Gas mileage

jkjenn

I had both my worst and best mileage, ever while towing the T@b on my last trip, despite driving slower. The plains were brutal as wind both ways took a major toll, sinking anywhere from 7-9 mpg. The mountains were splendid, where I averaged about 15mpg.

Nomad

Wow - My low was 10mpg on my first leg last year - 40mph direct headwind. My worst since then has been 12.2. I plan for 14.
Kind of funny, I got better gas mileage in the hills/mountains than I got on the flatter plains crusing at the same speeds.

mash2

Seems pretty low to me.  

DurangoTaB

Andrew...did you sell your Tacoma?  Or just using the Lexus for towing?

Mouseketab

I have an Explorer Sport Trac V8 and I added a camper shell to the bed. I get about 20 on the highway, 14 in town, 10-14 towing the T@B. (The 10 is when hubby is driving).

RZRBUG

I keep an expense log, along with a travel diary, just 'cause I like to, but I'm not really concerned about it.

I have a V-8 GMC Sierra with a cap on the bed, which is always loaded when I travel.  Hey, you got the room, you might as well use it.  I got 14.16 MPG on my recent trip of 2,684 miles to The Black Hills, a combination of flat lands and hills on the trip.  I normally average around 17 MPG, but my driving is mostly short trips in hilly country.

webcrawler

Just got back from 600 mile trip from Atlanta to St George fl...

Driving 60-70mph I average about 15-16mpg both ways in my Lincoln MKC....

Sgtjohn

I've read on this forum that the hitch height can affect mileage, too high and the wind catches under the T@B and cuts mpg.

Allie

Have a 2012 Rav4 V6 with towing pkg.  Non-towing:
hwy 29-31 mpg @ 75-80 mph.
City 24 mpg
Towing: city/hwy combined 15-17 mpg.  Hwy speed when towing is between 60-65.

Used to have a 13' Scamp with bath.  Milage was much better averaging about 19-21 mpg.

Nomad

Allie - out of curiosity, what was the Scamp weight vs the T@B?

Allie

They are both around 1800#

ChanW

Tacoma 2011 Access Cab 4wd 4cyl: avg @20-22mpg without Tab, @13-17mpg with Tab.

Nomad

T@Bnero - That's new/empty right?

ejodoin

I get 26-29 mpg w/o towing in my 2014 Ford Escape 1.7L Ecoboost, with towing I get 12-15 mpg. I am a travel nurse and will be towing my T@B cross country from Florida to California in January 2016, then to Seattle, WA in July 2016 and back to Florida in Late October 2016 (and camping every step of the way). I am a little nervous about it since this is the first time I will be towing anything this size for this long. I don't have a large gas tank, so I will be sure to fuel up often. I am even going to tow an extra 10 gallons of gas just in case.

Nomad

Last winter when I was SW I generally got 14.5 with my Jeep towing the T@B. This summer when I was back in the lower elevation flatlands of the Midwest I only got 12.5. As I was in southern Utah at higher elevations I got 16.5 and 17.8 going over the mountain at 9,600 ft.
Makes no sense to me that while cursing on basically flat roads I'd get worse mileage than climbing hills like crazy. Or that at higher altitudes it'd be better.
Any ideas/theories?

USWildflowers

Question for you, PXLated - what were your average speeds in the mountains vs the flatlands? Typically the average flatland speed would be higher, resulting (typically) in lower fuel economy. I've seen an article that says based purely on physics that exclude variances in automobile shape, driveline efficiency differences, tire rolling drag, etc, an automobile that gets 35 mpg at 65 mph will get only about 20 mpg at 80 mph. At the lower speeds we travel while towing, the mpg difference of 15 mph speed difference probably wouldn't be as pronounced, but would certainly impact fuel economy.

ChanW

ejodoin, I've found that we can generally get at least 200 miles on a tank with our Tacoma.

On those long empty highways in the Midwest and Southwest, there were plenty of gas stations on the Interstate, so I just made sure I started looking when the tank was half full, especially at night or away from the Interstate.

Funny thing I noticed though; I normally depend on name-brand fuel here in the northeast. Hoping to avoid 'bad gas', I look for stations like Mobil, Exxon, Shell, etc.

The further west I got, the harder it was to find any fuel I'd heard of, and eventually all the name-brand gas stations were sitting there on the side of the road empty and out of business, many were actually burned out.

I wonder if the major fuel companies have stopped retailing or something, taking their names off the consumer end-product.

Has anyone else noticed this? 

Nomad

Gerry - Pretty much the same speeds in both areas 55-60. Rarely freeways in either area.
Got better gas mileage in far west ND/SD than on the lower elevations of far eastern areas of the states also. 1-2 mpg better - weird.

Photomom

Wired has an interesting article that discusses some of the factors affecting fuel usage, primarily air resistance which depends on the front facing area of the vehicle (and T@B), air density at the elevation you're driving, and drag coefficient of the vehicle (and T@B). Lots of math but it is summarized nicely by the graph at the end of the article. http://www.wired.com/2011/04/what-will-an-85-mph-speed-limit-do-to-your-mileage/

Photomom

The relationship between elevation, air density, and fuel economy explains why airplanes fly at 38000 feet - lots less air for the plane to push through.

ChanW

That's very interesting. You'd think that the thinner air would also require the plane to  use more fuel to maintain lift.

mash2

Air density at 8,000 ft is only 74% that at sea level or 34% at 30,000 ft.  temperature decline increases density, but doesn't appear to offset gain from altitude by long shot.  And remember whatever goes up must come down.  Significantly less work going down, but intuitively doesn't seem like downward savings would offset uphill use.  But my experience has been the same as yours pxlated.  My east coast average was lower than mountain and plateaus of the southwest in last major trip.

One other thing for me.  I tend to drive slower in the mountain states than in the midwest (in a hurry to get thru on my way east or west so my speeds are higher).  

webcrawler

PXLated,

What you saw was most likely related to summer vs winter gas blends.  Winter gas blends get far worse milage.  Most souther states still use the winter blends even though there is little benefit from doing so....

Also cooler air tends to be more energy (more oxygen) dense.  This causes the ECU in the car to inject more fuel to prevent pre ignition ( or too lean of a mixture)....

Nomad

Webcrawler - Hmmm not sure if that affected it, I was at various altitudes within the same season so presume same blend.

Verna

Last summer, mid July to mid August, I traveled from Indiana to Durango to Arches, through northeaster Utah and then to McCall, Udaho. I was towing my Silver Shadow teardrop with an estimated weight of 1,700 lbs. I was amazed at the great gas mileage I was getting in the mountains. It also happened in the Smokey Mountains in 2013--great gas mileage with various speeds in the mountains. This was not the time of year for the winter blend. I don't have an answer, but I sure was happy at spending less on gas!

Normfun

It's very clear to me.  Cars like people are happiest when they are pulling a trailer in the mountains.

Nomad

normfun - That's got to be be it...
Or maybe it's a Volkswagen type software thingy.

RZRBUG

My mileage only drops 3-4 MPG no matter where I'm towing, but I don't get good mileage in the first place with my V-8 GMC Sierra.  I think part of that is because the bigger engine doesn't need to work that much harder to pull the T@B.  I always keep a check on my mileage, but I don't plan to change tow vehicles any time soon, so I just filler 'er up when I need to and keep on trucking.  Forgive me for not being more concerned about my carbon footprint, I don't drive very much when not traveling, so I make up for it when I do.

KyBawpaw

These new motors amaze me. I just bought a late model Ford Escape 2 Liter, 4WD, 4 cylinder with "Eco Boost". My old 2001 Ranger V6 was rated to tow about 2500 lbs and gave me 19-21 mpg no tow regular driving. I haven't towed the T@B with the Escape yet but it's rated to tow 3,000+ lbs and I'm getting 24-26 mpg regular driving. No complaints but I'm gonna miss that truck sometimes. Mainly for hauling. I do have a trailer to tote firewood on, etc.

Ratkity

With my Rav4 (exact specs of Allie) my towing mpg was the same. I now have a GMC Canyon V6 4x4 and my gas mileage has *improved*. I get 23-24 mpg avg towing fully loaded (east coast - not mountains) and 27.7 mpg best hwy (no tow). Have tonneau cover that lays flat on the bed (air flow aid?). It does NOT like rush hour traffic 19 mpg (might be the attitude of the driver too). I think norm pegged it... happiest when towing a T@B all around.