MPG When Towing
Comments
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Our Sorento showed 27 mpg when we were towing in France where the traffic was lighter than here!
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Had a 2013 Passat 140 estate which was an super tow it actually improved MPG and pull after it had the dieselgate fix done have now bought an Passat Alltrack lets see ,i wonder how long before we,ll be towing with Electric / Part Electric cars 5 years ?
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I've just done my last caravan holiday of the year and having checked my fuel log the average over 2,916 miles of towing is 33.65 MPG. The worst figure of 29.5 was on 17 Feb at about 5 degrees C. towing my unloaded van home from the dealer on 'A' roads.
Best figure of 35.9 on 25 April from Exmoor House club site to Morecambe with van loaded to about 1446 Kg. on 'A' and 'M' roadsI tow with a manual box Mercedes C220 Cdi Estate. The best solo figures recorded have been up at 62 MPG on an interurban trip. My normal solo urban/interurban figures are around the mid 40's.
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I have a Toyota Land cruiser 3.0Td 190bhp towing a Swift Conqueror 570 1700 kilo's on the M5 24 mpg going to Newquay on the A roads down to 21 mpg keeping at a steady 60 mph. I don't worry about the fuel I have a great towing vehicle safe and secure.
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ML 3 Litre Diesel averages about 33/34 Solo and about 24 Towing a heavy Coachman at 1640 KGs. I have always found that 30% drop in fuel consumption about average whatever sort of rig I have been towing. So the OP's findings are about average.
TF
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Car computers are notoriously inaccurate but if your happy then why should we criticise....;-0
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I also get about a 30% increase in consumption towing 1346kg with my Tig All depends on road conditions, weather, wind, driving style etc. Mega years ago I towed a Piper with a 1600cc petrol Cortina got about 20mpg - you could see the petrol gauge going down when crossing the Alps!
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Briang, spot on with what I always got from my Land cruisers too. They did about 32 solo and 24ish towing 1650Kgs.
I also agree that they were fine tow vehicles (I had three one after the other). But I found the V6 3 Litre Merc ML300CDI even better. 34-5 solo and the same 24 mpg towing, but more power in hand. Where the Merc excelled though was Rock Steady stability even better than the LC. Tyre wear very good too 35,000 per set of tyres. back & front wearing at exactly the same rate. - The only drawback being the need to buy 4 tyres at a time!
Finally the Merc has a Timing chain not a belt so no worries about timing belts. Come to think of it so did the Landcruisers!
TF
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I have no idea what MPG I get towing or solo other than I don't consider it excessive
Caravaning is our escape form the other things that life has thrown at us, so if the car needs Diesel I fill it up
Just my outlook on things, I can't remember who said it but there are no pockets in a shroud and I don't want to be the richest man in the cemetery.
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My golf 2.0 tdi gives up to 65mpg at 70mph solo. Towing 1250kgs it drops to 33mpg. I think its brill!
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Olivgrower, that's really good. But you are towing a very light van !
In contrast I am towing a 1650 KG van, very often over very difficult terrain en route to the South of France. So I consider my 24MPG is at least as good as yours, given the very different load factors and usage.
My point is that all of us need to be aware of matching car and caravan under all conditions, and not quoting MPG figures that only apply to their own rig.
Your own van is some 400 KGs lighter than mine, and I expect mine to cope with some quite severe terrain, so are we comparing apples with apples?
Please understand I am not trying to denigrate your point, merely saying that MPG will vary dramatically, dependant on use!
TF
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I have checked the mileage against the consumption on my car and the figures appear accurate allowing for the fact that you can never fill to exactly the same level. With the last car the computer gradually got more optimistic as the tyres wore down but replacing them corrected the error. The wear on the tyres canbe a factor and the only accurate way is probably to do the arithmatic after several tank fulls.
Towing figures are more difficult and because they are shorter are less easy to get right and are affected by traffic and weather conditions. As an example we did once tow down to Chester Fairoaks into a strong headwind and the car recorded 25 mph. We came back with a similar tail wind and got 36 mph shown.
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We have an Audi Q3 184 Diesel Quattro DSG (yes it's a mouthful of words). Solo on my husbands commute (lots of stop start into Bristol off the M4) he get 37.5 MPG. If I were to drive it solo without his commute I'd get circa 42 MPG.
If we hook up our 2017 Delta RI, which is a big old beast we see 27 MPG pretty much religiously.
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I read of these amazingly frugal vehicles and wonder why they are not sold to the general public.
It particularly galls as I have tested countless diesels during the development of them and even then in idealised conditions they fell well short of the efficiency needed to “achieve” what is being claimed by some very privileged owners.1 -
My BMW X4 3.0 diesel returns about 38mpg solo here on the Continent. When I'm in the UK, due to lower average speeds, I can better that quite a bit, but when towing it drops to about 25mpg. I have found that the increase in fuel consumption, which amounts to about 50%, has been remarkably constant with all the various cars that I have used for towing.
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My Freelander 2 (190bhp) will tell me its doing close to 30 mpg average when on cruise control @ 60mph with 1500kgs of caravan behind it on a flat road. Of course I spoil that by braking, going up and down hills, accelerating and all the other things you do in real world driving. The only thing you can rely on with a cars on board computer is if it lights up the dash, its on, anything else it tells you has to be taken with a pinch of salt
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Range Rover Sport TDV8 pulling a Buccaneer Caravel
Solo mpg - not a lot
Towing mpg - even less than not a lot
Couldn't care less... if I did care, I'd be pulling a 2 berth Lunar with a 4 pot diesel Eurobox
When I retire and start living on pension and savings, it'll be time for a rethink and some bean counting.
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Mine is similar to yours, I think, and I couldn't care less either. I am retired too. In over 50 years of towing I've never worked it out!
I once worked with a guy who drove a Saab and knew his fuel consumption to 3 decimal places.
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I'm another that just fills up with fuel as and when needed and have no idea of what the cars solo or towing consumption is other than what the lying thing on the dash display tells me
I have had a lot of cars over the years all circa 3 litre but the worst was Jag X type 4WD. That did about 14 mpg in town going back and forth to work & just over 20 on a run. Didn't have a caravan then so can't comment about towing. Only kept it for a year and PX'd for a Lexus.
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Towing to Devon/Cornwall with 3.0 petrol Omega in horrible weather conditions saw 16.6mpg 
