Towing Mileage

[ray1933]

We just made a short test trip with our Alpenlite 29 foot 5th wheel, 560 round trip form NE Oregon over the Blue Mountains, thru the rolling hills of the SE Washington to Colfax.



It pulled like a dream and the truck handled it perfect so was sure pleased about that.

The wife and her neice went on a shopping trip to Spokane, not pleased about the cost of that trip.



Our hand calulated milage was 11. 7589. We had no wind on the way up and a good head wind on the way home.



One extra thing nice about the 5th wheel, I have a nice warm place to watch my sports well the wife watches her TV in the house.

 

[DonTX]

Did you happen to weigh it while travelling?

We just made a short test trip with our Alpenlite 29 foot 5th wheel, 560 round trip form NE Oregon over the Blue Mountains, thru the rolling hills of the SE Washington to Colfax.



It pulled like a dream and the truck handled it perfect so was sure pleased about that.

The wife and her neice went on a shopping trip to Spokane, not pleased about the cost of that trip.



Our hand calulated milage was 11. 7589. We had no wind on the way up and a good head wind on the way home.



One extra thing nice about the 5th wheel, I have a nice warm place to watch my sports well the wife watches her TV in the house.

 

[Dieselnerd]

That's similar to what I get towing my fifth wheel. Fully loaded for my annual trip to AZ my whole rig (Truck and trailer) weighs 22,250.

 

[georgej]

Depending what year it is a 29 foot Alpenlite can weigh a lot. My 2004 29 ft. weighs about 12k loaded and ready to hit the road

 

[sfr1047]

What RPM and MPH were you towing at? Makes a big difference.

 

[ray1933]

5th wheel weight.& RPM's

I never weighed the whole rig, the factory information says GVWR 12500.



We only had abut 40 gals of water in the tank, and a small amount of other items such as food and clothes and of course the tanks of propane.

With it hooked up it never did set all the way down on the overload springs.



Well driving in over drive the RPMs were around 1900 to 2000 with the over drive off when climbing hills the RPM ran about 2300.



The next time we get ready to make a trip I will go by the Truck stop and weigh it.



Ray

 

[ray1933]

Speed

Forgot to put that in. Stayed under 65 MPH on the flat and 40 to 50 well climbing the hills.

Ray

 

[MFranz]

Milage towing.

We just finished a trip from Southern Ca. to Carson City Nev. and back.

We were towing a 32' AlpenLite 5th wheel that weighs 15000 lbs, when fully loaded. The milage was not great. We averaged somewhere in the 8. 5 range. 35 to 40 mph up the steep grades @ 2500 RPM + or -. On the flats we were traveling at 60MPH + @ about 2000 RPM. We had the smarty set at level 9.

Im begining to wonder if I have a bad Injector. I notice when Idleing in park

that the RPM needle moves back and forth about 200 RPM. We started off at 3000' and climbed up to 7000' plus. I know that the rear end is not a 4:10.

If it was I would think that would help.



Mike

 

[icman95]

We just finished a trip from Southern Ca. to Carson City Nev. and back.

We were towing a 32' AlpenLite 5th wheel that weighs 15000 lbs, when fully loaded. The milage was not great. We averaged somewhere in the 8. 5 range. 35 to 40 mph up the steep grades @ 2500 RPM + or -. On the flats we were traveling at 60MPH + @ about 2000 RPM. We had the smarty set at level 9.

Im begining to wonder if I have a bad Injector. I notice when Idleing in park

that the RPM needle moves back and forth about 200 RPM. We started off at 3000' and climbed up to 7000' plus. I know that the rear end is not a 4:10.

If it was I would think that would help.



Mike

Your mileage sound like what I got in some spots on my trip to Sturgis, SD in August. Our rig weighed in around 21,200lbs and in the states where the speed limit was around 65 we go anywhere from 9. 5 to 10. 99 mpg. In the northern plains where it was 70-75 (and you'd get run over if not doing 80) we dropped to about 8. 5 mpg. I know this mileage isn't great, but the truck sure did pull nicely. No complaints, really. We didn't have a lot of time to travel so had to make the best use of our mods. I'm sure if I went slower, esp. up the hills, we could have broken 11 mpg. It was fun though.

 

[bmoeller]

One extra thing nice about the 5th wheel, I have a nice warm place to watch my sports well the wife watches her TV in the house.

Then she isn't close to holler at her so she'll bring you another freshly opened beer, or top off the chip bowl. :-laf:-laf

 

[Bob Cochran]

My rig weighs in around 21,000 and I have gotten for a high of 14 MPG and a low of around 9 depending on terrain. Usually doing around 60 MPH on the highway and climbing the speed depends on my EGT and the gear I needed to use to maintain reasonable EGT's. Sounds to me your mileage and speeds are about right.