Ford 7.3 gas burner mpg hauling TC

I don't drive to get the best gas mileage.
I drive to get there.
The gas mileage is what it is when I get back.

Never makes sense to get all worked up about what kind of fuel mileage a given hauling / towing vehicle gets when it's doing its job of hauling or towing.

In the grand scheme of things, several MPGs difference doesn't make that big of a dent in the cost of fuel for a trip. If it does hurt that much (to a persons pocket book) they probably shouldn't be RVing in the first place.

Sorry to rain on the parade, but a friend told me this years ago, and I agree with it now.

My dually only gets about 10.5-11.5 hauling my 811 and a cargo trailer. It's a cost of having fun. I had a blast going to Colorado for a week this summer. It was about a 2500 mile trip. In the 11 years I've owned this truck, I've never been able to fuel up as cheaply as I did this summer. I'd run it down to 1/4 tank and still not spend over $58.00 to fill it.

Many previous trips, I'd hit the max limit of a given fuel stations "credit card limit" and have to run the card twice to fill up... which was upwards of $125.00 per fill up!

If my tow rig was also my daily driver, then I'd probably want something that got reasonable MPG as a daily driver.... but in my case, my truck is horrible on fuel as a daily driver.... it only gets 11.5-12, so I've always had a commuter car as my DD.

It won't be much different than towing a trailer. A TC is a huge aerodynamic drag which decreases fuel efficiency. I used to get about 10 mpg with my Chevy diesel hauling my 11' TC. I get the exact same mileage using the same truck (with no camper) to pull 10,000 pounds of flatbed trailer and excavation equipment.

I use fuelly, what you can see in my signature and on the site I make notes about changing conditions. When about 90% of my mileage is with camper, few miles were empty and the site allows you to make % of city driving indication.
From 113 fillups, the worse was 9.4 mpg (with TC and boat) the best 16.23 when I drove from SF to LV empty (remember the winds?)
Than driving empty I kept 75 mph, instead usual 60 with camper.
The records also indicate that my mpg improved by like 5% once the truck passed 20,000 miles. Looks like this is when the engine finally broke-in.

Why is gas mileage soo hard to figure out??

I took a road trip with the camper on my truck from Utah to Oregon, down the CA coast, back over the Sierra's thru NV and back home.

I averaged 8.7 mpg and I'm sure I experienced just about every driving condition other than snow.

"3 trips, so average -going down to Vegas with ca 7000lb of stuff I was averaging 11 mpg. Going back empty, I averaged 9 mpg."

The mysteries of towing.

jimh425 wrote:
I’d also through wind into the equation.

That might be included in speed part, but I still remember moving with 7k cargo trailer from San Francisco area to Las Vegas.
3 trips, so average -going down to Vegas with ca 7000lb of stuff I was averaging 11 mpg.
Going back empty, I averaged 9 mpg. CC always set firmly at 60 mph.
You can figure out how desert winds can play with fuel economy.

jaycocreek wrote:
IMHO,the new 7.3 isn't getting much better(if any) mileage than the old 7.5(460) ..But there was a good HP and TQ gain over the stock 460.

The 460 ended production in 1997 from what I’ve found. Of course, the trucks are remarkably different than they were in 97. Better is a matter of opinion but dramatically different. The 97 was probably about 2000 lbs lighter and of course, the transmission is dramatically stronger now.

I’ll agree with other posters that mpg is fully dependent on speed and type terrain you are driving over. I’d also through wind into the equation.

Btw, they changed the suspension and tires as well.

https://www.tfltruck.com/2020/06/ford-super-tremor-pop-up-camper-video/

How does the camper affect fuel economy?

After the camper went in, we had to see just how much the install affected fuel economy. While the stock truck managed about 15.5 mpg and the off-road modifications changed that figure to 13.3 mpg. Over 964 miles, Andre used 84.424 gallons of fuel, amounting to a new fuel economy figure of 11.4 mpg.

Overall, the modifications we’ve made to the truck to date resulted in a 26 percent drop in fuel economy. When it comes to actually taking the truck off-road, though, the changes should make the Super Tremor a worthy companion when we leave the payment. That’s coming up in new episodes of our “No Pavement Needed” series, so stay tuned to TFLtruck.com for more updates on that!

The biggest factor is always speed, so giving mpg value without speed is garbage IMHO.
On several big vehicles I noticed higher mpg in the mountains, than on flat freeways. That made me scratching my head for a while, till I concluded that in the mountains I drop the speed by 20mph, what gives me ca 30% better mpg.
So even when grades will eat 15%, my fuel consumption is still lower.