How do they do it? little vehicle/big trailer

euskyju wrote:
New poster here. I’m curious. I have a 24’ expandable that’s roughly 4000 lbs. dry / 5000 lbs. GVWR. I tow with a Ford F-150 and, before that, a Chevy Avalanche. With both of those tow vehicles, I’m lucky to get 10mpg and maintain 62 mph on the highway…that is, without the thing shifting down to 3rd or 4th, gulping gas and sounding like the engine is going to explode.

I'm betting as a new tower. you have never heard an engine run. Until now you have run around in overdrive with no load on the engine, and believe that is the way it is supposed to be.

Gas engines make no power at 1500 RPM. They make power from 2200 to 4000 RPM. so when they need power the trany drops to a gear that will let it make power. That will NOT hurt one thing. It is what they are designed to do. And if you are getting 10 MPG towing. You are getting great MPG.

IN short. IF you are expecting the truck to drive towing like it does not towing. You have unrealistic expectations. Every vehicle towing drops gears when it needs more power. You can buy a F450 to tow that TT. but when you go up the mountain. It will still drop a gear.

I have towed 4000lb of potato chips up the mountain with a trailertruck. I had to drop several gears.

So sit back. Let the engine run, and relax