Gas mileage while towing

A hair under 10 towing my 25’ Grand Design TT. It’s not ridiculously heavy, but has the aerodynamics of a house….

About 11-11.5 towing my 20’ flatbed with tractor and a couple implements Loaded weight is 7,600#.

- Edit - Should note that this mileage was calculated prior to installing my lift and stepping up to 34" tires. I wouldn't be surprised it's off about 1 MPG. I've got a couple thousand mile trip to Glacier and Yellowstone in a few months, so I'll get a pretty good idea at that time... Although, that will be after the 5.29s get installed. (Assuming they arrive in March as anticipated.)

 

14mpg when towing our 2500 lbs popup (old Coleman Niagara).

8-9mpg when towing our 8000k lbs travel trailer, stock

7.5-8.5mpg towing the same after lift and heavy Wildpeaks

 

I haven't either. It's an open deck utility trailer.

 

I recently put my 2019 Limited back to the stock suspension and wheels/tires. My avg fuel economy was 12-13 mpg with the 34" 285/20 Nitto Ridge grapplers, 1" lift in rear, and 3" lift in front. Since putting everything back to stock, I now have an average fuel economy of 16.5-17.5 with a best of 19.3 while cruising about 70 mph. My truck doesn't look as cool anymore but it drives so much better and with gas at almost $5/gallon where I live, I can live with an ordinary looking truck again. LOL!

 

That's pretty good. I get 8-9mpg towing my dump trailer. It has 4' sides, terrible aerodynamics. About 12mpg not towing...Only changes to the truck is 20" Ko2 tires.

 

Towed a 28' TT in our 2WD Sequoia fully loaded down for camping over a weekend (family of 5 and a 75# dog). We were ecstatic to get 10 mpg but it mostly sat at 7-8 the whole time.

 

When I read the title, I immediately thought 6-10, duh. Then I read the first post. 16 is amazing! Who would have thought?

 

Amsoil doesn't make that much difference, if any at all. I'm an old Amsoil user. I used it for several years because I had a friend who was a dealer. I switched from conventional Pennzoil to Amsoil in 2002 in both motorcycles and both cars. I couldn't tell any difference in mileage. There may have been some, but it was within normal variance and not really measurable. Then last year, I no longer had a friend who was a dealer, so I stopped paying $16 / year for the privilege and started using Mobil 1 in the car, pickup, and RV and Rotella T6 in both motorcycles. Again, no measurable difference in mileage in anything.

I had three friends who were Amsoil dealers, and two of them made some pretty wild claims. The one I was buying from, when asked if his mileage had improved would shrug and say "Not really."

I admit I haven't read the entire thread, so at this point I don't know what you're towing. But to answer the question, I bought my Tundra to tow my 6000-pound travel trailer. I've never run an entire tank out either towing or not towing, but so far, with about 90% of my miles pulling that trailer, I'm averaging 10.23 over the 3500 or so miles I've owned it. That's all the miles since my first fill up to my last divided by actual fuel put in it. I live out in the sticks, so if I go into town and fill up, the mileage for that tank may run 18 or so per the computer until next time I pull the trailer. Then it plummets. I'm guessing about 9 while pulling.

 

Some of the towing numbers in here sound mythical to me. I have a 2008 Double Cab with a Leer Cap that rises up from the top about another foot (see profile photo). Everyone told me that would help when towing my trailer. They were wrong!

My trailer is an enclosed car trailer that I use for towing pallets. It's 8.5'x16' by about 8 feet tall from the ground. It weighs about 3000-3500 pounds empty.

When I tow this trailer empty, I get 7-9 miles per gallon. When I tow this trailer fully loaded, I get 6-9 miles per gallon. So much of this is about wind resistance. When I take off my cap and tow, I get virtually the same numbers. Unless I have a big wind deflector on the back of the truck that works like a semi-truck hauling a fifth wheel, I'm not getting much better gas mileage.

One time, I borrowed a small open trailer and picked up and towed a small forklift type machine. I drove up in elevation about 1500 feet over two hours. Total weight was probably around 4,000 pounds. I got 12 miles per gallon. I realized that day how much the wind drag was a factor.

If you're seriously worried about long term mpg's in a Tundra, get the most aerodynamic set up you can. If you only tow occasionally for work like me, just accept the harsh truth! If you can fit everything inside the bed or under a cap, do it...you will save a lot of gas that way.

 

I have a friend who runs Amsoil in his vehicles for longevity, not for fuel economy.

 

Yeah. I started running it initially for the extended oil changes over the conventional oil I was using at the time. And my friend became a dealer, so I wanted to help him. My wife and I both drove a lot for work and were doing 20,000+ annual. And I was putting around 12,000 annually on a motorcycle. I doubled the change interval with Amsoil and spend half the time crawling around under vehicles I'm retired now and don't do enough annual mileage to worry about on anything.

 

I get 14-16 driving empty with a level and 34's.

Towing my 21' bass boat I get 8-10. My 16 trail 4unner with e rated tires got 12-13. I could get a little better but I definitely do not take my time getting to the ramp, especially on tournament mornings.

My 7500lb 26' travel trailer I get 6-8 in the tundra.

If gas doesn't slow down I'll be dropping the collars on the bilsteins, getting rid of the heavy 20's and e rated 34's and going to 17's or 18's with d rating at stockish size.

 

Without getting into Ban Hammer territory, don't hold your breath for gasoline prices to come down anytime soon. Increased fossil fuel costs makes the "green" alternatives more palatable, so increased cost is going to be perpetuated until things change.

 

I'd just about give my left nut to get 16MPG while towing.

 

I would be happy with 16 in town.

 

I would be happy with 16 on the highway.

 

All depends on the town. I live where the speed limit is 35-55 for miles with no stops on the main roads in town. The side streets all have the stop signs, so my "in town" might be different than most.

 

Daaaamn! Towing the boat I get 7mpg and when not towing I get a solid 12.5 average...I can't quit the boost!

 

I get about 14-16 towing my 1st gen Tacoma on my 18’ car hauler about 7,000 lbs total if I keep it 70 mph or less.

 

Just the type of info I was looking for. I'm shopping for an enclosed trailer to haul my Goldwing Trike. It would fit in a 6x12 but it's tight. So considering a 7x14 x 7' tall for the extra space, and more room to haul other stuff.
I was wondering if I'd gain much mpg's if I went with the smaller lighter single axel 6x12 trailer. From comments in this thread I can't imagine I'd gain enough to make a real difference in my buying decision. So, I'll go for the 7x14 tandem axle and live with it. Gas is skyrocketing but I guess that's life. Dang it.

 

Well this was an entertaining thread. Considering OP didn't post pictures of anything and did one follow up post, plus is acting like that's somehow bad mileage, I call BS too. If not then great, wish I got better mpg just so I could go over 150 miles towing and I have amsoil everything too lol

 

lol. Don’t take this wrong, but that’s just cute. I don’t call folks I don’t know a liar, but you are claiming to get mileage that is as good or better than most of us could achieve at that speed running empty. Do the math. Double the weight of an empty truck, with worse aerodynamics. I would venture a guess that something is inaccurate with the calculations…

 

I have 2020 trd pro. I haul a 32 foot Rv. I get 8mpg

 

I tow this with my two touring motorcycle and support equipment and tools. Total loaded trailer weight 6,500 lbs and 940 lbs tongue weight. It's tall and a big sail back there.

When I towed it to White Sands, NM and back my fuel economy was between 8 MPG and 10 MPG.
Here's my proof. Note the "MPGC" (MPG computed by the dash) and actual MPG in the red numbers on the right. I do that so I can tell the dashboards accuracy.

Also run AMSOIL in the engine and differential. This is a 2WD Tundra for comparison.

 

Doesn't seem to be a lot of sag...is your suspension stock?

 

20mpg using Amsoil? I've got the OP's other aforementioned magic beans, so do I have to put the Amsoil in my gas tank to get 20mpg and what's the ratio for 87 octane?

Edit: S'pose I should have said, 10ishmpg return towing my 1500lb 10' box utility trailer, doesn't seem to make any difference whether it's loaded or not.

 

"19 plus" lmao

Somehow neither of my two 5.7s got more than 16, 14 was average. 9 pulling a trailer.

 

I tow a 29' Jayco with a gvwr of 7,000 (my actual tow weight is around 6,000). I average 8.8 mpg.