Towing MPG

[Eric_18]

Hi All!
Pretty serious about changing from Class C motorhome to Truck-trailer combo, due to overall costs associated with driving it.
The biggest trailer we're looking at is about 8,000 dry & 10,400 GVW.
My plan is to get a Ford F150 or Dodge 1500.
Curious what kind of towing MPG people are getting.
The best we've gotten in our motorhome is 7.4 MPG with the F450 chasis & V10.
Thank You!
Eric

[drsteve]

Hanr3 wrote:


I'd post a picture of my dash after a 1002 mile trip. 24.2mpg. However I don't have a picture hosting site and am not interested in joining one.

You don't have to. Use this to upload pics without using a hosting site.

Just drag and drop, and paste the link it gives you into your post. Done!

http://photoposting.is-great.net/?i=1

[Hanr3]

Procrastinator wrote:

bikendan wrote:

Hanr3 wrote:
The F150 also serves as my daily driver and I average 19-20pmg around town and 24.4mpg on the interstate.

:h:R

I bought a 2018 F150 SCREW 6.5-bed 3.5 Liter max tow with 3:55 gears. I just hit 1000 miles using winter gas this week.

So far my average daily average driving is 18.5 mpg and I have been able to get up to 24.1 mpg strickly interstate in "eco" mode at 72-74 mph.

Pro

I'd post a picture of my dash after a 1002 mile trip. 24.2mpg. However I don't have a picture hosting site and am not interested in joining one.

[DustyR]

I tow with the combo in my sig. I usually plan on 12.3 to 12.8 pulling my TT. Loaded weight on the TT is usually apx 8700 pounds with out water. I know that the 2500 HD diesel is quite a lot more expense to purchase and maintain. I have pulled with with the half tons all my life and never saw much more that 8.5 mpg. Will they do the job, absolutely if set up correctly. My tow vehicle is also my daily driver I get 14 - 15 mpg city driving and 19 - 22 mpg highway. The half tons were fine with me until I started destination towing of 800 plus miles and the wear started to show on the drive train.
Irregardless what you pick in a TT, be sure the tow vehicle is capable of handling the weight.

[Procrastinator]

bikendan wrote:

Hanr3 wrote:
The F150 also serves as my daily driver and I average 19-20pmg around town and 24.4mpg on the interstate.

:h:R

I bought a 2018 F150 SCREW 6.5-bed 3.5 Liter max tow with 3:55 gears. I just hit 1000 miles using winter gas this week.

So far my average daily average driving is 18.5 mpg and I have been able to get up to 24.1 mpg strickly interstate in "eco" mode at 72-74 mph.

Pro

[Groover]

Eric 18 wrote:
Thank You All for the responses!
I'm pretty set on truck size. I'll be buying new. We're going to go with a lighter weight trailer, per the majority of thoughts.
The truck will be my daily driver, and will be trading in a 14 GT Mustang for it.
My wife & I love the sense of community we find RVing. It seems to be the same here!
Thanks Again, Happy New Year!

When people express opinions about what size truck to get they should mention what year model they have experience with or are recommending. My 2016 F150 with EcoBoost easily outpulls either my 1991 F250 or the 2003 E350 with V10 that I had and gives better mileage while doing it. All size ranges of trucks have greatly increased in capability in the last ten years. I did order my 2016 with LT tires and retrofitted my 2016 with them and I believe that it does help stability. I also put Rancho 9000 shocks and air bags under both. The 2013 F150 is used to pull a horse trailer and we recently switched to a gooseneck for that. It does seem to be more stable and gives a little better fuel economy. You might want to look into a small fifth wheel. The gooseneck hitch worked with the Airlift 5000xl air bags but would not work with way the 2000lb bags mount. The 2000lb bags give a better ride in my opinion.

I get about 10mpg pulling the horse trailer at the speed limit, a camper would probably have more frontal area and may not be as streamlined so would probably drop your average down some. The 8-10 range sounds reasonable.

I lot of whether you want a bigger truck depends on whether you are going to be pulling 1 week a year or 50 weeks a year. The 150 will give you a better ride and mileage, especially empty.

[tragusa3]

Wise to follow the majority here. Personally, I wouldn't go over 7k wet with an F150. That's right about where I was for the last few years. It did a phenomenal job, but if I went any heavier it would have been an "OK" job.

Mileage on very long trips was between 9 and 10. At best, you will save a couple of hundred a year (if that) by switching. And, you will spend much more money to "save". You also give up all of the benefits of a motorhome. Didn't seem like a good idea to us, so we just switched in the other direction. 🙂 But there are 31 flavors for a reason.

[bikendan]

Hanr3 wrote:
The F150 also serves as my daily driver and I average 19-20pmg around town and 24.4mpg on the interstate.

:h:R

[Hanr3]

Eric 18 wrote:
Awesome info Hanr3!
Thank You for breaking it down into numbers.

You are welcome.
KZ just introduced a new line of 5th wheels that are 1/2 ton towable and average around 10,000 pounds. The Durango series. I have a KZ Sportsmen series, model 231rk. Only 25'4" long, however my restriction is a length limit of 60' front bumper of the truck to rear bumper of the boat trailer. I have 9" to spare. The Durango series also comes with a bumper hitch and is rated to tow 3,000 pounds behind the 5er. I'm really impressed with all the features on my camper. So far my only two complaints are related to winter camping and both I am in the process of correcting. Adding a heat vent to blow across the floor of the living area and adding heat tape to the grey and black tank drain lines. Otherwise the camper has been perfect. Even got my wife's seal of approval, and she isn't a camper.

[Eric_18]

Awesome info Hanr3!
Thank You for breaking it down into numbers.

[Hanr3]

The F150 with 3.5L Ecoboost engine comes with a tow/haul button, and a Supersport button. It CAN be more fun to drive than your old Mustang. Plus, based on your posted gas mileage, it might actually do better than the Mustang, at least around town.

Eric 18 wrote:
Thanks All!
We're going to go with a lighter weight trailer. I don't want to be near the 10K Mark loaded.
The reason for the switch is overall cost of ownership with the class C.
My wife & I currently have 3 cars, plus the motor home. The motor home alone is $1,000 a year in insurance, plus the 5-7 MPG to use it. Too often we take a separate car to drive once we're parked. Scaling down to 1 car & a truck, & trailer. Plus, we only live 2 miles from my work.
Going back over 30 years, I only average about 7,000 miles a year on any car.
My daily driver Mustang averages about 14MPG in the city & 24 on the highway (or worse depending on how much fun I want to have) Daily driver in a 1/2 ton shouldn't be too much lower than that.
I'm used to driving the class C, so the whole truck-trailer driving experience will be new.
Thanks Again for the info!
Eric

[Hanr3]

I own and triple tow with a 2016 F150 3.5L Ecoboost. Truck is rated to haul 11,000 pounds off the bumper and 12,000 pounds with a 5th wheel. My total vehicle weight rating is 6,900 pounds with a 2078 pounds payload. Supercab with 6.5' box. I tow a 5th wheel with a max weight rating of 7,000 pounds. Empty is at 6,000 pounds. Behind that I tow a 16' deep-v aluminum boat and stainless steel roller trailer which weighs 2,300 pounds fully loaded. My combined trailer max load is 9,300 pounds. truck weighs 5,400 pounds fully loaded with me, the wife, dogs, fuel and all the gadgets. That leave 1,500 pounds available for pin weight. I drive 60 mph and my engine runs at about 1,700 rpms. My fuel mileage is 9-11mpg depending on head winds. If I slow down to 55mph I average 11-12mpg. The F150 also serves as my daily driver and I average 19-20pmg around town and 24.4mpg on the interstate. When I tow only the boat I average 17-18mpg on the interstate. Those are real numbers.
One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the cost of repairs. Older vehicles will start to nickel and dime you to death. Sure it's paid for, but I would get tired of it being broke all the time and spend time fixing it instead of camping.

[Eric_18]

Thanks All!
We're going to go with a lighter weight trailer. I don't want to be near the 10K Mark loaded.
The reason for the switch is overall cost of ownership with the class C.
My wife & I currently have 3 cars, plus the motor home. The motor home alone is $1,000 a year in insurance, plus the 5-7 MPG to use it. Too often we take a separate car to drive once we're parked. Scaling down to 1 car & a truck, & trailer. Plus, we only live 2 miles from my work.
Going back over 30 years, I only average about 7,000 miles a year on any car.
My daily driver Mustang averages about 14MPG in the city & 24 on the highway (or worse depending on how much fun I want to have) Daily driver in a 1/2 ton shouldn't be too much lower than that.
I'm used to driving the class C, so the whole truck-trailer driving experience will be new.
Thanks Again for the info!
Eric

[Grit_dog]

FishOnOne wrote:

BenK wrote:
the why of an internal engine oil spray system squirting to the bottom of the pistons to keep the pistons from melting...that they are forced fed with enough air/fuel to be in the same volumetric arena of a big block (that tiny displacement consumes about the same volumes of air and fuel as my big block)...and a big ETC, ETC...

Todays large cubic inch diesels spray oil to the bottom of the pistons too and are forced fed with a turbo as well.

Your convincing me everyday that your not a logical engineer but more of a jealous old fan boy.

Yup. Some of the posts here get more entertaining by the day.

On a separate note, I'm looking for so replacement shoes for my Praise dyno brakes...

[Grit_dog]

twodownzero wrote:

danrclem wrote:

Eric 18 wrote:
Thank You All for the responses!
I'm pretty set on truck size. I'll be buying new. We're going to go with a lighter weight trailer, per the majority of thoughts.
The truck will be my daily driver, and will be trading in a 14 GT Mustang for it.
My wife & I love the sense of community we find RVing. It seems to be the same here!
Thanks Again, Happy New Year!

I think you're on the right track here. If you get a 3.5 ecoboost and a heavy duty package you should be set. It may not get the greatest mileage while towing but would be a lot better than a gas 3/4 ton when empty. If you're getting a bumper hitch camper make sure you get the rear view camera. It makes it so much easier when you're hitching it by yourself.

Couldn't more strongly disagree with this if I tried. Towing anywhere close to what they say you can tow with a 1/2 ton truck is scary. Doing it with a 3.5L V6 in insane.

I don't own one, but from what I have read online, the engines are worked to death even empty. I doubt you'd see more than 1-2 mpg over a 3/4 ton gasoline truck empty. And the torque difference, loaded or unloaded, is not trivial.

Do the research on what people really are getting for fuel mileage with these things. The ecoboost is not doing any better in the real world than a small V8.

I believe you also said in a recent post that "enough" capacity was not enough for you and that you were really only comfortable with far more "capacity" than required. I'm paraphrasing.
While this is fine, and I agree that generally more = better, it should not be used as an excuse to exaggerate your personal claims into perceived absolutes.