truck camper mpg vs. fifth wheel

The question about weight can be whole long thread on its own. I found towing steady speed on a flat highway, I get the same mileage with a full or empty trailer. Add stop and go traffic or elevation changes to your drive and the weight will make a difference.

My personal experience is:
2004 Silverado 2500 6.0
60 miles per hr.
Truck only 19 mpg
Truck camper 11 mpg
Pulling a 36', 10000lb TT 8 mpg

PS: TOWPRO - MPG is MORE than wind resistance. It is also about weight!!! To prove it, pull your trailer LOADED and check the mileage and then pull it EMPTY under SAME conditions and check the mileage. There will be a difference!

On flats, you get about same mileage as pulling the fifth wheel due to the high profile. On varying elevation, you will get better mileage due to less weight.

There are a lot of variables including actual wind, the speed you travel, how steep the roads are, the height/width of the camper/trailer, the weight of the camper/trailer, the gearing, and the engine type.

From what I've read, most people get somewhere around 6-12 with larger fivers and 8-15 with truck campers. Quite a large range! Perhaps, one of the guys here who have both will give you their mpg with each to make this more comparable.

It might help to give more details about your truck (year, engine, gearing) and what model truck campers you are interested in. You could also search the archives (posts over a year old). I'm sure there have been a lot of MPG threads in the past.

Thanks. A little help from the wife driving is part of the reasoning also. We did a 7500 mile trip out west this summer and even though my wife and daughter both pull trailers around home where we know the roads, I wasn't very comfortable with either pulling on unknown roads. We might go 100 miles on wide open roads then go through congestion where I was not comfortable with them driving. I would feel a lot better if she was just driving the truck with a camper on the back rather than pulling the 38' whale behind her.

MPG drop towing is all about how much wind you are pushing. My truck camper moves almost as much air as my 5er. But the truck camper don't have the rolling resistance of towing a trailer. If your 5er cost you 5-6, I expect the truck came pr maybe in the 3-5 mpg loss.

but if your truck is properly setup, I feel my truck with slide-in camper is much easier to drive, more comfortable, and I can drive it much further before getting tired.
plus my wife says she can drive the truck with slide-in camper where she will not even move it with 5er attached. She did drive my 2002 dually with camper loaded home from Georgia once (700 miles) but she has not had a chance at the new one yet.