Fuel consumption when towing your boat.

[KAHcorp]

Sunny Coast to 1770. 07 Pathfinder Auto Petrol towing 625 cruiscraft 24lt/100 up & 22lt/100 back. guess I didn't want to get back in a hurry.

[FishHunter]

I really dont feel bad about my car after seeing some of the figures mentioned here. I did notice with mine that the consumption sky rockets with speed there is about a 2l/100 increase from 90 to 100 which is why I had the cruise control set on 95 the whole way.

I towed in 3rd most of the way as well, tried 4th on the level a few times and once the torque convertor locked up the revs dropped to about 1500 and the consumption started rising.

[Tinlegs]

2t plate centre cab and my Patrol4.8 manual and we're talking 27-30l per hundred km.

It's a lot, but I like the truck and I don't tend to get the line-up of cranky drivers you see behind some folk when they're towing.

[thylacene]

2010 3.0l turbo diesel Prado towing 6.3 Caribbean around 2000kg BMT

around 15l/100km canberra to bermagui return, 9l/100km without the boat. Sit on the posted limit 100k's most of the trip, Brown Mountain is 60kmh and maintain around that all the way up.

Previously had a Subary 2.5l Outback towing a 5.4 Quintrex 1500kg BMT at 17l/100km.

the diesel is not as nice to drive as the subaru, but far more practical for our purposes, and couldn't get excited about the commodores or the falcon/territory, and test drove a Kluger that was very thirsty with the boat behind.

We do 25000km per year, most of it to fish. The vehicle is a salary package item and the difference in cost between the petrol Kluger and the diesel Prado balanced out after fuel was taken into consideration.

Consumption drops significantly if you slow to 90, but also adds almost half an hour to our normal fishing journey. Some days I care, others I don't. It's not until you tally up the annual fuel bill and find that it exceeds $5000 that you start to get a shock, and then the same again for the boat that it gets scary.

[tenzing]

05 TD Landcruiser 4.2l auto towing seafarer victory guessing 2300kg loaded.
yesterday to goldie return 16l/100k at the pump for a cruisy drive. Gets just under 10 for the same drive without boat. 13 to 14 around town.
Never use cruise control when towing and find that it tends to chug along just nicely in top gear on the roads either side of brisbane.
Recent 1770 trips still average 16 to 17 but use the gears a bit more.
03 Petrol prado used to be about double the fuel.
I'd take the diesel any day, and it pulls effortlessly.
Brendan

[spelchek]

Never use cruise control when towing and find that it tends to chug along just nicely in top gear on the roads either side of brisbane.

Just out of interst, why not use cruise control when towing?

2.2l Diesel Land Rover Freelander 2. Around 9 - 9.5l/100 towing a 4.4 seajay from Bundy to Bris. 8l/100 (well 7.8 is my 'record') with no boat.

[tenzing]

Just out of interst, why not use cruise control when towing?

2.2l Diesel Land Rover Freelander 2. Around 9 - 9.5l/100 towing a 4.4 seajay from Bundy to Bris. 8l/100 (well 7.8 is my 'record') with no boat.

I just find that its a bit trigger happy when you get to any sort of incline and tends to give it a big kick or drop down a gear just to stay at that exact speed, when if I do it myself I can sort of smooth the whole thing over
.
Cheers
Brendan

[fishfeeder]

The trick is to keep the motor at its best torque range, So when you start to head up a hill instead of waiting for it to labour to hard you drop a gear so you keep at the best rev range for the motor.
Cruise control just keeps adding more throttle until its flat to the floor when it should have changed back down a gear. Even in Auto's you will find that the throttle will allmost be flat to the floor before it kicks back a gear. All that does is use more fuel....

Cheers
Brett

[Spaniard_King]

V8 100 series landcruiser regular trips to 1770 from the southern end of the Gold Coast I use 167ltrs of 95 octane towing my boat which is 2.6T normally (so I guess add 200KG's more gear for these trips)

I can tell you clears on and clears off makes a big difference .

[CCDrifter]

Dont want to ruin my day by working it out. I tow a KC2400 (more comonly known on the highway as a windblock) with a 200 series Cruiser V8 diesel. All I Know for sure is I get a lot better economy now with the cruiser to when I first got the boat and was still towing it with my 2.5l Navara.That goes even for around town without he boat on. (to be fait I did have a canopy on the navara with a few tools in the back )

[mal555]

08 3l TD Ford Ranger dual cab 4x4 towing 6.2m Seafarer Venom (2-2.5t) Avg about 16-18l/100. Without boat a miserly 8-9l/100. The Ranger is a great tow vehicle- plenty of power and very good on fuel. From Brisbane to 1770, I only have to drop out of top gear 3 or 4 times on hills. It does it very easy if only first and reverse were a bit lower.

Agree with the comment about the Ranger/BT 50, a great vehicle, especially with max. loads (3.0 T +) they hold the load well on the road, and power up instantly when the throttle is applied. The tall first gear is a problem with all the 'new generation' utes pulling max. loads, being caught at the traffic lights on an incline is going the stress the clutch big time, so careful planning is needed to avoid clutch damage.

[Nathan Tuskes]

3.2 DID triton 14l 100ks towing a 6m seastorm hard top, bris sunny coast, 8.5l normally on the highway, best ever 7.91