5th wheel mpg's

[marininn]

I'm looking at converting a 5th wheel horse trailer to meet my needs.
For diesels, cummins particularly, I am interested to hear mpg numbers from anyone towing these.
I am curious the difference between those horse trailers with flat fronts as opposed to those with curved or pointed fronts, and also ones that sit closer to the bumper than others; and compared to bumper pull trailers of similar size.
(with regular bumper pull camper trailers, which sit farther back and are usually squared and wide, they effectively take all the wind - not tucked closely behind the TV)
A horse trailer 5th wheeler is more narrow and sits much closer to the TV than a camper or camper 5th wheeler, so should gain some efficiency in aerodynamics.
Not interested in knee-jerk opinions, just real info from those that have tried.
Also, the horse trailer is not a huge monstrosity like the camper 5th wheelers. Mpg is very important as I tow a lot, not just a few miles once per year. I have a bumper pull cargo trailer with pointed nose that is only 5 feet wide and the mpg's on it are so much better than my 7 foot wide camper (which is even lower in height).
Also, how does weight affect it? I know air drag is king, but looking at 1,500 lb aluminum trailer empty vs 5-6,000lb steel trailer.

[K-9_HANDLER]

Might want to post this over on the ag talk forum.
https://talk.newagtalk.com/category-view.asp
Guys running some miles with gooseneck stock trailers over there. Not sure what length or weight that you intend to haul. Most everyone I know has mid to high 20s in length.

[Grit_dog]

Slowmover wrote:

burningman wrote:

Slowmover wrote:
t
So, do you HAVE to have a pickup? It's a lousy tow vehicle just as it's a lousy vehicle to drive. Unstable, too heavy, etc.

An SUV or car mated to a nice used Airstream will beat all the capacities questions, and also beat any pickup truck combo on every score of road performance. Significant risk reduction.

A car more stable towing than a truck?? A car or gas-engine Suburban beating a turbodiesel on every score of road performance? Risk reduction??
What have you been smoking?!

Few are acknowledging this guy's question, just because you don't get what he's doing. I can tell you, RV's are built like flimsy fragile JUNK, and a horse trailer is built STOUT in comparison.
If you want a trailer that can take punishment and last, this isn't a bad idea. And you can see around a horse trailer lots better, too.

I haul horses, and one thing I can say is it's just gonna need a whole new floor if it's ever gonna smell right, lol. Unfortunately my MPG figures aren't applicable because I carry them 14 at a time in a Peterbilt 379.

Bummer you don't smoke the same. It's high school physics. Pickups are rollover-prone. In a scenario at a speed you don't appreciate (below Interstate) a pickup will roll where a car or minivan will spin. That's life-changing. Ask any ER physician.

High-centered and heavy for no benefit. In fact, drawbacks.

However "stout" is a horse trailer it's also narrow. See above about costly mistakes. Heavy and space inefficient isn't the way. Drawbacks, not advantages.

A car and an Airstream defined practicality more than 60-years ago. I'm third generation on them. Thousands of good used or new models. Keep investigating, in other words.

Finally, how do you fit all those horses into the tractor?. My KW is fair-sized, but I'm not quite so animal-friendly.

Then why do you tow with a pickup??
This forum is like a Train wreck.....just can't stop watching it!

OP, you'll get somewhere between 8 and 14 mpg. As said above, there's 1000 people on 500 forums daily asking "what fuel mileage will I get?" And there's as many different answers, almost......
RoyB will squeeze 27 mpg out of that combo (and I've seen other ridiculous mileage claims like that) because he can do over 18mpg towing a popup they the mtns with a half ton ford. I'll get about 10 because my week ends are short and I drive 80 mph on the freeway.

[Slowmover]

burningman wrote:

Slowmover wrote:
t
So, do you HAVE to have a pickup? It's a lousy tow vehicle just as it's a lousy vehicle to drive. Unstable, too heavy, etc.

An SUV or car mated to a nice used Airstream will beat all the capacities questions, and also beat any pickup truck combo on every score of road performance. Significant risk reduction.

A car more stable towing than a truck?? A car or gas-engine Suburban beating a turbodiesel on every score of road performance? Risk reduction??
What have you been smoking?!

Few are acknowledging this guy's question, just because you don't get what he's doing. I can tell you, RV's are built like flimsy fragile JUNK, and a horse trailer is built STOUT in comparison.
If you want a trailer that can take punishment and last, this isn't a bad idea. And you can see around a horse trailer lots better, too.

I haul horses, and one thing I can say is it's just gonna need a whole new floor if it's ever gonna smell right, lol. Unfortunately my MPG figures aren't applicable because I carry them 14 at a time in a Peterbilt 379.

Bummer you don't smoke the same. It's high school physics. Pickups are rollover-prone. In a scenario at a speed you don't appreciate (below Interstate) a pickup will roll where a car or minivan will spin. That's life-changing. Ask any ER physician.

High-centered and heavy for no benefit. In fact, drawbacks.

However "stout" is a horse trailer it's also narrow. See above about costly mistakes. Heavy and space inefficient isn't the way. Drawbacks, not advantages.

A car and an Airstream defined practicality more than 60-years ago. I'm third generation on them. Thousands of good used or new models. Keep investigating, in other words.

Finally, how do you fit all those horses into the tractor?. My KW is fair-sized, but I'm not quite so animal-friendly.

[mtofell1]

Message boards are full of people miscalculating MPGs, lying about MPGs, having a strong confirmation bias about improvement of MPGs and not taking into account varying conditions while calculating MPGs.

You're extremely unlikely to change MPGs any significant amount (+/- 1MPG) without making major concessions with your design. For example, a roof so low in the 5th wheel than you can't stand up. As people pointed out earlier, slowing down makes the biggest difference by a long ways. I also agree with some others that RVing isn't cheap. For all the things we pay for without giving a second thought, RVing should be one of them. Just fill it up, take the receipt and have fun. Skip Starbucks a couple times a week if you really want to save money 🙂

[burningman]

Slowmover wrote:
t
So, do you HAVE to have a pickup? It's a lousy tow vehicle just as it's a lousy vehicle to drive. Unstable, too heavy, etc.

An SUV or car mated to a nice used Airstream will beat all the capacities questions, and also beat any pickup truck combo on every score of road performance. Significant risk reduction.

A car more stable towing than a truck?? A car or gas-engine Suburban beating a turbodiesel on every score of road performance? Risk reduction??
What have you been smoking?!

Few are acknowledging this guy's question, just because you don't get what he's doing. I can tell you, RV's are built like flimsy fragile JUNK, and a horse trailer is built STOUT in comparison.
If you want a trailer that can take punishment and last, this isn't a bad idea. And you can see around a horse trailer lots better, too.

I haul horses, and one thing I can say is it's just gonna need a whole new floor if it's ever gonna smell right, lol. Unfortunately my MPG figures aren't applicable because I carry them 14 at a time in a Peterbilt 379.

[blofgren]

Truck in signature towing 16k lbs high profile fiver nets a solid 11 mpg. I have gotten better but 11 is my average. I'm quite happy with that given that my Ford 6.0L struggled to get that with a 12k lbs fiver with much less power.

[Bob_Shaw]

In my humble opinion, based on my experience, towing a 40' 5'er with an 8.1 liter GMC, the best way to improve your mpg is to slow down. I was getting around 5.5 mpg while towing at 70-72 mph, I slowed to 62 and my mpg went to 9 - 9.5. I really wasn't expecting anything that dramatic, and it really didn't make that much difference in my daily miles traveled. A side benefit is that it made the trip way more enjoyable. It's funny how much easier the traffic is when they are passing you instead of you passing them.

[blt2ski]

Lighter and more aerodynamic you can make it, the better off you are. That includes as smooth of sidewalls etc you can get.

Look at what some of the semi's are doing right now, many are gaining upwards of 10 percent with some of the items they add to the base truck, to make the aerodynamics better.

Will this pay off for some of all of us as RV users.....maybe......one needs to figure out how much fuel you save, over a given amount of time, and will the cost make a savings in the miles I drive. I personally would look for a 2-3 maybe a 4 year ROI on the item added. If it does not return all of the $$ spent, and then some. not worth it. Speed is usually the best factor, ie 60-62 in as low of rpm reasonable nets best mpg.
ALso tires and type can add mpg's.
I would suggest checking out articles from some of the medium to heavy duty truck sites, magazines etc to see what is working best, getting the best roi etc. With this in mind, these drivers/trucks are usually doing 70-100K miles a year. So the ROI is way sooner than some RV'rs that might do 10-20K max per year.

Marty

[pyoung47]

I would guess cost would be a factor. Cleanining a used regular trailer so you could convert it would be tough. Buying a new trailer is probably more than a new RV. They would probably be easier to tow and more dependable due to the heavier suspension and much higher quality.

[Slowmover]

marininn wrote:
I'm looking at converting a 5th wheel horse trailer to meet my needs.
For diesels, cummins particularly, I am interested to hear mpg numbers from anyone towing these.
I am curious the difference between those horse trailers with flat fronts as opposed to those with curved or pointed fronts, and also ones that sit closer to the bumper than others; and compared to bumper pull trailers of similar size.
(with regular bumper pull camper trailers, which sit farther back and are usually squared and wide, they effectively take all the wind - not tucked closely behind the TV)
A horse trailer 5th wheeler is more narrow and sits much closer to the TV than a camper or camper 5th wheeler, so should gain some efficiency in aerodynamics.
Not interested in knee-jerk opinions, just real info from those that have tried.
Also, the horse trailer is not a huge monstrosity like the camper 5th wheelers. Mpg is very important as I tow a lot, not just a few miles once per year. I have a bumper pull cargo trailer with pointed nose that is only 5 feet wide and the mpg's on it are so much better than my 7 foot wide camper (which is even lower in height).
Also, how does weight affect it? I know air drag is king, but looking at 1,500 lb aluminum trailer empty vs 5-6,000lb steel trailer.

The aero mpg penalty is in the wake. A rounded bullet nose is best. And the sidewalks need a curved radius above and below. (Crosswinds more important than headwinds).

Height is worse than width

Weight is a factor for accel/excel, and for grades. Not so much for steady state.

An RV needs to be livable. It will spend more time every day stationary than moving. RV capacities thus mean more. X number of people over Y number of nights. This is the equation to solve, as mistakes here are costliest.

I get it that ground rent and fuel burn figure largely in people's minds.

So, do you HAVE to have a pickup? It's a lousy tow vehicle just as it's a lousy vehicle to drive. Unstable, too heavy, etc.

An SUV or car mated to a nice used Airstream will beat all the capacities questions, and also beat any pickup truck combo on every score of road performance. Significant risk reduction.

I'm suggesting, widen your idea of what's good.

Don't re invent the wheel.

Practicality got defined when Eisenhower was President. It hasn't changed.

[marininn]

Tal/IL wrote:

I'm looking at converting a 5th wheel horse trailer to meet my needs.

Made me laugh... A few years ago there was a big Willie Nelson concert at the WSRC in Sparta, IL on the same weekend as the U.S. Open Trapshooting Championships.(We were there to shoot.) I think every one of the 1,000 campsites on the property was full. A bunch of the concert goers were camping in goose-neck stock trailers. Ever since then, we've referred to stock trailers as "Willie Nelson campers".

Funny. They have to be built better as horses tend to kick the walls harder than people would. Seems the GVR is higher also on most horse trailers.
I really just want the aero exterior shape, narrow, and the wheels at the rear. There are no cargo trailers that I can find made like this.

I tow a lot for work, a lot of miles and mpg's are way way more important to me than ignoring how much I spend driving an hour for a vacation.

I do have to tow off-road and without the mods I have done to m current trailer it would be in splinters

[marininn]

George H wrote:
I had both a goose neck horse trailer and a 5th wheel camper that I towed behind the same truck, 6mpg with either.

Thanks, but what were they?
(I see the Carry lite in your sig, that is a massive 5er, way, way more frontal area than a horse trailer, but what was your horse trailer? Did it have flat or curved front? How high? How wide? How long?)
I know the camper 5th wheelers are big and have a massive frontal area, that is not what I want. Horse trailers can be smaller. There are gooseneck horse trailers with curved or pointed aero fronts that do not sit much higher than the TV and are the same width or more narrow. AND there are ones that have a hugh, high flat frontal area that probably get the same bad mpg's as a camper.

I am more interested in the aero horse trailers as I know anything big and flat will be bad.

6 sounds like a gasser.

[valhalla360]

I'm really surprised, they don't build them a bit taller and sell them as toy haulers. The exterior seems better built (or maybe I making in incorrect assumption).

As far as towing, I wouldn't expect much.

We got 13.5 with the signature. We swapped out for a 2001 F250 with V10 and got about 9.5. Don't have numbers on the new trailer we picked up last week yet.

[Tal_IL]

I'm looking at converting a 5th wheel horse trailer to meet my needs.

Made me laugh... A few years ago there was a big Willie Nelson concert at the WSRC in Sparta, IL on the same weekend as the U.S. Open Trapshooting Championships.(We were there to shoot.) I think every one of the 1,000 campsites on the property was full. A bunch of the concert goers were camping in goose-neck stock trailers. Ever since then, we've referred to stock trailers as "Willie Nelson campers".