Weights and Measures

Yep. Here is a nice calculator you can play with to come up with your fuel consumption under varying conditions. Turns out that about 2/3 of your power goes to overcome air drag at 60 -ish mph. The other third is rolling resistance, and about all you can do there is get trailer rather than aggressive tread pattern tires and keep the inflation pressure up,

https://ecomodder.com/forum/tool-aero-rolling-resistance.php

The calculator is pretty good for flat ground. Climbing hills is another story. You will burn up about a gallon of gas every 3000 feet you climb in one of our rigs, nothing you can do about it. You never get back much of the potential energy you put in climbing either because coming down it’s wasted as engine and/or friction braking. That’s where ev’s really shine as the motors turn into generators to recharge the batteries going downhill. Hybrid batteries are too small, they’ll recover some of the energy from stop and start driving in traffic but not from a long downhill grade.

We have been known to go 60 to keep up with traffic and not get squashed by the semi's going way too fast.  Most trips where we've gotten the 14.8 - 14.9 mpg have been trips where we spent some time going 60 and have had some wind, usually from the side, but not over about 10 mph.  The point is that there is plenty of power with the 2.7 ecoboost, including in the high mountains.  As for mileage, well, when we're not towing the computer says we get 24 mpg. as a general rule.  When we climb to 9000 feet from 4000, the mileage sucks, but it's still way better than the Dakota.  Most of our recent trips have been from Dayton to/from Eagle Lake, near Susanville.  There are several climbs to 6000+ feet, but the start and destination are both about 4500 ft.  Bottom line, the 2.7 ecoboost engine is has adequate power and economy for the trailer we tow, and we even have some capacity to spare.

Originally posted by offgrid Yep, unless you’re only doing short runs. Seen this? https://www.google.com/amp/s/insideevs.com/news/366120/video-tesla-model-x-towing-steep-grade/amp/

Originally posted by Pod_Geek Originally posted by offgrid Yep, unless you’re only doing short runs. Seen this? https://www.google.com/amp/s/insideevs.com/news/366120/video-tesla-model-x-towing-steep-grade/amp/ Seen this? https://www.trailerlife.com/towing/tow-vehicles/will-your-next-tow-vehicle-be-electric/ Range is terrible, weight is limited, battery packs are heavy, charging takes forever, and there are few/no pull-through charging stations.  Maybe if I live to be 110 I'll see EVs towing 5ers...

Yeah, not here yet but getting pretty close. Once we get to the tipping point with batteries where evs are as cheap as ice’s it’ll go fast. Solar is now the cheapest electrical energy source. Took 40 years to get there, now it’s exploding. So it won’t be when you’re 110 unless you’re already 100 now, in which case you’ll need that RV to be self driving. 😜

12.7 is maybe slightly on the low side but the canoes are adding some drag. The other point is that we all observe poorer fuel economy in winter. Two reasons for this: winter blend fuel has lower heat content and denser winter air creates more drag. If you plug in the numbers in that calculator I posted it’s roughly 1 mpg lower under winter conditions. And that’s assuming tire inflation pressure has been adjusted, lower tire pressures kill fuel economy. One other point, even a 5 mph headwind or tailwind that you would probably not notice will change your fuel consumption by around 1 mpg. You might not notice it but your engine will. That’s because drag is not additive, it’s the old square of the wind speed factor kicking in (change in hp between 5 and 10 mph to overcome drag is 0.3, between 55 and 60 it’s around 6 hp).