Mileage while pulling camper

[marinerjoe]

Snuggling up to an 18 wheeler when towing a brick wall is magical for mileage, not so much for safety. They also don't like it.

I WASN’T NASCAR close, but was in close enough to be in their wake. When I had my 150 it made a significant difference. Now with my 350 and the 60 gallon tank, not as necessary.

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[Los150]

How much of these towing tips for the PB, apply to the EB engines? Is it the same?

 

[madsend81]

How much of these towing tips for the PB, apply to the EB engines? Is it the same?

Just about all of them apply to the EB engines. So far the recommendations are:

• Stay out of turbo range
• Lock out your upper gears, especially going up hills
• minimize drag via traveling at a reasonable speed and drafting (not danger close)
• Use gravity to your advantage

 

[dafish]

Snuggling up to an 18 wheeler when towing a brick wall is magical for mileage, not so much for safety. They also don't like it.

I’ve found noteworthy improvement when towing from simply using adaptive cruise control. Safer, less annoying for the truckers, and still nets 1-2 mpg improvement, often with a mild speed increase too!

 

[Aron]

How much of these towing tips for the PB, apply to the EB engines? Is it the same?

Pretty much yes. Once you put the PB into "Tow/Haul mode," it disables the switch over to electric-only mode, so it basically becomes a standard ecoboost at that point. Probably not 100% the same--I think there's still some braking-induced energy recovery to charge the battery, but I would guess that that's fairly minimal when trying to stop a 12k+ lb combined vehicle, so I would say that it's "nearly" the same as an ecoboost. Close enough to be a rounding error, if I had to guess.

 

[Popplemer]

3.5 eco pulling a 3000lb teardrop.

You hauling concrete in that thing?! How'd you get a teardrop to 3k? ?

 

[Calson]

Tow Haul mode is designed to keep the ATF temperature as low as possible when towing and nothing more. It alters the shift points and keeps the converter locked longer before an upshift.
This is not going to help fuel economy and is not designed to do so.

The gears on the truck make a difference and with a gas engine I have bought trucks and SUVs with a 4.10 rear end. With diesel my truck had 3.73 gears but an engine that produced twice as much torque. With a standard F-150 truck's 3.31 gears its towing performance is going to be restricted.

A key advantage of trucks with diesel engines is that one can expect at least 25% more miles per gallon of fuel and have a lot more range between fuel stops.

 

[JohnnyBoy]

In April, I towed my 5k trailer from Ft. Worth TX to northern ND. Running 65 MPH, I had a tailwind in TX and got 16MPG (24 MPG not towing). Once I left TX, the wind became a headwind of 20-50 MPH. Mileage dropped to 5-9! One 3 hour day, I went through an entire tank of gas!! I was running reg gas, even tried a high ethanol tank. Ran mostly in Normal or Eco.

Left ND in the middle of Oct., heading to NM and tried something different. Decided on going 60 MPH in Tow/Haul and using 91 octane gas, no ethanol if available. Got 13.8 MPG overall, ranging from 12-19. Less wind (but not windless) but more hills.

Different routes and weather, so no conclusions, but I think I'll stick with the second method.

 

[dafish]

It’s seems odd nobody has questioned the OP’s report of 15-16 mpg while towing a fairly large, at least 27’ long, travel trailer behind a Ranger.

skipping improbable payload, overworked engine, inadequate wheelbase, and etc, there is no way in hell a comparatively equal trip towing such a trailer would ever delivered those numbers.

 

[FordPrefect]

Hi all this is Bob ,I’m new to your site and glad to be here a lot of good info available ,
I have a question on my 3.5L power boost , does any body know the correct setting to use in trailer settings , i have a 24’ Jayco trailer the Jayco 24RL Jay Feather question is I’m only getting 6.8 to 7.4 MPG is this right ? Can’t believe this , i figure i must of set up something wrong ,sorry this a 2023 F-150 , i had a 2021 Ranger pulling the same trailer and i got 15-16 MPG
Thanks for any reply’s appreciated have a great one

I got about 6.5 MPG at one point, when I first towed our new Winnebago 2327TB (about 6,500lbs at the time, and about 11.5 feet tall) home from Texas with our '23 Powerboost. There seemed to be a number of contributing factors:

- lower octane fuel
- High winds, much of 'em headwinds
- Inexperience on my part, particularly with comfortable/safe speeds in high wind
- Inappropriately set-up WDH

In my case, the biggest contributing factor seemed to be the last one. I paid the Winnebago dealer to set up the WDH, which I brought new-in-box with me to the dealership. It was the first time they'd seen an Anderson weight distributing hitch, and I should have been more circumspect.

After that trip, I went through the hitch setup very carefully and concluded that they had the ball height too low, and the WDH adjusted incorrectly (the Anderson uses tensioned chains, and those were far too loose).

On a test drive after that, the rig went immediately to 9.5 MPG. With a slight tail wind, limiting my speed to 65MPH, and running premium fuel I have observed as much as 11.5 MPG, on a recent 200 mile trip. Just for reference, when not towing I typically see 21-23 MPG.

Speed would be the second biggest factor for me and the Winnebago "flying brick". If I set the ACC at much over 65, which would be normal since most of the roads near me have limits of 75 or more, mileage can easily drop by 10-20%. Plus, there is more squirming in the passenger seat, so I have more than one incentive to let the big rigs pass me on the left.

The OP didn't mention a WDH but I assume there is one, since that Jayco is over 5,000 lbs?

 

[Gros Ventre]

In my observation a head wind kills MPG. And ya know... that right seat squirming, well that can kill mpg too...

 

[Bunker]

My lifetime reported mileage of the 27’ airstream loaded and truck loaded for 9000 miles is 11.8mpg. Most of those miles were Alaska and back with fuel quality being all over the board. I will say that mpg drops FAST over 60mph. I84 Boise to Portland was the worst this summer with a strong head wind at 65mph I could stay around 8mpg most of the time.

 

[SRMD]

I just completed a 3 hour drive up to Appalachian Mountains in western MD, towing a horse trailer full of wood ( 1.5 cord), trailer weight was 8100 lbs.

using recommendations from others in this forum, I stayed in 7th gear on the flats and 5th or 6th on climbs, depending on the coolant temp displayed on my phone using OBDLink MX+.

I averaged 11.2 mpg, which I was shocked (I guessed 8mpg before the trip). This is averaging 65mph on flats and 60-62 on the climbs, depending on ECT, which I keep below 230F. The horse trailer is not as tall or square as my Winnebago TT, but this load was heavier and this trip has a 3K foot elevation difference from beginning to end, most of the elevation in the last 20 miles.

I only run 93 octane when I tow.

 

[Ranger96]

I just completed a 3 hour drive up to Appalachian Mountains in western MD, towing a horse trailer full of wood ( 1.5 cord), trailer weight was 8100 lbs.

using recommendations from others in this forum, I stayed in 7th gear on the flats and 5th or 6th on climbs, depending on the coolant temp displayed on my phone using OBDLink MX+.

I averaged 11.2 mpg, which I was shocked (I guessed 8mpg before the trip). This is averaging 65mph on flats and 60-62 on the climbs, depending on ECT, which I keep below 230F. The horse trailer is not as tall or square as my Winnebago TT, but this load was heavier and this trip has a 3K foot elevation difference from beginning to end, most of the elevation in the last 20 miles.

I only run 93 octane when I tow.

Do you run in tow/haul mode or just manually shift in normal mode?

 

[Calson]

When I drove with a slide-in camper in the bed with its cabover front the amount of wind made a huge difference in fuel consumption. With a 20 mph headwind that I would hardly notice without the camper in the bed my mpg would decrease from 13 mpg to 10 mpg.

Most of the horsepower and fuel is used to overcome air drag which increases with the square of the speed of the wind and that included the speed of the vehicle plus the speed of any winds in the area. Even a side wind provides two-thirds of the vector force of a headwind.

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