Tow Mode & Gas Mileage
We tow a '10 Jeep Wrangler behind our 30' V10 G'town and our gas mileage is pretty sad (under 8 mpg). DH thought that perhaps being in tow mode caused it to use more gas so wondered if we were drivin...
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..What 'downtheroad' said. :)
Seriously, when you're moving basically a huge aerodynamic 'brick' down the road, you're going to use up a lot of fuel, whether towing a car or not. No real way around it, Just the price you pay for admission here. Your mileage indeed sounds about right for a MH on the Ford V10 chassis.
We have a Georgetown MH, also, although ours is a bit bigger (see signature). Ours is built on same chassis as yours (Ford F53), and only one year newer, so drivetrain is probably 'bout identical.
I've experimented with the tow/haul mode you mentioned, and most of the time, I just leave it off, whether towing or not. It will have very little if any effect on mileage. Main thing I've noticed it does, is forces the transmission to downshift more whenever you get off the gas pedal, allowing for more engine braking when going down a hill. I actually found this a bit annoying most of the time, as it made the engine 'brake' the MH more than I wanted, and caused engine to rev more than necessary. Shift points when accelerating are probably changed a little as well.
Only time I turn on tow/haul mode, is when we're coming down mountain passes, where we want that extra engine braking. It stays off the rest of the time. To answer your specific question, though: I really doubt towing mode has any effect at all on mileage. Mileage with a rig like this is going to be bad no matter what you do, haha. :)
Seriously, when you're moving basically a huge aerodynamic 'brick' down the road, you're going to use up a lot of fuel, whether towing a car or not. No real way around it, Just the price you pay for admission here. Your mileage indeed sounds about right for a MH on the Ford V10 chassis.
We have a Georgetown MH, also, although ours is a bit bigger (see signature). Ours is built on same chassis as yours (Ford F53), and only one year newer, so drivetrain is probably 'bout identical.
I've experimented with the tow/haul mode you mentioned, and most of the time, I just leave it off, whether towing or not. It will have very little if any effect on mileage. Main thing I've noticed it does, is forces the transmission to downshift more whenever you get off the gas pedal, allowing for more engine braking when going down a hill. I actually found this a bit annoying most of the time, as it made the engine 'brake' the MH more than I wanted, and caused engine to rev more than necessary. Shift points when accelerating are probably changed a little as well.
Only time I turn on tow/haul mode, is when we're coming down mountain passes, where we want that extra engine braking. It stays off the rest of the time. To answer your specific question, though: I really doubt towing mode has any effect at all on mileage. Mileage with a rig like this is going to be bad no matter what you do, haha. :)
