Mileage Per Gallon

Kickstart:

Thank You for your statistics!  It confirms many of the comments and data others have presented in this forum.  Thank your Mother for teaching you to do that!

Generally, I believe that most of us purchase a smaller trailer for ease of towing lighter vehicles with the smaller engines now in trucks and SUV's.  We combined that thought with the unrealistic anti-gravity thought in mind that a POD will magically get good mileage when towing.  Not so!

While I am very pleased with our POD, I am also like most who thought it would be a bit like a teardrop, burro, casita type mileage.  Not so!

Most likely, as long as the tow vehicle is capable, the only real answers for better mileage are to use a lower speed as proven, or buy a bigger TV.   Other than that, another solution is to find a way to reduce wind turbulence with flared canopy on the TV or invent a  front cowling on the POD.  The latter is not going to be done by a manufacturer as they are happy once these are out on the road and the money transfer is made.

Not to mention that unlike car and truck manufacturers, there are not government mandates forced upon trailer manufacturers to achieve better mileage.

Personally, I did achieve 1 to 2 MPG better by putting a performance chip in our truck, and I installed a K&N air filter.  Also, I use Non-Ethanol gas when towing and usually get more MPG out of a gallon than the corn fuel.

The chip improved the non towing by 3 to 4 MPG.

Physics and fantasy don't really do well together.

I remember watching Myth Busters last year and they took the concept of recessed circles on a golf ball and applied it to the back, front,top & sides of a car (5-6 ? inch concave circles) and they got a 10% improvement on MPG.  It would make a strange looking trailer ... but hey, 10% savings on gas.

From computer simulations another guest and I ran independently a couple of years ago, mpg while towing depends little on weight (in non-hilly areas).  The most important factor was the frontal area of the trailer.  The gap between the tow vehicle and the trailer also was a factor.  R-Pods are about 11 feet high and 6 feet wide.  From member responses, the size of the tow vehicles engine does not seem to matter much for mpg.  The variations tend to be from 10 to 14 mpg. The rounded shape of the Pods does NOT contribute to increased mpg...the rounded frontal shape produces a much larger spacing between the tow vehicle and the Pod.  This allows air rushing behind the tow vehicle more room to 'swirl' and thus produce more drag. You may notice the fiberglas sheathing behind a big rig semi cab and the trailer, decreasing the distance of the open gap between the two.  The rear 'clearance lights' spoiler will do little to increase mpg.  It is just too small.
A 'pop-up' trailer, of the same weight as the Pod, will deliver a significant increase in mpg because its
frontal area while being towed is much smaller than a Pod.

I have a Ford f150 5.4L V8 4x4. We have towed a Pod and a 26 ft. Prowler with this truck, and both were about 8-10 mpg. Like dsmiths said above, if I keep the speed 55 or under, I get around 10-11 with the Pod. With my little 6X10 1200 lb. utility trailer in tow, I get around 12-14, mostly stop and go traffic in town with it. Best mileage for this truck is about 17-18 mpg.

wow, great stats