Towing gas mileage

[Thelt]

I towed a 1500 pound popup camper to Myrtle Beach this past weekend. I averaged a little over 17mpg in mostly highway driving.

 

[Scoobmaster]

That sounds about right.

My popup camper is around 2300lbs loaded and I get 13-14 MPG towing it with my 2003 XLS. I also have bicycles up on the roof rack, so i am sure that drag has a negative effect as well.

Here is a pic of the rig all hitched and ready to go:

 

[jrford]

For my Camping Rig which totals about 500lb Boat, trailer, Bikes, Gear, Roof Carrier gets about 17mpg without 18mpg Hwy.

 

[Thelt]

That sounds about right.

My popup camper is around 2300lbs loaded and I get 13-14 MPG towing it with my 2003 XLS. I also have bicycles up on the roof rack, so i am sure that drag has a negative effect as well.

Here is a pic of the rig all hitched and ready to go:

I bet those bikes on the roof account for a couple of mpg. I am really happy to get 17mpg while towing. I thought gas prices would make it too expensive to camp this summer but I can handle 17mpg. I was only getting 9-10 mpg with my old hybrid travel trailer. It only weighed about 2500 pounds but the wind drag was much greater.

 

[E.B. Cornburner]

I got 14.4 MPG towing a '96 Bonneville on a car dolly back from Chicago earlier this year. Interestingly, I was averaging around 14.9 MPG pulling the empty dolly down there running E85, and loaded I got 14.4 MPG on about a 30/70 blend of E85 and E10 gasoline. The only E85 stations in the area were too much "off the beaten path" to bother with.

 

[flash041]

I plan to tow my boat to Lake Wissota in Chippewa Falls next week.I have been using only e85 since I bought my truck a few months ago.Is e85 ok to use when towing? I did not see any thing in the owners manual about it, but have heard so mfgs say not to.My boat wheighs about 3,500 lbs.

 

[uh60james]

I can't see any reason why running e85 would hurt anything but I imagine you will get terrible terrible gas mileage. Just run regular 87 dino fuel while towing, I think you will save the extra money with the mpg you regain by running it.

 

[flash041]

I got back from my trip to the Lake.Going I towed with e85 .I had my 18.5' boat ,about 3,500 lbs an the bach of my ex loaded to the celing.Got 10 mpg on the trip up, and about 15 ( have not checked it yet) on the return trip using e10.I went between 65 and 70 all interstate driving.The way up had a/c on all the way was about 85 deg. and no a/c an the was back about 72.ran great both ways , but i think its cheaper to run gas towing.

 

[flash041]

my mileage with gas was14.3 .That works out to a slight advantage over e85 at a dollar a gallon less.Still about a wash.Friday I will be traveling 1,000 miles towing my small pop up.Will report later on my mpg.

 

[justchecking]

With a V6 2002 I get about 17 MPG towing a Coleman Key West pop-up doing 55-60 MPH and about 15 at 60-65 MPH. My mileage seems to be 1-2 MPG less at 131000 Miles on the odometer and I may need to do the seafoam thing, etc.

 

[patrleach]

Gas mileage

I have been averaging 12.9 towing, 18.5 ft Bass boat running AC, without OD. Of course it would be better if I wasn't forced to run e-10.

 

[E.B. Cornburner]

I plan to tow my boat to Lake Wissota in Chippewa Falls next week.I have been using only e85 since I bought my truck a few months ago.Is e85 ok to use when towing? I did not see any thing in the owners manual about it, but have heard so mfgs say not to.My boat wheighs about 3,500 lbs.

You can use E85 for towing. I've never heard of a manufacturer saying don't use it if you're towing. That's just plain dumb. E85 is a higher octane fuel (105 octane), burns cooler, and is much less prone to pre-ignition (pinging) under heavy loads.
I could see an uneducated "mechanic" saying don't use it but that just proves his ignorance.
Edit: I just talked to someone more "in the know" about this, and he told me that the '02-'03 Chevy 5.3L FFV cautioned against using E85 for towing. The reason why is because they ran that engine leaner than ideal A/F ratio on E85 for improved MPG. In 2004, when the EPA mandated lower NOx emissions, they had to "dumb down" most the vehicles with lazier spark curves and richer cruising A/F ratios, and in doing so, they determined that E85 was fine to use for towing then. We concluded that in '02-'03 they were just covering their butts, since E85 is a very forgiving fuel even at A/F ratios much leaner than stoichiometric. We saw no reason why they couldn't tow on E85 even at a leaner ratio.

The only disadvantage of running E85 is the loss of MPG...If the FFVs were optomized to burn E85 more efficiently this would become a moot point though. Most if not all the current FFVs are basically a "jack of all trades, master of none". They'll burn E85, but not as efficiently as could be had with more careful tuning. Same when they're using gasoline...The Explorers with the FFV option generally get less gasoline MPG than a non-FFV under the same conditions. If the price of E85 is low enough, the cost savings does offset the MPG loss. I'm still money ahead using it. I roughly calculated that I save about $15-20 per tank using E85 instead of gasoline.

The most powerful engines in the world use alcohol fuels not gasoline. Think of how lethargic the IndyCar series would be if they were forced to use pump gas instead of E98 ethanol fuel. These engines typically run around 75-90 PSI of turbo boost, and there's not a petroleum-derived fuel that I know of that could support that kind of cylinder pressure.

 

[E.B. Cornburner]

my mileage with gas was14.3 .That works out to a slight advantage over e85 at a dollar a gallon less.Still about a wash.Friday I will be traveling 1,000 miles towing my small pop up.Will report later on my mpg.

Where do you get your E85 in the Madison area? I get down there quite often, and I usually make sure I'm full before I leave. It'd be nice to know of a place that has E85 with a good price spread, rather than paying Kwik Trip's price which is usually 50 cents less than unleaded.

Up by me, I get fuel at the Renew E85 stations. Several reasons why...They always have the best price spread, the pumps are close by, and I'm trying to get a job with their parent company.

 

[Thelt]

I noticed when I filled up the other day that the pump said it contained 10% ethanol. My Explorer is not FFV. Is that going to hurt my engine or my mileage?

 

[E.B. Cornburner]

E10 fuel is becoming the standard across the country. It can be used in any gasoline engine. Some people have commented that it hurts their mileage, but I haven't really noticed much if any difference on any non-FFV that I've owned.

There's several reasons why most gasoline suppliers are blending 10% ethanol nowadays...It helps reduce the amount of petroleum consumed. If ethanol wasn't available to add to gasoline, and all gasoline was 100% petroleum, you'd be paying about 50-60 cents per gallon more than you are right now.
It's also a natural octane booster. Every 10% ethanol that you add to a base gasoline boosts its octane 2-2.5 numbers, so the fuel suppliers can buy sub-octane fuels and add the ethanol to bring the octane up to the standard 87, 89, and 91-93 octanes at the pump. This saves them money since petroleum-derived octane enhancers such as xylene, toluene, etc. are much more expensive.
It's also mandatory in some areas of the country that require "reformulated" or "clean air" gasoline. It's a natural oxygenate to help the gasoline burn cleaner. When MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) was banned as the oxygenate compound for reformulated gasoline, ethanol was used in its place, so in some areas you can't buy gasoline without ethanol in it.

Minnesota has been pushing for 20% ethanol mandatory statewide by 2013. I don't know how the auto manufacturers are going to react to it, but the state's independent testing has shown no problems with this higher concentration even in older non-FFV engines.

 

[Thelt]

E85 is rare in my area. How much is it running per gallon right now?

 

[E.B. Cornburner]

You can check local prices at www.e85prices.com

By me, the least expensive E85 is $2.899/gallon, compared to regular gasoline which is $4.059/gallon. Several C-stores sell E85 for about 50 cents less than their regular gasoline, but the price I stated is from Renew E85, which is a Wisconsin based, producer-owned chain of fuel stations. They're unattended blender pumps, rather than having the E85 pre-mixed at a depot somewhere like the C-stores have to do. There's no C-store or anything attatched to them. You can pay at the pump with cash or a credit card.
Blender pumps have one tank of straight ethanol and one tank of straight gasoline in the ground. The pump does the mixing right there, so you can also select other blends of ethanol and gasoline. Right now, they have E10, E20, and E85 at these pumps, but the potential for other blends such as E30 are possible with a simple software update.
Blender pumps also help keep the price of E10 cheaper than the competition since the Blender's Credit is applied to the customer, rather than to the supplier. Typically, Renew's E10 is between 5 and 10 cents a gallon less than any other station in town. http://www.renewe85.com/

 

[flash041]

got back last week from a 2,000 mile trip towing my pop up.Avereged about 18 mpg with gas , doing 72mph.My camper is really light less that 1,000 lbs.Towed in overdrive since it is so light.

 

[Thelt]

got back last week from a 2,000 mile trip towing my pop up.Avereged about 18 mpg with gas , doing 72mph.My camper is really light less that 1,000 lbs.Towed in overdrive since it is so light.

I was able to tow in overdrive as well. I think that makes a big difference in your gas mileage when you are able to do that.

I just made the same trip and got 19.4 without towing the camper.

 

[Thelt]

You can check local prices at www.e85prices.com

By me, the least expensive E85 is $2.899/gallon, compared to regular gasoline which is $4.059/gallon. Several C-stores sell E85 for about 50 cents less than their regular gasoline, but the price I stated is from Renew E85, which is a Wisconsin based, producer-owned chain of fuel stations. They're unattended blender pumps, rather than having the E85 pre-mixed at a depot somewhere like the C-stores have to do. There's no C-store or anything attatched to them. You can pay at the pump with cash or a credit card.
Blender pumps have one tank of straight ethanol and one tank of straight gasoline in the ground. The pump does the mixing right there, so you can also select other blends of ethanol and gasoline. Right now, they have E10, E20, and E85 at these pumps, but the potential for other blends such as E30 are possible with a simple software update.
Blender pumps also help keep the price of E10 cheaper than the competition since the Blender's Credit is applied to the customer, rather than to the supplier. Typically, Renew's E10 is between 5 and 10 cents a gallon less than any other station in town. http://www.renewe85.com/

Is it cheaper in the west just because you are near where the corn is grown? It is hard for it to spread here in North Carolina if it not that much cheaper than regular gas.