Terrible MPG and terrible tank = not truly a viable option for towing long distance

[BigMF]

I just got back from a trip where I drove from Nashville to San Antonio with no camper, picked one up there, drove 7'ish hours to Big Bend National Park and back, then back to Nashville without the camper. The camper is only about 2400 pounds (dry weight) so, WELL within our capacity.

There was definitely a difference (as expected) between driving on the smaller, two-lane roads where I was averaging around 60 MPH and getting closer to 10 MPG versus the interstate at 70 MPH and getting 7.5 MPG. It really bit me hard on the way when I wasn't paying attention to how far apart the gas stations were. Fortunately, I had my 2.64 gallon Vevor gas tank with me or I would have gotten stranded.....twice. On the way back, I was literally stopping every 90-110 miles to fill up due to our ridiculously small tank and the worry about getting stuck between exits in west Texas.

My only conclusion is that I'm now having some buyer's remorse about the LC for the first time. If I have to stop every 1.5 hours to get (and pay) for a tank of gas, it's not viable for cross country traveling while towing.

 

[Skidaddl]

I just got back from a trip where I drove from Nashville to San Antonio with no camper, picked one up there, drove 7'ish hours to Big Bend National Park and back, then back to Nashville without the camper. The camper is only about 2400 pounds (dry weight) so, WELL within our capacity.

There was definitely a difference (as expected) between driving on the smaller, two-lane roads where I was averaging around 60 MPH and getting closer to 10 MPG versus the interstate at 70 MPH and getting 7.5 MPG. It really bit me hard on the way when I wasn't paying attention to how far apart the gas stations were. Fortunately, I had my 2.64 gallon Vevor gas tank with me or I would have gotten stranded.....twice. On the way back, I was literally stopping every 90-110 miles to fill up due to our ridiculously small tank and the worry about getting stuck between exits in west Texas.

My only conclusion is that I'm now having some buyer's remorse about the LC for the first time. If I have to stop every 1.5 hours to get (and pay) for a tank of gas, it's not viable for cross country traveling while towing.

That's a good point. Never thought of the number of stops pulling a trailer. Pretty insane.

 

[HarvLC]

Huh…late last summer, I towed a UHaul box trailer 500 miles to NC and averaged 19mpg on the trip. All interstate, no significant elevation change, and I think I kept the speed at 70 or less. The loaded trailer was probably 1600-2000 lbs. It was basically effortless.

 

[Skidaddl]

Huh…late last summer, I towed a UHaul box trailer 500 miles to NC and averaged 19mpg on the trip. All interstate, no significant elevation change, and I think I kept the speed at 70 or less. The loaded trailer was probably 1600-2000 lbs. It was basically effortless.

I had a friend that said the same thing about his Tundra and his travel trailer.....but did you reset your MPG computer before the trip?

 

[ferrari1898]

We have almost 10k on our Land Cruiser with over 30% of those miles towing a 3500lb (dry weight) camper and have getting 12.3mpg. We have returned 10.0 as the worst (had to fill up with regular gas) and got 15.1mpg on a recent weekend trip, but that had limited interstate travel. Still a far cry from 7.5mpg.

We purchased the Toyota specifically for towing. Finding a Land Cruiser Trim with the standard 18in All Season Michelin tires was not easy. Most went to 20in and/or All Terrain tires. IF you have All Terrain tires, your MPG is going to be bad on the highway regardless of towing. The camper will just makes things worse. Additionally, while the rock rails and cargo carrier are great when off roading, they also add several hundred pounds which is again counter productive to mpg at highway speeds.

That said, I do agree the gas tank is on the small side. We are closer to 200+ miles per tank. Having a 4 year old makes that range fine for the most part. The range of the Toyota is about the same before she needs a snack, bathroom, etc. Where I do not like the range is in the mountains. When we went to the Smokey Mountains (about 200 miles away), we had to fill up outside of Asheville (a little over 100 miles away) because gas stations (especially truck stops that make make maneuvering the camper easy) are few and far between. So instead of rolling into camp on fumes, we had to fill up before the first Disney movie was done on her iPad. Having a little more range while towing in more remote areas would be preferred.

 

[ferrari1898]

Huh…late last summer, I towed a UHaul box trailer 500 miles to NC and averaged 19mpg on the trip. All interstate, no significant elevation change, and I think I kept the speed at 70 or less. The loaded trailer was probably 1600-2000 lbs. It was basically effortless.

The uHaul trailers tend to be sized such that there is not much additional drag; they just slip behind the hole the tow vehicle produces. A camper tends to be significantly larger and at highway speeds the drag really impacts the MPG. I am rather impressed you got 19mpg with a uhaul. I would have been betting 15-17mpg

 

[MSINAL]

We get 14mpg towing a 1200lb tag on freeway. Previously had a rectangluar camper and it was like towing a parachute over 65mph. Tank is way too small regardless of mpg for a utility vehicle

 

[LunarCruiser]

I had a 2022 3rd Gen Tacoma that got 15 MPG on 33's which amounts to 316.5 mile range. On my new land cruiser running 34's I average 19 around town which means 340 miles of range. The plus side is the amount more torque and power before from the Tacoma would floor it and go nowhere just to catch up to traffic. Anything over 65 mph in the LC and your burning gas for sure.

 

[HarvLC]

I had a friend that said the same thing about his Tundra and his travel trailer.....but did you reset your MPG computer before the trip?

I have my ‘58 set to compute & display Tank Average in the MID. It resets after each fill up

 

[ferrari1898]

We get 14mpg towing a 1200lb tag on freeway. Previously had a rectangluar camper and it was like towing a parachute over 65mph. Tank is way too small regardless of mpg for a utility vehicle

Wow, I feel pretty good with over 12mpg with a 3500lb camper.

 

[Skidaddl]

I have my ‘58 set to compute & display Tank Average in the MID. It resets after each fill up

You're definitely more technologically advanced than me, then. I didn't even know you could do that!

 

[ultane]

You're definitely more technologically advanced than me, then. I didn't even know you could do that!

It’s not difficult. Really. You just need to fiddle with setting things up. There are several YouTube videos on how to do so.

 

[HarvLC]

There was some discussion a while back as to whether the Tank Average was available for the higher trim levels. I can’t confirm that though.

It’s been a great feature for me; timely feedback and more practical than the real-time bar graph. I tested its accuracy initially via manual calculations and decided it was close enough.

 

[BigMF]

We have almost 10k on our Land Cruiser with over 30% of those miles towing a 3500lb (dry weight) camper and have getting 12.3mpg. We have returned 10.0 as the worst (had to fill up with regular gas) and got 15.1mpg on a recent weekend trip, but that had limited interstate travel. Still a far cry from 7.5mpg.

We purchased the Toyota specifically for towing. Finding a Land Cruiser Trim with the standard 18in All Season Michelin tires was not easy. Most went to 20in and/or All Terrain tires. IF you have All Terrain tires, your MPG is going to be bad on the highway regardless of towing. The camper will just makes things worse. Additionally, while the rock rails and cargo carrier are great when off roading, they also add several hundred pounds which is again counter productive to mpg at highway speeds.

That said, I do agree the gas tank is on the small side. We are closer to 200+ miles per tank. Having a 4 year old makes that range fine for the most part. The range of the Toyota is about the same before she needs a snack, bathroom, etc. Where I do not like the range is in the mountains. When we went to the Smokey Mountains (about 200 miles away), we had to fill up outside of Asheville (a little over 100 miles away) because gas stations (especially truck stops that make make maneuvering the camper easy) are few and far between. So instead of rolling into camp on fumes, we had to fill up before the first Disney movie was done on her iPad. Having a little more range while towing in more remote areas would be preferred.

Yes, I have 33" ATs on my truck in addition to a rack and things on the rack, so I know my MPG is going to suffer. However, I was averaging 15 MPG from Nashville to San Antonio and then it dropped to 7.5 MPG once I started towing the camper. Once I dropped the camper off, I was back up to 15 MPG, so I think I can definitively say it was the camper that killed the MPG.

I have my ‘58 set to compute & display Tank Average in the MID. It resets after each fill up

I haven't tried anything automated like this, but I did manually reset my system once I picked up the camper and again after dropping it off to negate any prior readings.

The camper was a rental so I'm obviously not familiar with the maintenance of it. So, I've wondered if there was something else going on that was creating extra drag like partially sticking brakes or an axle that wasn't lubricated or something like that. However, I was driving for many hours and I'm (perhaps ignorantly) assuming that anything like what I mentioned above would have created enough friction and heat that something would have caught on fire.

I know that if I drove slower I'd probably get significantly better MPG. However, to be perfectly honest and transparent, as Sammy Haggar said, "I can't drive....55!"

 

[RUN-8]

Sorry to hear it’s not a suitable cross country tow rig for your preferred routes and speeds.

There is a reason people who tow a lot over long distances end up in 3/4 ton or 1 ton diesel trucks. Big power that is made at low RPM, big transmissions, big axles, big frames, and big fuel tanks…. Big price tags too these days. However if you want to tow a camper, horse trailer, toy hauler, etc at 70MPH all day long and not have it be a chore an HD diesel pickup makes a case for itself.

 

[katekebo]

It's normal to see a mileage drop while towing. Trailers are basically huge bricks with terrible aerodynamics. When towing a "streamlined" U-haul trailer I have seen mileage drop from 25 mpg to 14 mpg in a Highlander at 65 mph. With a large box-shaped trailer 10 mpg sounds about right.

 

[ferrari1898]

Yes, I have 33" ATs on my truck in addition to a rack and things on the rack, so I know my MPG is going to suffer. However, I was averaging 15 MPG from Nashville to San Antonio and then it dropped to 7.5 MPG once I started towing the camper. Once I dropped the camper off, I was back up to 15 MPG, so I think I can definitively say it was the camper that killed the MPG.


I haven't tried anything automated like this, but I did manually reset my system once I picked up the camper and again after dropping it off to negate any prior readings.

The camper was a rental so I'm obviously not familiar with the maintenance of it. So, I've wondered if there was something else going on that was creating extra drag like partially sticking brakes or an axle that wasn't lubricated or something like that. However, I was driving for many hours and I'm (perhaps ignorantly) assuming that anything like what I mentioned above would have created enough friction and heat that something would have caught on fire.

I know that if I drove slower I'd probably get significantly better MPG. However, to be perfectly honest and transparent, as Sammy Haggar said, "I can't drive....55!"

So I was more surprised seeing you only get 7.5 mpg towing while I get 12.3 mpg. But, around town I am flirting with 22 mpg and while it rarely is used for trips without the camper we do not get the advertised 25 mpg but land in the 20's.

If you baseline without towing is only 15 mpg, things start to make sense to me. With 15 mpg I am guessing your range is around 250 without towing and the camper is going to result in that going down. Campers (unlike a boat or uhaul trailer) are not exactly aerodynamic.

While the Landcruiser delivers plenty of torque on demand, it comes at a cost. The small displacement I4 turbo has to work and that really impacts the mpg. In comparison a big V8 truck (last generation Tundra) could tow the same camper and would have a less dramatic drop; however however around the mpg will suffer.

I personally do not think the camper had anything dragging or not lubricated. A couple things that may help your towing mpg / range but with 15mpg while not towing, I doubt you will break into double digits.

1 - I tend to not use the cruise control unless I am in the middle of nowhere and it is flat. I tend to have the turbo gauge visible (along with the transmission temp) because I know when the turbo spools, the fuel gauge quickly plummets.
2 - At highway speeds drag is a huge impact to mpg. I have seen a 1-2 mpg bump when I draft behind a big rig.
3 - The Land Cruiser squats pretty badly, so we use a weight distribution hitch. When the back end squats the aerodynamics are even worse for the boxy Toyota.