Towing fuel economy

[graham7773]

Does any one on here have any idea what fuel economy I can expect while towing a 300kg trailer with about 200kg freight in it on the highway with a VT Acclaim wagon in fair condition. going to Brisbane for my grandsons funeral

[lufkin]

once you get it up and moving it would be fine, i dont notice a huge difference when i have towed cars on a trailer with my vt, the main thing will be climbing hills with the weight. and sorry to hear about your grandson mate

[goose202]

Not sure how useful it will be to you, but my VX V8 gets 2-3 L/100 worse fuel economy when towing two dirt bikes on a 6x4 trailer. My brothers VS V6 does about the same thing. Weight would be much the same as your example but wind drag would probably be a lot worse with the bikes.

[pablo]

To answer your question, when I towed my 7x4 trailer loaded with a motorcycle and side car in it with my V6 wagon on a 350 K country trip, towed estimated weight around 500 Kg, I returned , in the 'old money' 27 miles per gallon, you can work it back to whatever metric numbers you want. And I was pleased with that.

[hwy747]

I recently towed a trailer with approx 200-300kg's scrap metal on it for about 100km, mainly on freeways. Normally I get around 9-10L/100 in my SIDI VE wagon, and I got 14.2L/100 over that distance. It will increase definitely, but depends on the size of the trailer and the drag etc. Hope that helps. Really sorry to hear about your grandson, losing a loved one is never easy.

[graham7773]

Thanks for the expressions of sympathy. Appreciated.... pablo, I put your figures on a calculator 27mpg = 6 miles per litre or 9.6kpl. I would be happy with that with no trailer.........hwy747 SIDI is great, isn't it? Much better economy than the VTs and VXs. So I can expect a hefty increase in fuel consumption with my VT pulling 500 or so kilograms. Ah well, got to be done

[hwy747]

Thanks for the expressions of sympathy. Appreciated.... pablo, I put your figures on a calculator 27mpg = 6 miles per litre or 9.6kpl. I would be happy with that with no trailer.........hwy747 SIDI is great, isn't it? Much better economy than the VTs and VXs. So I can expect a hefty increase in fuel consumption with my VT pulling 500 or so kilograms. Ah well, got to be done

Yeah the SIDI on the freeway, no trailer, no air con usually runs in the 8L/100. The same trip that I used the trailer on the other week I did yesterday with an empty car and returned figures of 9.3L/100k, so it was almost 5L/100 worse with the trailer. The SIDI is a great engine on fuel, but at the end of the day it is only a 3.0L engine and really shows this as soon as you add a bit of weight! I think you could safely expect an increase of 3-5L/100 in the VT.

[FC50]

I have had a VT 2000 series II V6 for 2 weeks now and only just got to work out my fuel economy with a 50/50 highway and suburban (not city) drive with no trailer.

9.15 klm/L or 10.93 L/100 klm Potentially could have done 686klm on a tank (9.15klm/L X 75L = 686klm) and am pretty happy with that as I was thinking LPG conversion when I got it, but I don't think so now.

[graham7773]

Another thing that makes me curious is that Holden claims that the VT should get 7.2l per 100klm highway driving. Anyone ever get that?

[pablo]

Several years ago, a mate drove to Darwin from Adelaide with cruise on at a steady 95 KPH virtually non stop, except for petrol. When he arrived and filled up, the 'distance to empty' function on the computer readout said "1000" . He worked out that he returned less thal 8L per 100 kilometers, but never the claimed 7.2! New tyres on the rear and pumped up pretty hard also helped him achieve thise figures. From memory, he said it worked out to be over 35 MPG (in the old money), but I can't remember the actual figures.

[anarklov3r]

I got ~7l/100km driving from Melbourne to Apollo bay down the great ocean road. Used 15-16 litres (220km trip). I got up to apollo bay, drove there, and back on a single tank .

However, back here in lalor, i get 12.5l/100kms using BP 98 octane. Cheapy Safeway fuel i will get about 14.