I have a 1990 Ford Coachmen camper van with a 5.8/351W that I use to tow a 800lb single axle open trailer. Whether I tow the 1637lb Datsun or the 640lb F500 I'm getting just on 10 mpg. The van gets 12 mpg when not towing. Anytime I'm going down hill I use the overdrive, I also don't go any faster than 65mph. On big hills / long grade I end up going down to 45 mph, it will go a little faster but working it that hard really reeks havoc with the fuel mileage.
My 1985 Chevrolet C30 Duallie, 350ci, TH400, 4.10 Dana 70HD, gets about 9 mpg. I try to check the gas mileage as little as possible. Never thought to check the mileage whilst towing. It isn't really important to me.
A couple more data points :
My old truck, 2004 Nissan Titan (5.6 v8) got between 7.5-8.5 mpg towing my 24ft race trailer, about 8500 lbs, at roughly 70 mph.
New truck : 2017 f150 3.5 EB gets pretty much the same. Does about 20% better when not towing, though. And 36 gallon tank is way better than the 26er in the Nissan for race weekends.
You can get that with a GMT800 and GMT900 Escalade. The issue is that you need to tow under 70ish to do it. If you run closer to 85-90 you get around 8.5-9.5mpg. TOTALLY theoretical.
Open trailers are easy, if you go enclosed, get a low top one *only about 5'6 or so max interior height*. Thats about the only way to really make it work I think.
We still like the Prevost. Sure, we only get about 5mpg, but thats with the genny on and pulling the corvette at 75mph.
I didn't pay attention to mpg numbers, but the ecoboost that I used to tow made a fantastic tow pig. Lots of power.
The big nod for me goes to diesel. Much better MPG (if you shop carefully... things get murky after about 08-10). WAY more torque, longer-lived, and they just refuse to drop value. If you have the buy-in capital, diesel will keep way more money in your pocket compared to gas... again, if you shop wisely.
People consistently compare the purchase premium of a diesel and calculate how long it will take for the mpg to make up the difference. That isn't a very valid thing to me. You will have a truck until one of three things happens. 1) you sell it, 2) you die and your kids get it), or 3) someone T-bones it sending it to the junkyard. No matter what happens, you will be getting rid of it someday, and diesels put so much more money back in your pocket.
Buy a gas truck with 50k on it for $10k. Drive it until it has 200k and it's worth $1k
Buy a diesel truck with 50k for $17k. Drive it until the odometer dies at 350k and it is probably still worth $15k
That is only reason I'm driving a gas truck. I can't afford a diesel. (but I've already started measuring for a diesel swap).
Open trailer? Easy. My 2011 F-150 with 5.0L would do like 14, same for my Range Rover 5.0SC and 2018 F-150 5.0L. An enclosed is harder given the aerodynamic effects/punching a hole in the air. I did tow mine with a 3.5L EcoBoost F-150 and it wasn't the best economy. Maybe 11?
https://outmotorsports.com/2019/05/review-2019-ford-f150-ecoboost-v6-towing-test/
I'm supposed to be receiving a new Expedition for towing/review in a week or two. Will post back with the MPG. Ford's press fleet was shut down for a while and I've not received 100% confirmation that it's coming.
My FJC gets 17-18MPG on the highway. When it tows my racecar or sand toys, it gets 11-12MPG.
Thinkkker said:You can get that with a GMT800 and GMT900 Escalade. The issue is that you need to tow under 70ish to do it. If you run closer to 85-90 you get around 8.5-9.5mpg. TOTALLY theoretical.
Open trailers are easy, if you go enclosed, get a low top one *only about 5'6 or so max interior height*. Thats about the only way to really make it work I think.
We still like the Prevost. Sure, we only get about 5mpg, but thats with the genny on and pulling the corvette at 75mph.
What’s in the Prevost? Series 60 with 500 hp, 1500 lbs ft?
1988RedT2 said:My 1985 Chevrolet C30 Duallie, 350ci, TH400, 4.10 Dana 70HD, gets about 9 mpg. I try to check the gas mileage as little as possible. Never thought to check the mileage whilst towing. It isn't really important to me.
I could never understand why they put 350’s in heavier trucks. All the miserable mpg of a 454 without the power.
Fueled by Caffeine said:follow the recipe from the ancient fourwheeler magazine project MPG. They spent $4800 in 1999 dollars to gain 3MPG on the highway?
http://performanceunlimited.com/projectmpg/results.html
https://www.fourwheeler.com/features/1408-worst-four-wheeler-projects-five-floppers/
Hold on though. You aren’t seeing the big picture. Gaining 3 mpg when you only got 6 to start with (I might be exaggerating but you get the idea) is monu-berking-mental and will save tons of dough at the pump. Gaining 3 when you’re already getting 30 is not nearly as big of a deal. Four Wheeler writers never did show much intelligence.
Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:The big nod for me goes to diesel. Much better MPG (if you shop carefully... things get murky after about 08-10). WAY more torque
There's a very narrow window of options where that holds true against modern gas engines. Current 3.5 ecoboost makes 470ft-lbs. The last non-emissions cummins made 460 for the normal version and 505 for the HO version. Duramax I'm not sure when the emissions changeover was but the most torque you could get was either 520 or maybe 605. Powerstroke I'm also not sure but I think the last non-emissions engine was the 6.0 (which has its own host of reasons to not want to own) which made 560. And for that matter I'm not quite sure that any of those numbers qualify as "WAY more" than the ecoboost. Of course the non-emissions diesels can be cranked up pretty far with a tuner and an exhaust, but without a host of other supporting mods you can pretty quickly run into issues with transmissions, cooling systems, and EGTs.
I have a '13 Ford Ecoboost and when towing my open trailer it did get as high as 15.5-16 mpg but I also don't tow at a fast speed. 60 is about average for me and 65 is about as fast I am willing to tow anything.
Can I go faster, sure but I don't want to for two reasons. I have a 5K lb truck with a 1500 lb trailer, and a 2500 lb race car. Plus tools, spares, and tires, etc. Gross weight is near 10K. I like to be able to stop and while the trucks brakes are great and the trailer has good brakes I don't like to take any chances.
Second I'm not in a hurry where ever I'm going when racing or on the way home. I'll get there when I get there. Being retired does that to you.
When I tow my enclosed trailer MPG's drop down to 11-12, but only when the weather is 70-ish or so. The Ecoboost mileage will drop at air temps go up.
Tow when it's 90+ and the inner cooler can't cool the intake air enough to avoid the ECU from pulling timing and adding extra fuel and cutting boost to keep engine temps below critical. Then I get 9-ish. If you live where it get's that hot regularly when your towing then getting a bigger Inner cooler can help there.
My middle aged 3/4 ton suburban with the LQ9 6.0 and 4L80 gets 12 empty and 10 towing. I generally tow at about 70-75 on the interstate but coming back from a race last winter my buddy was driving and had us hooked up to 85 for a while until I asked him to please wind it down. I agree with the "take your time towing" policy. That was pulling a retired uhaul trailer (I swear those things are made out of pig iron and depleted uranium) a BMW heap car and 4 guys with all our gear.
Just bought a heavy but low top enclosed trailer to haul the Zoomboni in. We'll see how it does.
A 401 CJ said:Thinkkker said:You can get that with a GMT800 and GMT900 Escalade. The issue is that you need to tow under 70ish to do it. If you run closer to 85-90 you get around 8.5-9.5mpg. TOTALLY theoretical.
Open trailers are easy, if you go enclosed, get a low top one *only about 5'6 or so max interior height*. Thats about the only way to really make it work I think.
We still like the Prevost. Sure, we only get about 5mpg, but thats with the genny on and pulling the corvette at 75mph.What’s in the Prevost? Series 60 with 500 hp, 1500 lbs ft?
8v92t.
400hp and 1250 ftlb
it's an 86 model. Still does well and way more top end than there should be.
ShawnG said:You need to burn fuel to do a job. At some point, it's just not going to get better.
This. The best way for better MPG is to reduce the load as much as possible.
I returned just about 20mpg towing a 2400lb car on a steel decked open trailer with a B4000. Smaller hole being punched through the air than with a full size truck. Key with the pushrod 4.0 was keeping it over 65mph going uphill to keep from needing to downshift from 5th. Once you had to do that, it was a downward spiral of suck because the engine was winded at 65 in 4th so you had to slow down.
frenchyd said:In reply to infinitenexus :
You do realize the 454 SS pickup has only 235 SAE net horsepower don't you?
That's about how much horsepower my 7.3 has 
07 F350 diesel with 220K miles. Just got back from a 2900 mile tow at 70mph or above the entire way. Covid 19 and riots meant empty highways, and zero state police anywhere, plus most of the states I went thru had a 70 mph limit anyway. Averaged just under 16mpg. Done very similar tows in the past and keeping it at 60 nets me closer to 19mpg. I added mudder tires on the front just before the trip and the increased road noise tells me they also decrease fuel economy, so that plays into it as well. I know everybody loves to pile on the Ford diesel engines, but between the two I have had, I'm over 350K miles with so little maintenance and break downs, its almost a non issue. 10/10 will buy another diesel.
In reply to tr8todd :
07 the last year of 6.0 right? I had an 06 f250. Loved it
Thinkkker said:You can get that with a GMT800 and GMT900 Escalade. The issue is that you need to tow under 70ish to do it. If you run closer to 85-90 you get around 8.5-9.5mpg. TOTALLY theoretical.
Yep. Our 6.2-powered '07 Escalade ESV will do 12-14MPG with a car on my open trailer behind it.
A 401 CJ said:1988RedT2 said:My 1985 Chevrolet C30 Duallie, 350ci, TH400, 4.10 Dana 70HD, gets about 9 mpg. I try to check the gas mileage as little as possible. Never thought to check the mileage whilst towing. It isn't really important to me.
I could never understand why they put 350’s in heavier trucks. All the miserable mpg of a 454 without the power.
Agree. My son looked up the numbers on it a couple days ago, since he's gotten quite interested in such things, and he told me the engine (when new) made something like 175 HP, 275 ft-lbs. That big Quadrajet isn't great for turning gas into horsepower, but the exhaust does have a lovely aroma. If I actually put miles on it, I'd be strongly considering a swap.
I got 9 mpg with a 96 F350 7.3 dually pulling a 28' enclosed with maybe a slightly taller than normal roof. I should measure the height, at 6'1" I could stand comfortably. And have to reach up to the AC unit. Total weight probably 15k, tried to do 65-70 the whole way.
I towed my CRX race car on a home-made, light-weight tandem axle open trailer a lot, with my 1996 Acura SLX (think Isuzu Trooper). I typically got 14mpg towing versus 17 not towing. Highest mpg I ever got was 21mpg. That was much better than my 20' Winnebago that got 7mpg towing and 8mpg not towing. I borrowed a early 2000s Dodge Rams with a Cummins to tow a couple of times, that had mpg that was only a few higher than my Acura.
My race team was talking about this this morning too. We've been towing with a GMT400 350(non vortech) 3/4 ton suburban. It's doing 8ish. We're talking about maybe a simple air damn to try and gain an MPG. At 8mpg a gain of 1 is better than 10% so it adds up quick.
Sadly our old E450 7.3 22passenger bus did 8.5mpg towing at 85mph.
buzzboy said:My race team was talking about this this morning too. We've been towing with a GMT400 350(non vortech) 3/4 ton suburban. It's doing 8ish. We're talking about maybe a simple air damn to try and gain an MPG. At 8mpg a gain of 1 is better than 10% so it adds up quick.
Sadly our old E450 7.3 22passenger bus did 8.5mpg towing at 85mph.
The air dam is a pretty good idea. I had an '09 or '10 or something Nissan Titan that sucked gas, and installing the factory air dam from the Armada (which is just an SUV version of the Titan) got me about 0.5-1mpg on the highway. Not a bad mod for the $30 or $40 I paid for it.
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