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rbpru's avatar
rbpru
Explorer II
Mar 20, 2014

The elusive 10 mpg.

We just finished a 4 week 4500 mile trip to the Everglades and back. I have an F-150 with Eco-Boost pulling a 5000 lb. 26 ft. Dutchmen Lite. Even though we travel light the total TV and TT load was about 14,000 lb.

The towing was fine, the occasional Semi wind bump and 35 mph cross wind gusts were annoying but not troublesome.

My goal was to get 10 mpg at 60 to 65 mph. The majority of my driving was interstate. Unfortunately, both coming and going we had 10 to 15 mph crosswinds.

Going down to FL I averaged 9.8 mpg. using 87 octane gas. Coming home I used 89 octane gas and got 10.1 mpg. (The owner manual mentioned improved performance with 89 octane.) However, with a 20 cents per gallon cost differential, if you do the math, the 89 octane cost more per mile.

So, as had been posted on the forum before; a ½ ton pulling a 5000 lb. trailer can expect to get about 9 ½ to 10 mpg. at 60 to 65 mph. proved to be true.
  • You did good. We usually get 8.5-9, maybe 9.5 pulling our 5100lb trailer. Of course our Expy EL 4x4 is heavy, plus 5-6 people, and lots of frontal area. So we are at a total loaded weigh of about 12000lbs being moved by the venerable 5.4.
  • That sounds great. Your truck must be heavier than my 2010 GMC Sierra with the 6.2L. I weighted my truck and trailer on the scales and my combine weight was 14002 pounds. My trailer weight was 7342 and truck weight was 6660. Driving from Ohio to Yellowstone and back I averaged 10.8 mpg after a bunch of upgrades. I averaged around 9 before the upgrades.
  • Actually you did better then we did with our 2001 Chevy 2500HD with a 30ft trailer. At 65 and in varied terrain we averaged around 8.5 mpg. Same trailer with our 07 Dodge diesel we see 11.5 mpg with similar driving conditions over several years.

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