You missed the wind part. When not having wind, i average 20-21mpg with a big Thule tub on the roof and camping gears, fridge, boxes inside. With wind, 17mpg. Definitely not apple to apple but you'll get the idea.
Terrible MPG and terrible tank = not truly a viable option for towing long distance
- Thread starter BigMF
- Start date
I pull a trailer a fair bit both for recreation and work with my bone stock LC 1958. My first observation is - yes - the gas tank is stupid small but I expected that and carry extra gas cans when necessary. The extra gas is more because premium gas isn't always available when you get into rural Canada. On the issue of fuel economy a lot depends on driving habits; speed; weight; tires; tire inflation; braking; terrain; using tow/haul setting & temperature. When towing I always attempt to load 10% to 11% hitch weight - heavier gets worse fuel economy and lighter is dangerous. If driving for fuel economy keep the speed down and don't push it. I've found the sweet spot to be 93 km/hr and any faster it will get very thirsty. On big hills especially with slow traffic lanes I'll slow to what the heavy transports are doing except when they are struggling (I'm not & never have). For best fuel economy try to anticipate slowing and stopping well in advance and start to coast.
As an aside I've watched the transmission temperature when towing and it has never varied.
Fuel economy I really don't worry about it as I knew buying it that premium is required and pulling a trailer you can usually count on cutting fuel economy in half - which was the rule with my 2022 Tacoma and before that even worse with my F150. I've now got 29,000Km on it with no issues except for my hate of apple carplay for my glitches and disconnects. My driving when not pulling a trailer is a combination of rural, highway, city and current consumption is 9.3L/100km (25.3mpg). Just did a long trip over 6,000 km pulling the travel trailer and depending on terrain gas consumption per tank varied from good at 13.3L/100km (17.7mpg) to terrible at 17.1L/100km (13.7mpg)- with the latter being the very hilly trans-Canada highway around Lake Superior - this was the worst fuel consumption I have ever had. The Tacoma doing the same trip the previous year got considerably worse mileage. For reference the travel trailer weighs 3500 lb dry and weighed 4380 when loaded. The tractor is on an excessively heavy rental trailer with surge brakes and the whole thing weighed just short of 6000lb - when towing it I kept the speed down as the trailer brakes were very sensitive and I'm hauling close to the max weight for the LC. It was about a 380km trip over very hilly rural roads - all other trailering with the tractor is short trips of only about 100km
I'm pleased with the towing ability and have no issues with fuel economy - it's actually better than I expected. I'll be putting new tires on next month and have opted for the BF Goodrich KO3. It will be interesting to see what this does to fuel consumption - I had the KO2s on the Tacoma and it cost about an extra 2L/100km.
As an aside I've watched the transmission temperature when towing and it has never varied.
Fuel economy I really don't worry about it as I knew buying it that premium is required and pulling a trailer you can usually count on cutting fuel economy in half - which was the rule with my 2022 Tacoma and before that even worse with my F150. I've now got 29,000Km on it with no issues except for my hate of apple carplay for my glitches and disconnects. My driving when not pulling a trailer is a combination of rural, highway, city and current consumption is 9.3L/100km (25.3mpg). Just did a long trip over 6,000 km pulling the travel trailer and depending on terrain gas consumption per tank varied from good at 13.3L/100km (17.7mpg) to terrible at 17.1L/100km (13.7mpg)- with the latter being the very hilly trans-Canada highway around Lake Superior - this was the worst fuel consumption I have ever had. The Tacoma doing the same trip the previous year got considerably worse mileage. For reference the travel trailer weighs 3500 lb dry and weighed 4380 when loaded. The tractor is on an excessively heavy rental trailer with surge brakes and the whole thing weighed just short of 6000lb - when towing it I kept the speed down as the trailer brakes were very sensitive and I'm hauling close to the max weight for the LC. It was about a 380km trip over very hilly rural roads - all other trailering with the tractor is short trips of only about 100km
I'm pleased with the towing ability and have no issues with fuel economy - it's actually better than I expected. I'll be putting new tires on next month and have opted for the BF Goodrich KO3. It will be interesting to see what this does to fuel consumption - I had the KO2s on the Tacoma and it cost about an extra 2L/100km.
I know I posted about my bad mileage with my small trailer and a serious headwind. It did actually pretty good with my 5000 lb boat towing it a couple hours. I got decent mpg probably around 15/17. It had plenty of power.
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