Gas mileage with a Truck Camper

[poncho62]

Right now, I tow a small 5th wheel with my GMC. Without trailer, I average 15-16 mpg usually.....down to 9.5-10 with the trailer.

Truck campers kind of fascinate me, so I was thinking I might pick up a used one, not too heavy just for travelling. Am wondering, how your mileage with your truck camper affects your truck? I know there still is a larger frontal drag, so was thinking about a pop up TC

I have seen mileage threads for trailers on here, but cant remember seeing a truck camper one.

What are your mileage experiences with and without the camper?

[Bedlam]

Less Stuff has a Ram 1500 with a canopy and carpet kit.

[Kayteg1]

poncho62 wrote:

Less Stuff wrote:
20MPG combined city highway.
Have had trips at 28 MPG.
No trips under 22 MPG.
As shown on the trucks display.
Regular gasoline.

What truck and camper is this with?......Seems almost too good to be true

Those numbers look like F150 driven on flat highways at 50mph.
Our mid-size station wagon makes 22 mpg driven at 70mph or 17mpg on short highway trips.

[JumboJet]

Having owned 5 different TCs and 4 different Cummins equipped trucks the last 10 years, I get about ...............

I am like Forrest Gump when he was running across the US and said - "When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go, you know, I went."

When my truck needs fuel, I fill it up.

MPG is one less thing on my list to be concerned with. Like many of you, I have computed MPGs a time or two (or more). Just don't care anymore.

If I couldn't afford fuel, I would stay home. As far as MPG in Ford, vs. GM vs. Dodge RAM, I don't care.

My fuel tanks holds 35 gallons and I fill it up when it gets to 1/4. My motor home holds 90 gallons and I fill it up when it gets to 1/2. My motor home and my RAM 3500 both have Cummins diesel engines. Go figure!

[poncho62]

Less Stuff wrote:
20MPG combined city highway.
Have had trips at 28 MPG.
No trips under 22 MPG.
As shown on the trucks display.
Regular gasoline.

What truck and camper is this with?......Seems almost too good to be true

[Less_Stuff]

20MPG combined city highway.
Have had trips at 28 MPG.
No trips under 22 MPG.
As shown on the trucks display.
Regular gasoline.

[trail-explorer]

MPG will probably be about the same with a truck camper.

[sue_t]

We have a 25' fifth wheel and an 8' camper, and an F-250 7.3L PSD.

Mileage with the camper is better. I haven't kept track of the exact mpg BUT know we make better distance with the camper than with the fifth wheel.

We can usually travel faster too - the AK Hwy has lots of frost heaves and with the fifth wheel we usually travel about 45 mph, sometimes slower if the area is very rough. With the camper we might move along at 55 mph until we hit a rough area.

[Mote]

We just took a 320 miles round trip down to Kentucky and back. Probably 2/3 of the trip was interstate doing 65mph. The rest was rural highway with a little bit of back roads mixed in as we toured a couple distilleries. When I filled up the truck it took 19.6 gallons. Looks like we averaged just a little over 16mpg. I'm pretty happy with that.

[kohldad]

With my 2004 Dodge 5.9 diesel, 3.73s and manual, I would get on average about 14.5 - 15.0 depending on amount of interstate driving (62 mph) and weather.

With my 2015 Ram 6.4 gasser, 3.73s and auto, I'm average 11.8 with the same camper but have slowed down to 60 mph. Still working on finding the sweet spot and how/when to use tow-haul mode.

Recent short trip with a 2,500# boat in tow, two bikes on the front, I got 12.2 using tow/haul and 13.8 coming home but that was almost pure interstate.

[Kayteg1]

Lot of people "tend to forget" to mention the speed while speed is major factor in fuel efficiency.
For example lot of people driving VW tdi report 50 mpg.
I had one and driving it on 500 miles routes I was happy averaging 32 mpg.
But I was making 500 miles in 6 hr of driving.
Per my Scangauge on my F350 with shell, changing CC from 70 to 75mph raise fuel consumption by 20%.
I don't think such big difference is only due to higher air resistance, but seems that my 6l powerstroke has "sweet spot" at lower rpm and is loosing efficiency once you go higher.

[monkey44]

Three trucks - two campers over the years. About 4-5 mpg lost with camper on all three trucks.

Trucks GMC - Camper One = 2200 lbs, Camper Two = 2900 lbs ... didn't seem to matter the camper weight, more the wind factor as the MPG didn't change much over all three trucks or either camper.

[RWDIII]

With the setup in my sig,going to Grand Canyon from Casa Grande 11Mpg
coming back 14.3.Avg about 12.6

[basslbbig]

I get ~12mpg on freeway, with boat I get ~10.

[The_Mad_Norsky]

Sleepy, you made a good point there with speed, and the lack thereof in your normal driving style, IE: 58 - 63 MPH tops on average.

I once owned the exact same truck as you, a 2003 Chevrolet Silverado 3500 dually crew cab, LT version 4 X 4. Duramax/Allison.

Never got good mileage towing (I was only using a fifth wheel camper at time of owning that rig) doing the best about 8.5 to 9 MPG pulling a 13,000 some odd pound fifth wheel.

But I also drove on average about 65 MPH loaded all the time, so here again, speed a factor.

[campn4walleye]

We just returned from a trip to Two Harbors, Grand Marais and Ely MN. We took the TC off the truck while camped.

On the way to and from we averaged 12.5 MPG with the TC and for the first time during the touring trips, we consistently averaged 17!!!

DH was thrilled. We have a 2012 Dodge Ram dually.