Towing a car hauler with my 2013 Journey 42E

dsbike · 12-06-2013, 10:09 AM

Just trying to get a rough idea of how much my fuel mileage might drop towing a Uhaul car hauler with a Mazda Miata on it. Total weight will be apprx 4000lbs. I have 3000 miles on my Journey & I am averaging 8.5 mpg but I have seen as high as 10 mpg and as low as 7.8 mpg. I realize this motor is not even close to being broke in, maybe another 20-25K before that happens. We are going west from Gaffney SC to Tucson AZ.

I know I could set this car up for flat towing, however the few amount of times I am going to need to tow this car does not justify the expence at this time.

The Journey has the ISL 8.9L 400hp turbo with the Allison 3000 tranny.

Also after we arrive in Tucson, are there any suggestions for RV parks that are not in the city. We will be staying there at least 3 months & maybe longer. My wife will be working at Tucson Medical Center Hospital. I have checked campgroundreviews.com. But I am just looking for anyone else comments.

Thanks

Old Scout · 12-06-2013, 10:18 AM

I rarely travel without my 5000+# Silverado pick-up in tow but am of the "opinion" that with the 400 ISL; mountains/hills, head/tail winds and avg driving speed has more to do with MPG than what you pull, within reason anyway. .......

skigramp · 12-06-2013, 10:33 AM

I doubt if you will see any difference that you can calculate ... especially on cross country travel ...

I changed my tow car recently ... from 4200# to 5000# ... I have seen no change in my fuel consumption over more than 5000 miles.

Chiefbvfd · 12-06-2013, 10:43 AM

My Journey is not near as big as yours, but with the ISB 340 hp and towing a 4,200# Colorado, I only see about a 0.2 mpg difference with the same driving conditions. I have 6,200 miles and averaging ~9.5 - 9.8 mpg towing. My guess with the ISL 400 hp, you won't notice enough difference to worry about..... Hope this helps...

dsbike · 12-06-2013, 12:59 PM

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking I could possible not see any difference or a marginal difference. I was looking for some confirmation on my thoughts. Just trying to estimate my traveling costs.

NeilV · 12-06-2013, 11:50 PM

Even with my V10 gas rig towing a mid sized SUV makes little difference. Going over 65 mph is what most negatively impacts fuel economy on most coaches.

Finhawk · 12-08-2013, 04:08 PM

My 2012 Meridian 42E is averaging around 7.6 towing my 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland V-8 (about 5400 lbs). I have about 16000 miles on the RV. I usually drive it at about 60 mph.
That last mileage reading was between Olympia, Wa and Las Vegas thru a few good mountain passes.

cliffm · 12-12-2013, 11:32 PM

We always take the car on a tow dolly (Wife's car is a 2010 Lexus RX350). I find that the 2013 Meridian 42E gets 8.5 to 9 MPG as long as I'm on the expressway holding it at 60 MPH. Mileage drops considerably if I start putting my foot in it.

Most of the driving I've done thus far has been on relatively flat areas, so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens on the next cross country run.

dsbike · 12-13-2013, 12:43 PM

Thanks everyone for the MPG's. I estimate we will do 8 mpg & I usually run at 65 mph. If we do any better I will be a happy camper.

blevtr · 12-22-2013, 08:43 PM

If your Miata is a manual tranmission, you can flat tow it. Lots of us do, no problem. The trailer is better for long hauls, but we hardly ever use ours, its just easier to hook up the car and go. Rennenmetal in Texas makes a sweet towbar adaptor for a little over a hundred bucks.

dsbike · 12-23-2013, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blevtr

If your Miata is a manual tranmission, you can flat tow it. Lots of us do, no problem. The trailer is better for long hauls, but we hardly ever use ours, its just easier to hook up the car and go. Rennenmetal in Texas makes a sweet towbar adaptor for a little over a hundred bucks.

I know I can set this car up for flat tow. However I rarely need to tow this car & with the miles that are on it we will most likely be trading it soon. I can't justify the added expense & work to set it up.

Yellowboat · 12-26-2013, 11:08 PM

Here is a link to RV parks outside Tucson, AZ. http://www.nps.gov/sagu/planyourvisi...son%20Area.pdf

I've been to the park west of town. Camping is on dirt or gravel. No grass.

We stay at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base RV park within Tucson city limits.

Safe travels. JD

Healeyman · 12-29-2013, 10:02 PM

When I tow my 2,500# Austin Healey (the same as a Miata) in its enclosed trailer (2,000#) I lose 1 MPG.

Tim

dsbike · 12-30-2013, 03:53 PM

Nice Austin Healey. I would tow that enclose too.

dsbike · 01-12-2014, 03:20 PM

Finished our trip from SC to Tucson AZ. Travel via I-85, I-20 , & I-10. We rented a U-haul auto transporter for the trip, cost incl 5K of insurance was $499. The trailer weighed 2K lbs, put our 2008 Mazda MX 5 on it with a bike rack on the back of the MX5 with a receiver hitch, car & bikes weighed apprx 2400 Lbs for a total of 4400 lbs. The Winnebago never new it had a trailer behind it except for the mpg's, drove well, trailer followed well with no sway. I believe the bikes hanging off the back caused us some mpg's, we ran between 62 & 67 mph, it didn't seem to make any difference with in this range for mpg's except during the period of strong head winds, in which we slowed then also. This is the first time we towed anything with our Winnebago. We only had 3022 miles on it when we started out, so she is not even thinking of being broke in yet. We averaged 7.3 mpg. We have been averaging about 8.5 without towing previously. We filled up at a Walmart with Murphy gas/diesel one time, then for the next 100+ miles we were heading dead into heavy headwinds, I could watch the fuel gauge as it burned the fuel go from full to about 3/4 quickly. Prior to this we were averaging 7.5 mpg. This dropped our overall average to 7.2 , So I don't know whether to contribute the poor mpg's to the fuel or the wind or both. We also fueled up at a Shell gas station truck stop somewhere along I-20 after the Murphy fuel. All the other fuel we used was P/FJ. By the time we ended our trip we were at 7.3 mpg per the on board computer & figuring it out myself also yielded 7.3 mpg, this was with about 4-5 hours of genny use the entire trip. We paid any where from $3.43 to $3.85/per gallon of diesel, our trip took us from Jan 1st to the 4th and we stayed at 2 walmarts & 1 truckstop for our overnights. Totsl miles driven were 1963, fuel cost $999.00

We are now setup in Tucson Estates area bordering the Tucson Mountian Park. We are very happy we left the East coast prior to the frigid weather they had last week. Its so nice here I took another week of vacation before I fly back to Charlotte NC for work. Wish I could stay, but not quite ready to retire.

Thanks to all for posting their findings on MPG's.

cliffm · 01-26-2014, 02:54 PM

We drove the Meridian 42E from Atlanta to Breckenridge, and pulled the wife's car (around 4500#). Interesting results here.

We did not, for the most part, run the generator. Had the inverter going, and the alternator off the engine kept things charged.

The trip function on the dash indicated I got about 8 MPG overall on the trip. However, the amout of diesel fuel put into the coach divided into the mileage gives a different result....and it was significant....much closer to 6.5.

I'm scratching my head on this because there wasn't a lot of idling time, and given the number of times we put fuel in, short fills should have evened out.

dsbike · 01-26-2014, 11:16 PM

Cliff, when I calculated the fuel I actually put in the tank & the mileage for that portion the computer & my calculations did not always match either, but the overall result was pretty close. If I stopped fueling when the pump automatically shutoff it was always at the same quantity that the on board computer said I should be using. But I always push a gal or 2 more in to the tank. I also use the slow position on the pump handle to prevent foaming of the fuel.