Said no one pulling a 10,000lb toy hauler style camper against a 20 mph headwind. 
Said no one pulling a 10,000lb toy hauler style camper against a 20 mph headwind.
Doh Wrong subforum, this was meant to be in Grassroots.
I think it's more accurate to say that diesel pickups get (relatively) great mileage while towing than gas trucks. If you're not hauling heavy loads, the advantage is much smaller.
Um, maybe air up those tires ?!?
That can also mean higher than expected pressure.
I usually don't get that low with mine, but my trailer is lower than the typical toy hauler. And yeah, air speed is critical.
Tom_Spangler wrote: I think it's more accurate to say that diesel pickups get (relatively) great mileage while towing than gas trucks. If you're not hauling heavy loads, the advantage is much smaller.
Yeah, with a 454 in there it would probably be showing 3.5 mpg :)
No kidding, I once towed a 20' trailer with a 1200 lb car in it up to our local ski area using a Ford 460. I could actually see the gas gauge move.
I got 6.2 with my 460 F350 towing a 35', 12000# camper, with the cruise set at 72. That's the worst I ever saw out of it. 90% of my towing was on relatively flat ground.
The headwind is what's killing you. It's shocking how much fuel it can make you suck down.
That's pretty bad. Worst I ever got was a bit over 12 towing about 10,000 lbs with my 7.3 F-350 dually. My gas 454 Suburban however would drop to 6 MPG.
My 2004 ram 3500 dually with a welding bed and my tools gets 11 mpg on daily duty. I don't even want to know what it would get towing.
In reply to Eplascen:
If you have a Lincoln pipeliner on there I would consider that towing, m'self 
My 2003 Ram 2500 has never seen less than 11 and is usually 12-14 when towing, depending on load, which has ranged from about 5000 to 10000 in enclosed trailers. I understand the 2007+ diesels of all brands saw significant decreases in mileage due to tuning for the then new low sulphur fuels and reduced emissions. Don't know if that's still the case.
I drive enough that average MPG tends to make a difference to me. When I notice I'm driving into a strong headwind I'll adjust my speed accordingly. Of course, I also drive enough that I don't really care so much how long it takes me to get somewhere and I've learned the real-world time difference between 65mph and 70mph isn't all that much.
I never got less than 11 or so with the 2500 even in strong head winds but it was a pre emissions truck on a stock tune pulling 10k not a new one and the internet says that makes a big difference.
einy wrote: Um, maybe air up those tires ?!?
Tires are fine, sensors bad.
And actually why do people assume that I don't have the tires aired up properly because that light is on? I see that your reply got 5 likes so that must mean several people think I'm an idiot towing a heavy trailer with underinflated tires. Those sensors go bad all the time.
Wind and speed can make any vehicle suck down fuel like there's no tomorrow. But some combos do surprisingly well or surprisingly badly.
I was downright shocked the time I towed 6300 lbs of parts Jeep and trailer (loaded backwards on the trailer because it sat so far forward on it) with my Jeep. 350 miles through the hills of Route 17 in the southern tier of NY doing 55 - 60 the whole way and it turned in 11.5 mpg overall (hand calculated). Worst mpg leg of the trip (the part with the worst hills) was still over 10 mpg. Considering at the time, doing 60 - 65, it would get 18 at best on that same drive with no trailer, I was very, very impressed.
My 2010 2500 with a 6.7 Cummins averages 17-20 unloaded and 12-ish when towing a 9500 lb 28' enclosed trailer. The highway mileage depends on if I'm gaining or losing altitude over the course of the day, and air speed is usually about 70-75 mph. I did hit 8.2 on a tank a couple of days ago when climbing out of Vegas and running into a massive headwind.
Interestingly, a tune and EGR delete helped the unloaded number considerably but very little when working.
In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid:
Nothing personal meant in my comment, just an observation of the photo you posted. Sorry to offend you.
In reply to TRoglodyte:
Haha, 1984 sa-200 black face. Now that I think about it, you're probably right. I kind of want an early 2000's Duramax for the mpgs now though, I hate the newer trucks.
Once you get above 50 mph or so wind resistance is the dominate one and it goes up exponentially. You can expect that economy if you go 20mph faster on a calm day!
In reply to einy:
Don't worry too much. He doesn't like it when I pick on his dashboard either. Apparently everyone does it.
einy wrote: In reply to SyntheticBlinkerFluid: Nothing personal meant in my comment, just an observation of the photo you posted. Sorry to offend you.
Don't worry about it, the last two days have not been great and I haven't been in a good mood. Didn't mean to go off, I'm just starting to sound like a broken record about the TPMS light.
As for mndsm, you give me crap about everything. 
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