontiac Vibe was the reason for the spreadsheet. It gets individual tank full calculations all over the map, because it is difficult to consistently fill it, so from when I purchased it, I have driven it 117,605 miles with 403 fillups and average 32.280 mpg.

You want numbers, a spreadsheet and diligence in keeping numbers and receipts is the way to go.

Charles

CharlesinGA wrote:

You want numbers, a spreadsheet and diligence in keeping numbers and receipts is the way to go.

Charles

Charles,

There is an app called Moto Minder. I use it for my motorcycle to calculate mpg. You enter the data each time you fill up. The neat thing about the app was that you could put date or mileage reminders to do certain maintenance on the vehicle. It also showed graphs and such. It is an older app so I don't know how it will work on the newer updates. I got the app about 2 years ago for my iPhone.

Moto Minder and the picture of the icon is a red box with a wrench and an odometer across the box.

Autosist is another good one too.

CharlesinGA wrote:
In dash MPG calculators are notoriously in-accurate.

Charles,

In the 5 years that I referenced towing a Miata, I have had both a 2013 and a 2014 Coachmen Freelander on a Chev cut-away chassis.

While not having become a slave to a spreadsheet, for more than a dozen tanks full, I have done the arithmetic on my phone calculator and have found that my dash mileage readout MPG has NEVER been more than .2 +/- from what the calculator reads.

It works for me. I don't even do the math any more. I let Chevy do it.

Tim