Mpg towing

[Jagiven]

My dakota when I had the oem tires 12 mpg when towing. The new tires, exact same specs, different manufacturer, now 9.5 mpg. A couple weeks ago drove into massive headwind and got 5.28 mpg. Had to stop often for fuel.

[TxLoser]

When I had a gasser I never saw numbers like these towing. With a Tundra 5.7 and a Chevy 2500 w/6.0 best I saw was 7-8 towing. 14 not towing mixed driving. This was towing a 30' travel trailer.

Now with diesel, still nothing worth bragging about. 11.5 towing. 17 mixed not towing. This is pulling a light weight 30' FW.

Must be something in our Texas fuel. I drive like an old man too. 68 with the diesel. Slow acceleration. Max 65 with the gassers.

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[DocBrown]

I get 9-11 depending on wind conditions.

[bdreinv]

Curious what do you tow, whats the weight? Thanks

[TWP723]

13-13.5 towing. 17.6 hwy.

[bogadel]

Originally Posted by bogadel

6.2 L gasser with the 4:10 rear, pretty much doesn't matter what your doing it gets 11.2 mph around town, and 8 to 9 mpg towing. Still like not having to buy diesel fuel and all that that implies. Been there done that, don't want to go back.

Correction on the rear it's a 4:30 rear, must have had a senior moment, funny I've had a few more of these lately!

[nightcrawler]

We just completed a 5000+ mile trip to California and the Pacific Northwest. I kept detailed logs of the fuel used and we averaged 9.2 mpg while towing (hand calculated). Lots of mountain driving and head winds. Our best fuel economy while towing was 10.7 mpg (flat roads in California on CA-99) and our worst was 7.9 mpg (super head winds through Utah on I-70 and I-15).

The ecoboost handled everything we threw at it and asked for more. It is a beast of an engine.

[01tundra]

We typically average around 14.5-15 MPG towing with our Duramax, but we keep the cruise set on 65 MPH (if conditions allow) and our TT only wieghs 3,800 lbs. Most of our trips are in hilly areas.

On perfectly flat ground we see 17-20 MPG, but on hills it drops, I've seen it as low as 9 MPG while pulling a long 8% grade.

These numbers are what the factory computer and my Edge CTS2 are telling me, I haven't manually calculated it.

I'm hoping that as the engine breaks in it gets a little better, right now we're under 4k miles on it.

[SkyBound]

Just did a 5hr (each way) pull the other week, with about half highway half cottage country driving. Got 10.3MPG on the eastbound pull and 9.5MPG on the westbound pull, due to the winds. 7K trailer, fully loaded truck with 33's, running 91 octane. Not bad.

[Bigdomino]

I am wondering if any of you see a difference between 91 and 93 octane when pulling or just driving? I have a 6.2 gmc 8 and it seems to have better Milagros with the 93. Could also be wishful thinking too.

[bap]

Most newer vehicles are designed for running the 87 octane gas so I would doubt running the high octane would gain much mpg.

[Bigdomino]

Originally Posted by bap

Most newer vehicles are designed for running the 87 octane gas so I would doubt running the high octane would gain much mpg.

The manufacturer says 91 or higher. I have the6.2liter Gmc.

[JeremiahM]

Originally Posted by bap

Most newer vehicles are designed for running the 87 octane gas so I would doubt running the high octane would gain much mpg.

True, but with electronics and adaptive timing, plus most vehicles also run higher compression nowadays, I can see where the higher octane would net better mileage

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[SkyBound]

In my turbo truck the computer retards timing when the engine starts to detonate/pre-ignite due to high load on the engine and lower octane fuel. This retardation of timing prevents engine damage but comes at the price of sacrificed power.

With higher octane fuel (91+) the computer will maintain proper ignition timing due to the higher flash point of the fuel and better power is made available.

I run 91+ during the towing season, and switch to 87 when it's over since the engine is rated for it. It does say in the owners manual that 91+ is recommended for towing but not necessary. I'm sure it's needed to make the published HP and torque figures.

I maybe get 2 L/100km better with the premium fuel at most, but there's so many other factors in towing mileage that it's hard to say. The power difference is very noticeable.

[repacs0103]

Originally Posted by bap

Most newer vehicles are designed for running the 87 octane gas so I would doubt running the high octane would gain much mpg.

Actually the exact opposite is becoming quite the norm with the proliferation of turbo gasoline engines and direct injection. Both are going to do better with 91+. My wife's 5cylinder turbo Volvo is a wash- on 87 the savings on fuel outweighs the mpg loss vs. premium and vice-versa. I'd rather have the extra power gained on premium as well as the extra detergents that premium has, so it's a no-brainer


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[nightcrawler]

Originally Posted by SkyBound

In my turbo truck the computer retards timing when the engine starts to detonate/pre-ignite due to high load on the engine and lower octane fuel. This retardation of timing prevents engine damage but comes at the price of sacrificed power.

With higher octane fuel (91+) the computer will maintain proper ignition timing due to the higher flash point of the fuel and better power is made available.

I run 91+ during the towing season, and switch to 87 when it's over since the engine is rated for it. It does say in the owners manual that 91+ is recommended for towing but not necessary. I'm sure it's needed to make the published HP and torque figures.

I maybe get 2 L/100km better with the premium fuel at most, but there's so many other factors in towing mileage that it's hard to say. The power difference is very noticeable.

+1

I do the same thing for towing vs not towing. I don't think premium makes a difference for our ecoboost Expedition when not towing.

[NHstuckinGA]

Doug, we pull a White Hawk 33RSKS (9,000# approx) with a 2016 Tundra and after 35k miles on the truck we are getting 10 +/- towing and 15-17 highway.

[GScott]

Our halftime and GMC sierra with a 5.3 V-8 averages 10.5 plane our 6000 pound Whitehawk

[NHstuckinGA]

The delta between 65 vs 70 or 70+ is huge on my Tundra.

[2nOZ]

Originally Posted by Bigdomino

The manufacturer says 91 or higher. I have the6.2liter Gmc.

I typically see an average of 8.5 mpg on our 2017 F250, 6.2L gasser pulling our 27DSRL. Depending on winds, I have seen as low 7.2 and as high as 10.5. While pulling, I have tried 87 octane and 91 octane (recommended by Ford when towing) and haven't really noticed any difference in mpg.