NinerBikes wrote:
John & Angela wrote:
NinerBikes wrote:
Strange that my 2013 Touareg TDI diesel with a 3.0 liter motor and one battery has an alternator rated for 220 amps, maximum.
Those touaregs are amazing. A fellow hooked onto a 3800 pound trailer for a test pull yesterday, set the cruise at 90 KMH and went up what was probably a 6 grade hill and it just ignored the hill. Something like 400 pounds torque and 340 HP. Heck of a machine. Hitch weight was around 400, hardly dropped. Didn't even need an equalizer hitch.
406 ft lbs, 240 HP, and only 5000 lbs of SUV that's AWD, all the time. My TT, dry weighs about the same, but I go easy on my motor and slow down going up hills, usually 40 to 45 MPH. It will go faster, but I don't like working the little motor that hard, I'd like 300,000 miles out of the drive train if I treat her right. Tongue weight and payload weights on the vehicle are what to watch out for.
It's a light diesel motor, so I treat it and run it accordingly, don't abuse it, and don't burn enough fuel to get the tranny and engine working too hard or too hot. I limit fuel consumption rate in the instant mpg reading in the dash to a max of 4.5 to 5 gallons of fuel burned an hour, when going up hill. If I am showing 10 MPG instant mpg, I'm keeping it at 45 mph or less for speed, if the grade is that steep. If it drops off to 8 mpg, 35 MPH up hill is all I do. Making heat and not being able to get rid of it is the enemy of these VW products. Again, they are light diesel motors. Only a fool uses cruise control on a vehicle like this going up hills and grades. Poor practice when trailering, operator needs to be more proactive and less lazy.
Porsche with it's Cayenne, and VW with the Touareg split the development costs in designing this SUV platform that is shared between the two brands. It was built originally for Europeans to tow their Caravans (TT in North American speak) to the Alps to go summer camping. Americans now are coming around to using them here for the same purpose. I believe in 2014, ALL Touaregs came with a 7700# rated hitch and tow package, in the USA. It was no longer an option.
Thanks for the correction on the HP. Still very impressive. I think he was just testing how it felt as I don't think he actually tows with the cruise on. He was using it as a reference from an earlier trailer.
On a much smaller scale we use our little diesel smart car to tow our 500 poundish tent trailer and Kayak to local lakes. Around 50 HP and 96 pounds torque but of course much lighter too. I put it in 5th for hills to keep it in the torque band but it never struggles with that light of a load. ALways sounds happy though. When not towing we pretty much get the rated economy of 3.30 L/100 km; 71.3 US mpg although that drops off when running at 110 (70 mph) on highways, interstates etc. Way fun though. Go figure, In europe the gas smart car have higher tow rating than the diesels, having said that it is a bigger motor and different transmission for the gasser.
