truck camper mpg vs. fifth wheel
Good morning, Sometime in the next few years I am considering getting a truck camper. We had an ancient small one years ago before going to travel trailers and fivers. I love my 38' fifth wheel and...
Forum Discussion
gitpicker2009 wrote:
I always seem to average about 11mpg with an Arctic Fox 1150 on my Sterling 4500 dually. It's all about wind resistance and thus speed. Cummins did a massive multi year study for big rigs and determined that up to about 50mph almost all power was applied to setting the weight into motion. Above that it was almost exclusively about overcoming wind resistance. They determined that that the magic number was about 62 mph. Above that and you start getting such drag and resistance that you are wasting energy. I set the cruise at about 62, relax and enjoy the scenery.
Another frequent poster here did his own study on his GMC D/A 3500 4x4 dually hauling his double slide camper. After many, many computations, he plotted the results graphically. His conclusion was 58 mph was his rig's sweet spot. I frequently got 20+ mpg on my 2007.5 GMC D/A 2500 4x4 short bed with a bed cover hauling my tiny DW and huge self plus luggage. I set 62 mph and enjoyed the ride.
Slower on uncrowded, rural interstates isn't unsafe.
Bill
