Well, the day is almost here. Monday the 6th of August I depart Greensboro North Carolina and head to Dearborn Michigan, then to Oshkosh Wisconsin, and finally west to Everett Washington to start my new job! YAY! My poor Jeep Cherokee XJ is packed to the gills with shop stuff, and is now in the 24' car hauler, awaiting the straps, once the rest of the junk gets situated around it.

I'm wondering what kind of mileage I might hope for on my trip? I'll have a new set of Firestone Transforce HT's in 265/75/16 size, with everything else being stock. I have a hard shell tonneau cover on the bed (Hate it!) and I'll be towing the afformentioned 24 foot enclosed car hauler which is an extra 18 inches tall. It's got a flat front too, so, it's like towing a barn door down the road! I'm guessing the trailer will tip the scaler at it's rated limit of 11,000 pounds with all my stuff in it. I took a test trip a few weeks ago, but, fuel consumption wasn't my focus. Making sure the truck was fully functional WAS the focus. :)

So, shoot me your best guesses please, preferably from experience! Oh, and, if there's anyone looking to swap a regular cap for this dang tonneau cover, drop me a line! It's white and it's a short bed.

Thanks!

i just got back from vaca, pulling my 7k toyhauller, i got a low of 10.5 and high if 13.3 average was 11.5 ish ave going 70 or less mph.....btw, we went to the black hills from madison wisc. so it will be the same roads.....for part of thetrip....

I regularly deliver equipment around the southeast, 6 to 10k. Get about 10.5 towing

Seems like mileage is more dependant on wind resistance than weight. I notice when I pull my 3 horse trailer around ~13 towing a 18' car trailer around ~14-16
I average around 19.5 unloaded, course I usually am going 50-60mph

Thanks for the replys guys!

I used to have a 1999 F*rd PSD that I pulled the same trailer with and it regularly got 13.5mpg @ 70-75 on the freeway. One big difference is that I had a cap on it (CC/SB 4x4) that raised 8" at the rear, so it deflected a lot of air up and over the trailer. My current ride has a hard tonneau cover, so I know I'll have more wind resistance and thus, probably lower mpg's.

It will be interesting to compare my mileage with this truck to that of my last tow vehicle: 1998 F*rd Econoline with 4.6L gasser... LOL! I made 2 trips from Oshkosh to Greensboro to move here, and averaged 6.2mpg, and, it was a struggle all the way! WOW, what a trip the last one was too:

1) GF's car's throttle stuck WFO on the freeway headed towards Indy. Thought she was gonna cross the finish line first LOL!

2) Trailer tire blowout @ 3am, in the rain. The carcass got wedged between the brakes and wheel well of the trailer. I had bolt cutters out, a saw, jacks, hammers, and was ready to fire my my oxy/acet. torch to cut the dang thing out... then it hit me. I let the trailer down off the jacks and started driving in circles, waiting for the flat tire (And still attached wheel) to get run over by the good wheel/tire... Taaa-Daaa! Popped it right out!

3) No motels available...

4) GF's car throttle tuck WFO for the 2nd time... when she got the car stopped, she jumped out of the car and almost got creamed by a semi-truck...

5) FOG in the West Virginia mountains put us a day behind.

6) Wrong turn in Virginia made us 2 hours late, but, it sure was a pretty drive! LOL

And, now, 10 months later, I'm doing it all over again. No GF this time, just me and my 2 dogs. :grd:

what the heck you going to be doig in Dearborn???little out of the way??

what the heck you going to be doig in Dearborn???little out of the way??

Visiting the folks and also my kids, and friends too. Then I drive to Jackson to get my air compressor and tools, then I start heading west.

The truck is at the shop getting it's new tires right now! ):h

sry to hear u have firestones


firestones suck

OK, the trailer was 90% loaded the other night and we decided to make a 13 mile e-way run to Wally Mart.

WOW!!!!! I mean, WOW!!!!! :cool2: I cannot believe how well this truck pulls my trailer! We hit 55mph and she slipped into 5th and held there until we hit the 2 hills on the way, a quick drop to 4th and they were eaten all up. This was with my trailer loaded tongue heavy too... got boxes and junk right up to the roof in front. To say that the trailer is packed is getting to be an understatement. LOL

The difference between this '02 D-Max and my F*or 'Power Stork' is amazeing! The front suspension of the F250 really pounded you to h*ll on the bumps - this 2500HD just glides along.

I leave Monday Morning and arrive in Michigan in the evening... I'll get online and let ya know how it did.

:grd:

Not to far away from Holland on your trip for a stop in.

OK now for the final destination question. What will your Job be in Everett Washington ?. My first guess would be that you will be working for Boeing. Wish you a safe trip and happy motoring.

Yes, I'll be working for Boeing. 8-)

Stop in Holland? I'm a little behind schedule at the moment, but, I'll get a better estimate of travel time tomorrow.

OK, so, I get 10 miles on the odo and KA-BOOOOOOM... first dead trailer tire... dang and it was new too. I had fender clearence problems (That I didn't know about) due to prior blow outs while someone had rented the trailer from me. $130, 1.5 hours and lots of activity by a veritable Nascar pit crew working on my trailer and I was rolling again. I do have to give Piedmont Truck Tire in Greensboro, North Carolina props for getting me out pronto. They greased the axle bearings, aired all the tires, and fixed an electric brake wire - fast. (edit: AND beat the fenders back into shape)

I'm now in Dearborn and have had no problems on the way, not a drop of ATF came out of the trans (Unlike the last trip with just the Jeep in the trailer) I hit the scales today : Steer @ 3380, Drive @ 5860, Trailer @ 12180, GW= 21420 AND I'm getting 10mpg through the hills of Virginia and West Virginia, and pulled 11.2 on the way through Ohio. :blahblah:

Next update will be from Oshkosh, Wisconsin sometime Thursday.

I MADE IT! Wooo-Hoooo...

3187 miles, stopping every 200-250 miles for fuel and taking 20 minutes to let the 2 pooches stretch out at each stop... yeah, it was a looooong trip.


In Chicago (Gawd how I HATE SHI-TCAGO) I tried to straddle a small cardboard box that contained something very hard... it took out the left rear truck tire while I was towing 12,180 pounds... and there I am on the side of the highway at 1:30pm in chicago traffic risking my life to change a tire. Took me 20 minutes to change the tire, and 30 minutes to air the spare up to 80psi with my little 12v inflator.

The rest of the trip was totally uneventful, not even the dogs minded the ride. They didn't even -:t one time! That was good. The truck ran like a champ, never hinted at missing a beat, and got 11.4mpg average towing my slightly overloaded trailer. It was a pleasure negotiating the mountain passes with such a capable vehicle, and the trans brake feature was VERY impressive! it was nice to actually feel SAFE while towing in a vehicle. (Unlike in the old van...)

I'M HAPPY! Long live the LB7!