V-Nose trailers. Worth the money??

[StevenJ]

For those of you who have towed V-Nose trailers, do you notice any difference in the towing characteristics or fuel economy compared to a standard trailer?

 

[MEby]

cant say I noticed any mpg improvement, but I do like the way it tows.

 

[JMarketos]

I have to admit UP FRONT that I have NEVER towed a V-nose myself.



But I want to pass along something told to me by someone I know who has towed a lot. When he found out I was considering a V-nose for fuel economy, he shared with me that he had thought the same at some time in the past, he had a V-nose. He said the V-nose didn't bring much improvement in fuel economy, and if driving in any appreciable cross wind, it took lots of steering correction to keep it between the lines. I bought a flat front (car hauler). It tows like a dream but man you can sure feel the aero resistance increasing as you get up above about 65MPH. FWIW, I might try a V-nose one day. Actually I hope to find someone who owns one locally, I could take it for a trial run. Hope my words don't poison anybody, but I wanted to pass along the info that was given to me by someone I respect pretty well.

 

[TEasley]

I have a 6' x 6' x 12' V-front trailer. Normal travel wt about 3000#. I don't have any mileage comparison with a flat front, but I would not willingly switch to a flat front. The floor is an 11'9" x 5'9" rectangle. The V-nose adds 2 more feet of centerline length (13' 9" overall). Very handy.

I run between 65 and 75 mph whenever I can, and average 14-15 mpg. The trailer pulls great and if crosswinds aren't bad enough to move the truck around, the trailer doesn't move around either. I've had it for 8 years, and am on the third set of tires, est. 50,000 mi.



I would pay the extra money every time for a V-nose.



Good luck; Tom

 

[BGlidewell]

I had a v-nose and sold it for a regular front. The v nose made cargo in the front a bit harder to manage for me. Different trucks and larger regular front trailer so no mileage comparison. However the v nose did track just fine behind my '96 dodge 1500.

 

[dpatt67]

I own a VR1 travel trailer and can't say I get any better mileage, but it hasn't gone down much either. My old trailer weighed about 5000 pounds and this one weighs about 8000. I have to agree with one of the posters that the trailer does seem to not like crosswinds. It can be a real handful if the winds are bad. It does tow very nice otherwise.

 

[CDonaldson]

I pulled a friend of mines a couple years ago, cross winds were a problem, but managable. It was a Custom Fab Aluminum 20'er with two axles, tracked real nice, no difference in fuel mileage as far as I could see. He built some nice shelves for storage in the nose of his, out of aluminum angle and alum deck plate. with doors. Real nice storage idea. I'm not sure how much floor space the V area was, I'd guess about 4', so he still had 16' rectangular floor space.



CD

 

[DwayneKelch]

StevenJ,

I own a 18' Pace v-nose enclosed snowmachine trailer (front and rear ramps, side entry door). Because it's made to haul machines side-by-side, the deck inside the trailer is flat with the tires directly under the deck of the trailer (no fender wells) This trailer sits higher than the standard enclosed trailer.

I have towed this trailer from Alaska to Arkansas and back again, to include hunting trips to Colorado a couple of times (weighed any where from 5,000 to 8,000 pounds loaded). I never once had problems with the trailer wandering in high winds (don't even use stabilizer bars). Of course, fuel mileage varied with speed and head wind.

Also, I have a 29' Holiday Rambler Alumascape TT. It would be an unfair comparison because, when loaded, it weighs nearly 2K pounds more. However, I do use a Reese dual cam stabilizer system with the Alumascape... no wandering issues there either.

Because weighing less, given the same conditions, when towing the v-nose I net about 1. 5mpg better. Hope this helps.

Dwayne