Gas Milage

[Marco]

I almost doubled my gas consumption by going from a tent trailer to a travel trailer....what can I do reduce it

2011 Dodge Ram 1500...with the Hemi
Shamrock 183 Hybrid travel trailer

[DF5.4]

What kind of mileage are you getting? How fast do you travel? What kind of terrain are you towing in?

[Ford Idaho]

Tonneau cover do you have one?
Do you haul with the fresh water tank full?

[Marco]

Highway Mostly,..I was getting 15L\100Km.............now its up to 26L\100Km
I try to keep it at 110 km/h (about 69 miles /h)

[kenandterry]

Buy a Class A motorhome and the mileage you're getting today will seem like the "good ol' days".

[jevanb]

buy a diesel that should fix your problem with fuel milage towing...

[Dave_Monica]

The mileage you report is pretty typical of towing a high profile TT. Try reducing your speed to 60 - 65 mph, ease up on acceleration, etc...may get a slight improvement.

Dave

[Oaklevel]

Best you can do is drive reasonably ..... When we had our 03 Dodge Hemi solo we were getting 13 mpg but towing a small fifth that went to 8 mpg. When we got an 05 Cummins duelly diesel we went to 19 mpg solo to 12 mpg towing ( a bigger fifth wheel)............

Hemis are typically thirsty & with more weight & wind resistance the mileage will go decrease a lot .

[elind]

My Silverado gets 18 mpg hwy solo and then gets 9/10 mpg driving at 60 mph with my TT. If I push it up to 65/70 mph it drops below 9 mpg. Also it changes if I have a tail wind or tail wind, flat land or hilly country. I have even seen milage drop to under 7 mpg, running 70mph, into head winds, in hilly country. It depends on how and where your driving.

[Platokidd]

Originally Posted by Marco

Highway Mostly,..I was getting 15L\100Km.............now its up to 26L\100Km
I try to keep it at 110 km/h (about 69 miles /h)

slow down, I would think the campers tires are only rated at 65 mph. I found going up in octane gives me better mpg's.

[DF5.4]

The mileage you are getting is normal for your setup. The tent trailer had minimal wind resistance. Now you have basically put a parachute behind your TV.

[John McClain]

what gear ratio do you have ? are you driving fast trying to utilize your overdrive ? if so you are fighting a losing battle with wind resistance. My brother has a F 150 4 x 4 with a 24 foot toy hauler flipped springs . He changed his gears out and his towing MPG increased about 2 . but he lost about .5 when not towing

[Evereddie]

Not trying to hi-jack the thread but this seems like a good place to put forth a few questions about mileage. Do those air spoilers I have seen that you add on to the back of your tow vehicle that push the air up so it doesn't hit the front of the trailer head on, help any? Is there such a thing as an add-on nose with a V-shape to the front of the trailer to give it more of a point exist? Like the V-shaped fronts on some trailers like the Windjammer.

Big rigs use front spoilers and air skirts on the side to keep air from squeezing under the vehicle which creates drag, anything like this for TVs or trailers? Maybe time to start experimenting.

[Brother Les]

Originally Posted by Evereddie

Not trying to hi-jack the thread but this seems like a good place to put forth a few questions about mileage. Do those air spoilers I have seen that you add on to the back of your tow vehicle that push the air up so it doesn't hit the front of the trailer head on, help any? Is there such a thing as an add-on nose with a V-shape to the front of the trailer to give it more of a point exist? Like the V-shaped fronts on some trailers like the Windjammer.

Big rigs use front spoilers and air skirts on the side to keep air from squeezing under the vehicle which creates drag, anything like this for TVs or trailers? Maybe time to start experimenting.

Yes they work, but only on a factor of a small percentage. For thousands of miles driven at a time, it makes a big difference in fuel costs. Do you drive hundreds of miles at a time? These after market additions you must consider cost and installation and the drag that they have to your vehicle when not pulling. The higher the unit of camper, the more drag and less mpg. I installed on my truck years ago a standard topper shell and with this the air moves smoothly over my truck and then over the trailer (no air dip into the truck bed and hitting the front of the camper with a wall of air). I also have a Diesel truck with a Chip with several different pull modes. Keeping the truck in lower gears with higher rpms (2100-2600rpms) until I hit 45-50mph(drops to 2000rpms). From there I hit the higher gears and once it gets to 60-65 it will go into OverDrive and my rpms will drop to 1800rpm.

Steady mph where your truck is not searching up and down on the gears and throws your rpms back and forth. I can set my cruise control at 65 mph in overdrive and it will run for hours at 1800 rpms with no searching. Yes if it goes up a large incline it will put the coals to itself and hit up to 3000rpms until the crest and then fall back down to 1800rpms.

[bikendan]

slowing down, especially since the trailer tires are only rated for a max of 65mph, will help. 60 is the sweet spot for me and my Roo.

not sure what you expected going from a popup to pulling a 4000lbs. barn door behind you.
the average mpg for towing a full height trailer, is 8-10mpg, for a gas engine tow vehicle.

[canterburyshoe]

I have a Ford 6.2 gas, towing a 5th wheel weighing in at just under #9000 and towing no faster than 60 MPH through the White mountains in NH and the Green mountains in Vermont I am getting 8MPG all day long. 13 when not towing. I was getting only 1 MPG better with a TT about the same weight but the extra height of the 5er really affects it so you will notice a big difference going from a popup to a full TT.

[Iwannacamp]

I wanted to say(brag) a little. My ole dodge does pretty good. Averaging almost 20 daily and when I pulled my 5th wheel(mostly flat and 60-65) I got 15+. I was satisfied it grosses more than 11k.

[garbonz]

Stay in one place.

[BigBaron]

I tried the higher octane thing on our U.S. trip. No difference.
Get a scan guage or something so you can monitor your fuel economy in real-time.
Slow down to 100 kph, check your tire pressures, and get a shell for the bed. You're towing a brick wall down the road. There isn't much else you can do.
Once you have the scan guage, you'll be able to find your rig's sweet spot.
If only Trailmanors were taller than 6'4" inside...

[SaskCampers]

26l/100 is about right that's abt 10.8 imp mpg. The best I have got with a Hemi was 10.5 going from Saskatchewan to Ontario and back a few years back. The worst I got was 6. Running at 60mph will help abit, as to a cover if you don't have one or need one for any other reason do not waste you money on one for trying to increase your mileage. It was proven on myth busters that covering the bed is a wash to increase mileage. I run our truck with the retrax cover open and closed and see no difference that can be reliably measured. The bed just looks nicer with it closed I guess. I always ran minimum 89 octane in our hemi trucks when hauling, it did not make any big difference in mileage but they pull harder with higher octane.