Crummy fuel economy

[4x4ord]

I towed a tag trailer 450 km down the highway at 55-60 mph and got 37 liters/100 km. (6.4 mpg). Can you get a Dodge or GM to go through that much fuel?

[C_Schomer]

The worst my 97 CTD got was 8.3 running wb on 80 to Laramie at 80+ mph with fiver and strong headwind. The worst my 03 ctd ever got was 8.3 hotfootting it from Phoenix to Flagstaff with the fiver. Craig

[Slowmover]

downtheroad wrote:
You titled your this thread, "Crummy fuel economy."

RV'ing = Crummy fuel economy . That's the way it is.

See this comment all the time.

Blanket statements just don't work. What's crumby? 5-mpg? 10-mpg? 15-mpg?

And in comparison to what standard? 30 or 40? 20?

If one starts from scratch with an assumption -- that fuel costs can be half or the cost of vacation trip -- then investigation can find examples where MPG is not the penalty one may have thought was common. Mandatory. If higher MPG means more travel, then stick to finding what works.

I recently came across someone using a Ford Transit seeing 20-mpg towing a smaller Airstream over thousands of miles. Out West, IIRC. Higher with TD sedans.

And I'm one of many seeing 14-16/mpg towing a 28-35' aero TT using a 3rd Gen Cummins one ton.

I spec'd my rig carefully. 15-mpg hwy average with a 35' TT is far from impossible. And my purchase cost of both was roughly equivalent to the starting price on today's pickups.

Complaints that these types of rigs are expensive up front is beside the point. Excellent used examples can be found. That this TT type has an indefinite lifespan makes purchase easy.

The TV that best matches solo use is also more economical. Start there.

Start with a larger picture. A nice combined rig RV is more than a pair of payments plus weekly fuel cost. Lose those handcuffs.

.

[moresmoke]

If you want to see something interesting, try pulling a crop sprayer at highway speeds. A light 5000lb pull type is too much for a 1/2 ton. The lattice booms catch the air like nothing else.

Even a sprayer sitting on a semi trailer is a heck of a pull for no more than it weighs.

I am glad that I live somewhere we have not been told all the things we cannot do... It would be hard to get anything done! I've moved many implements down the road. Some you can go faster, and some need to go slower.

[noteven]

Huntindog wrote:

06Fargo wrote:
So you were running 22000 lbs of tire capacity at under half, in cold weather ...oh dear

The RV dot net Tire Police can probably return to base...

There is a LITTLE more to it than load capacity.

Speed and load are rated independantly for a reason.
There can be SOME corellation, but most likely not of the magnitude that ford subjected the tires to.
A tire rated for 20 MPH is simply NOT LEGAL for use on the road for a very good reason.

ford was very lucky. He seems to realize this now. Suggesting that this is an OK thing to do could risk lives, when someone else does it, and isn't lucky.

Our country is so cold right now you don't even need air in a tyre....it's frozen round...

[Huntindog]

06Fargo wrote:
So you were running 22000 lbs of tire capacity at under half, in cold weather ...oh dear

The RV dot net Tire Police can probably return to base...

There is a LITTLE more to it than load capacity.

Speed and load are rated independantly for a reason.
There can be SOME corellation, but most likely not of the magnitude that ford subjected the tires to.
A tire rated for 20 MPH is simply NOT LEGAL for use on the road for a very good reason.

ford was very lucky. He seems to realize this now. Suggesting that this is an OK thing to do could risk lives, when someone else does it, and isn't lucky.

[noteven]

So you were running 22000 lbs of tire capacity at under half, in cold weather ...oh dear

The RV dot net Tire Police can probably return to base...

[Huntindog]

4x4ord wrote:

06Fargo wrote:
What did the machine weigh as transported?

What is the max load capacity of the tyres?

The implement weighs about 11000 lbs. My guess is that 2000 lbs might have gone on the truck receiver and 4500 on each of the two implement tires. The max load stamped on the tire is 11000 lbs at a max speed of 20 mph. In hindsight I should have kept my speed below 50 mph.

Yeah, one can't be too careful.:R

[4x4ord]

06Fargo wrote:
What did the machine weigh as transported?

What is the max load capacity of the tyres?

The implement weighs about 11000 lbs. My guess is that 2000 lbs might have gone on the truck receiver and 4500 on each of the two implement tires. The max load stamped on the tire is 11000 lbs at a max speed of 20 mph. In hindsight I should have kept my speed below 50 mph.

[hvac]

Tvov wrote:

4x4ord wrote:
At 75 mph I would have been pumping diesel but I kinda figured 60 mph was fast enough....The implement I was towing was fitted with 30.5 x 32 combine tires rated for a top speed of 25 mph.

I, as usual, am a little confused. You were towing something at more than twice the speed that its' tires were rated for? Why?

I submit a different opinion. 4500 lb coach avg 15.5 mpg.

[Grit_dog]

I'm sure winter blend fuel didn't help either.
I gots some crummy mileage this weekend. My dic mileage is perty close to actual last time I checked it, and 80-82mph @2400-2500 rpms empty, cruise on, winter blend and new heavy mud tires got me 15 mpg zippin across the state.
Same truck, same trip in the late summer with summer tires, no heavy winds either time was like 16.5mpg.

[GoPackGo]

Was the fuel you were running 'blended diesel' as opposed to straight #2 ? You will always get less MPGs anytime you are running #1 diesel (less BTUs in #1).

[ksss]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
YEP......

Jamestown ND to Dickinson ND roughly 200 miles.
Towing 5th wheel and was sweating whether or not would make it to Dickinson.

6 mpg or less...could see fuel gauge changing. 36 gal fuel tank

Course I was bucking a 35+ mph headwind

I can see 6 pulling some mountain passes. Wind resistance is a big deal. I pulled my 26' enclosed car trailer which is tall to Salt Lake with a car in it with no serious wind and got 9 mpg. The trailer and car weigh about 8k together. I get 9 mpg pulling my Fuzion TH that weighs 15K. Takes fuel to pull big air catching objects down the road, this has a much bigger effect than does the actual weight of what your pulling in my experience.


Jamestown, ND heading West is always bad. Just like Columbus, MT to Bozeman is bad maybe even worse for fighting wind.

[RPreeb]

4x4ord wrote:

Tvov wrote:

4x4ord wrote:
At 75 mph I would have been pumping diesel but I kinda figured 60 mph was fast enough....The implement I was towing was fitted with 30.5 x 32 combine tires rated for a top speed of 25 mph.

I, as usual, am a little confused. You were towing something at more than twice the speed that its' tires were rated for? Why?

I had to tow the thing 280 miles, 25 miles per hour would have been painfully slow as well as being a nuisance on the highway. The tires were only carrying about 5500 lbs each, so running them a little over the rated speed wasn't a big concern.

I see farm implements moving on the highways around here all the time, but unless they are only moving them a couple of miles from one field to another, they put them on flatbeds and haul with a semi tractor.

[wilber1]

50 MPH with a 50 MPH headwind isn't much different than doing 100 MPH once you get up to speed.