TT Gas Milage

You do not usually use the words MPG and towing in the same sentence. They are mutually exclusive.

It is the price you pay for RVing.

The Middle East situation :h

In case you are unaware, U.S. production of oil and other petroleum liquids has exploded from 5.5 million bpd in 2006 to 11.3 million barrels per day as of April. The oil companies have been complaining that unless the current export ban is lifted they will have to lay down their rigs and stop drilling — because there will be more oil than America’s refineries can handle. I would be surprised if gas prices go that high.

I never check my MPG while towing - it is what it is. Go camping and have fun! :P

Yep. Take it from someone with a very small hard sided TT -- 10 or 11 mpg, depending on which way the wind blows. Pop-ups get much better mileage.

But you have to put a price on the camping experience -- with a hard sided TT, setup is easier. Insulation is far superior (we do a lot of cold weather camping). It is much quieter (campgrounds can be noisy). Some campgrounds do not allow pop ups because of bears. Rain can be a problem for popups.

On the third hand, a pop up is more like real camping than RVing -- you are much more in touch with the natural setting, rather than being isolated inside a big plastic box. I am ok with my plastic box because we are outside most of the time, anyway.

So you have to figure out what a popup will save you in gas and then put a value on a hard sided TT. Let's say you take three trips a year of a thousand miles each way, or six thousand miles of towing. With a TT at 10 mpg, that's 600 gallons, at $4 per, or $2400. With a pop up, you might get 15 mpg. That's 400 gallons, or $1600. So you have spent an extra $800 on gas.

The next question is how many nights of camping does that represent. If you camp 40 nights a year, that is an extra $20 per night. Not trivial, but for me, it would be worth it. If I had a pop up, I probably would not camp in the snow and the rain as much as I now do.

We bought our first TT used to try out and see if we liked the lifestyle. Needless to say, we loved it, and soon were shopping for our first new unit. I was like you and wanted to find something that might be a bit better on fuel. We purchased an "ultralight" trailer based on that assumption but were disappointed when we found our milage didn't change at all.

The ultralight trailer was 26' and had a dry weight of just under 4,000#. We recently took delivery of a new trailer, and this time bought one with the features we wanted instead of worrying about the weight. The new trailer is 27' with a dry weight nearly 3,000# greater than the ultralight. (6,880#)

Guess what happened to our milage while towing? Nothing changed! I am kind of anal about fuel mileage and monitor it closely. We just returned from our first major trip with the new trailer and my average MPG was 9.5 for the entire trip. Virtually identical to my long term average with the old trailer.

Buy the one you like the best and meets your other needs. I am convinced that ultralight in TT's is nothing more than marketing and a way to make them cheaper.

Yup, my E-Boost F-150 with no trailer gets 19 to 20 mpg at 70 mph on the flat with speed control.

Pulling a large Palomino Pop-up, my mileage drops to 14 to 15 mpg at 65 mph on the flat with tow haul on.

Pulling a 26’ Dutchmen my mileage is 9 to 10 mpg at 60 to 65 mph on the flat with tow haul. Add wind or hills and mileage drops.

That is life with a TT; weight, length, and shape have little or no overall effect on gas mileage, unless you can collapse it. Trailmanors and Hi-Los prove that but you can buy a lot of gas for the price difference.

Basically 10 mpg is the price you pay for pulling your house down the road.

I went from an ultra lightweight to a "regular" TT and saw no difference in fuel usage. This was an increase of a bit under 2,000 lbs.

Once rolling, weight has little to do with MPG. As others said, the frontal area plays a big part. You're essentially dragging a large sheet of plywood through the wind. You won't see much of a mpg rise with trailers that have an aerodynamic cap or v-nose either. There's still a huge square back that's creating significant drag. This is why you're starting to see boat tail additions on the back of semi trailers. The most efficient full size trailer design would be an Airstream or similar shape.

What they all said.

Not much difference for several reasons. Frontal area wind resistance is close to the same for them as a big trailer, usually they're towed with a smaller truck that has to work pretty hard to tow them are a couple of those reasons. If you need better fuel mileage look to one of the folding trailer models like Trail Manor, Hi Low etc. Those have some real savings possibility.

I am right in there! Heavy 1/2 gas crew cab pickup with a 32ft trailer. Just finished a 2100 mile trip at 9mpg. Mileage is about the same with all of them, so get the trailer you want, dont make a decision based solely on mpg.