Tow Vehicle Recommendation? - R-pod Owners Forum

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fwunder

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Topic: Tow Vehicle Recommendation?
Posted: 18 Oct 2018 at 5:40pm

Originally posted by furpod

... 5-8 people and gear, or a cargo trailer, every trip.

Holy rest stop, furpod! How often did you have to pull over or, did you just dehydrate everyone before?! Are we there yet?! Star

fred

2014 RPod 178 => MyMods and Buying Habits
2008 4Runner Limited 4.0-liter V6
Yes, those are wild ponies dining on grass while dumping tanks!

furpod

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Posted: 18 Oct 2018 at 6:08pm

Originally posted by fwunder

Originally posted by furpod

... 5-8 people and gear, or a cargo trailer, every trip.

Holy rest stop, furpod! How often did you have to pull over or, did you just dehydrate everyone before?! Are we there yet?! Star

fred

I won't go into details, but most legs, no stops. None of it was fun. My family is used to my military ingrained need to get there, get it done, and get back. My baby brother is also prior service, so he was no problem. Mom groaned a little first time up.. but by the last trip down after the funeral, she was "get home, now. not a peep out of her"..

lostagain

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Posted: 18 Oct 2018 at 8:30pm

furpod, the thing that really sucks up the gas on the way to Sacramento is climbing from Dayton, to Moundhouse, then Spooner summit grade, then Echo Summit. Once you're past those, it's just a matter of wind resistance. And, yes, the trip starts at 4500 ft and ends about 100 ft above sea level. I just try to go a little slower and reduce the wind drag. There's not much more I can do besides keeping my engine in good repair and the tires properly inflated. Like I said, Chrysler/Dodge is not noted for wonderful fuel economy in any of their vehicles. But, the difference in gas savings will fall far short of buying my dream truck, so I'll just live with what I have and be happy.

Never leave footprints behind.
Fred & Maria Kearney
Sonoma 167RB
Our Pod 172
2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost

offgrid

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Posted: 19 Oct 2018 at 4:29am

How can both furpod and lostagain be seeing the fuel consumption they're seeing climbing and descending the same mountain range?

You put fuel/$ into you rig climbing a mountain. For a typical 9000 lb rig figure on about 1 gal per 2000 ft climb. Basic physics of potential energy, no getting around it. The trick is to try to get that back going down. But if the road isn't cooperating by providing you with a grade where you can just coast, there's a big part of that you don't get back. That part just is wasted as heat either out tailpipe if you're engine braking or into your discs if you're wheel braking.

This is the reason my Prius gets the same great fuel economy in town as on the highway. Regen braking puts that energy back in the battery for reuse by the electric motor. I originally wanted to get a Highlander Hybrid for that reason but its not up to towing an rPod.

I was unpleasantly surprised the first time I took my rig to the WV mountains, from sea level to 4000 ft or so. I expected bad fuel economy once I hit the mountains. Instead of my usual 14 mpg plus I got 9.5. Bummer, but I'm getting it back coming down, right?

Nope, I got 11 mpg. Why? Because I have to make 7 2000 plus foot climbs and descents to get to the final climb up to 4000. That's the Appalachians. Then, engine and wheel braking all the way down each ridge heating up the air for next to no benefit. On the way back I have one less climb so its a little better, not much.

All this is why comparing fuel economy towing is so confusing. Unless you're comparing running a dead flat highway at the same speed in a zero wind condition, there are way too many variables making the numbers bounce around. Even a 5 mph headwind will drop my fuel economy from 14 to 12.5 or so mpg.

To bring this thread back to rjmarlatt's original question. You probably don't want to get a new tow vehicle expecting some great improvement in fuel economy towing, you're likely to be disappointed. Almost certainly you'll never recover your investment with fuel savings. Most of the engineering that makes newer vehicles more efficient is washed out when you're dragging around a big heavy box.

My recommendation is to get a new tow vehicle because that's what you want to drive, make sure it meets your towing and other requirements, and enjoy. If your towing fuel economy improves along the way, that's gravy. And one requirement needs to be a big fuel tank, I'd say about 20 gal is the minimum. Less than that and you'll be looking for a gas station every couple of hours.

1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold

furpod

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Posted: 19 Oct 2018 at 8:01am

LOL.. well, part of the difference for us is at nearly 8.5K pounds just in truck and passengers, we coast most of the way down. There are in fact a couple reverse grades you could call them coming down, but of course they are also easier on the way up. I gear down "coming home", (going back to my parents place) because, if not, the big eX would fall down that mountain.. I don't know, maybe 100 miles an hour. I have to brake a fair amount to keep it under 80, unless I kick the OD off.

But yes, it takes "X" horsepower to do "Y" work.. and it takes "X" amount of fuel and "Y" amount of air, to make that horsepower number.

So regardless of engine size, everybody gets the same mileage towing, +/- a few percentage points, when towing.

offgrid

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Posted: 19 Oct 2018 at 8:28am

Well, I guess I could try to coast down the WV rural highways too, but there's always a bunch of 15 to 25 mph hairpins on the way up or down and I'm not sure how well the rPod axle will hold up to going around the curves on one wheel.....

If you have properly inflated road tires and add in wind speed and vehicle speed to your mix of variables that you're keeping the same, I agree. Tow with whatever you want, as long as its "modern", ie, has a multispeed auto tranny, efi and good electronic engine controls, and it will probably show pretty much the same fuel economy on the same piece of highway going the same direction.

One thing that might help a little is to add one of the roof mounted spoilers to your TV to try to improve the drag coefficient. I'm thinking of trying that just of fun. I have access to the local airstrip here to run coast down tests to see if I can measure the effect, but I'd have to wait for a calm wind day, which are few and far between here on the OBX.

1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold

Shane

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Posted: 19 Oct 2018 at 11:32am

The only problem I see with a 4x2 to a 4x4 is getting stuck in the mud, we just went on a trip to a campground near Starved Rock in Illinois, and it rained all weekend long, mud mud mud it was bad. Two trucks gotten stuck and could not pull there rv's out. 4x4 saved my trip from becoming even worse.

ENGINE 55,TRUCK 44,BATALLION 12

GlueGuy

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Posted: 19 Oct 2018 at 12:16pm

Originally posted by Shane

The only problem I see with a 4x2 to a 4x4 is getting stuck in the mud, we just went on a trip to a campground near Starved Rock in Illinois, and it rained all weekend long, mud mud mud it was bad. Two trucks gotten stuck and could not pull there rv's out. 4x4 saved my trip from becoming even worse.

That is truly the dilemma. We had an easy decision in this department, as we needed 4x4 without regard to the towing issue in the first place.

bp
2017 R-Pod 179 Hood River
2015 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4WD 3.5L Ecoboost

lostagain

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Posted: 19 Oct 2018 at 8:51pm

The Dodge Dakota I have now doesn't do much better than the Ram 1500 with a hemi I sold almost 10 years ago. It was a 2006. Chrysler has never gotten the fuel efficiency of some other brands. But towing is towing and you're never going to get really good mileage. As I said earlier, it'd take a lot of towing to make up the difference between current fuel consumption for my Dakota and the price I'd pay for my dream truck. So, I just carry an extra 20 gallons of gas so I can by pass the really expensive gas stations, try not to drive with a lead foot, and when the wind is blowing, I just slow down or wait it out if possible.

Never leave footprints behind.
Fred & Maria Kearney
Sonoma 167RB
Our Pod 172
2019 Ford F-150 4x4 2.7 EcoBoost

offgrid

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Posted: 20 Oct 2018 at 8:11am

lostagain, I think probably Ram 1500 has caught up with F150 on fuel economy now. The 2019 1500 comes standard with a mild hybrid powertrain which might even give it the edge on the city cycle.

But these are all for empty trucks not towing anything. it looks like we all agree that there wouldn't really be any difference to speak of towing with any of these choices.

1994 Chinook Concourse
1995 RV6A Experimental Aircraft
2015 Rpod 179 - sold