Well, we just finished the towing day from hell. Left Edmonton, Alberta
at 6 AM with 4 inches of fresh snow on the ground and 8 more in the
forecast. Had to pull off the road after 40 minutes since we could no
longer see the road. Got underway about an hour later at first light.



We went 530 kilometers on 217 litres of fuel to get to Saskatoon !



In
imperial, that is 7 miles per gallon. Thank heavens for my Supertank.
Towing our 12 foot high Cardinal 5er dead into a 25mph wind with blowing snow.



7 miles per gallon is the worst I have ever heard of. Anyone seen worse ?


Edited by: Diesel Dad

Holy moly! 7 miler per imperial gallon is the worst
I've ever heard of. You sure the trailer had wheels on
it?

TC

I have a freind that has gotten as bad as 6mpg when towing a heavily
loaded 24 x 8 cargo trailer (about 10,000lbs) with a 2002 Ford
Power Stroke 2wd dualie running 75 to 80 mph going to do weekend
computer shows. He was very disappointed in the fuel mileage towing.
Yes he does drive fast but he would work one job during week and "race"
out to do the other on weekends sometimes as fars as 1000 miles round
trip hence his hurry.

Worst I ever heard of was in my old 95 c3500, CC with 454 pulling a
6000 lb camper. I got 5 mpg towing at 60 mph in a 40 mph
headwind. Best it ever got towing was on I-10 through Louisiana
and Mississippi and that was only 7.5. 10 mpg in town and if I
babied it 12 on the highway empty. That is the big reason I
finally got rid of it and bought my Duramax. It gets double the
mileage towing the same trailer.

Worst I ever heard of was in my old 95 c3500, CC with 454 pulling a
6000 lb camper. I got 5 mpg towing at 60 mph in a 40 mph
headwind. Best it ever got towing was on I-10 through Louisiana
and Mississippi and that was only 7.5. 10 mpg in town and if I
babied it 12 on the highway empty. That is the big reason I
finally got rid of it and bought my Duramax. It gets double the
mileage towing the same trailer.




That is bad and something must not have been right as a 454 will
generally do better and I have taken long trips in a few 454 powered
motor home that did much better than that loaded. My best on one trip
was 11MPG and worst was between 7 and 8mpg going thru rockies on
back roads.

Diesel DAd...I assume you were in 4X4...That'll eat up the mpg...


I too have driven in snow storms with trailers and noticed a drop in mpg because of being in 4X4!

Truck probably spent more time in lower gears. Couldn't get going
fast enought to get into fifth gear. I have this happen getting
stuck behind slower traffic on two lane roads. Fuel
milage........hmph.

Did you happen to have it in T/H mode?

Our lowest has been 7.5 with our d-max. West bound from Las Vegas to Mojave. Head wind between 30 to 40 mph with a gcwr of 22,000lbs. Trailer is 38' long and 13'6" Tall. John

I've had plenty of tanks just below 8mpg. Usually the cumulative for a trip is more like 9. My drive sunday will probably be one of my lowest yet, we'll be loaded with to big horses and a mini horse which will probably put us very close to 22000 gross.

We were in tow-haul mode, 2WD. The wind was just unbelievable, probably
gusting over 40 MPH. Our Cardinal has a high, flat front -- like a sail.



We were really thankful to have the Supertank otherwise we would have made a lot of fuel stops to escape the snow.



We are now down in Tennessee and the towing is a lot easier with less wind and better roads.

We get around 6 MPG going up hill pulling. That was a 6 degree grade. http://www.dieselplace.com/forum/smileys/smiley2.gif

Welcome to Tennessee! You shouldn't see any snow here for a while!

6MPG on 6% grade? That is great. We usually see 3 or 4 on 6% grades

Diesel Dad,
I have seen the same with my 2004 LB7 3500 crew cab 4x4. 5-6MPG towing a 24' enclosed trailer with a load of only 3,000LB. for about 200 miles on I-90 in Indiana
The head wind was about 45 MPH with gust that was over that. The trailer pulled about the same empty or loaded untill the wind came up. Big trucks was parking at the rest stops, said the wind was to much for them with empty trailers.The head wind is harder to pull against then the weight by far.

well i guess i should not be to upset with the our kenwood tractor then, yesterday pulling a supper b grain trailer(gross weight of 140000 lbs) fighting about a 30mph crosswind it made 2.9mpg cdn, i thought i was go to go broke at these fuel prices

Well, we just finished the towing day from hell. Left Edmonton, Alberta....7 miles per gallon is the worst I have ever heard of. Anyone seen worse ?


Edited by: Diesel Dad Yes, on a trip from Denver to San Diego last summer I reached the lowest ever - 6 MPG! A tip of my hat to mother nature ------ 30 mph winds, lots of hills while pulling a 36' Teton Experience with wife and two cases of Samuel Adams!

Regards, Jim R.

Just got back from a cross county retirement trip, with a total of 11000 miles.

My average was about 10mpg, towing a 13000 pound fifth wheel trailer.

When unhooked and driving around town I got between 15 and 16mpg.

Something has got to be wrong.

I have had several tanks in the 5's. Wind is the greatest factor. Whats amazing to me is that going uphill with a strong headwind you will get 5, but going downhill with a stong tailwind you might only get 12. Wind seams to hurt more than weight.