VZ V6 Crewman fuel economy

[general]

Has anyone had any problems with poor fuel economy with a trailer on their crewman or similar with a V6 alloytec. My wife can't do a round trip of 100klm on a full tank of fuel. Averages approx 25 to 30 l per 100 klm. She's a soft foot and reckons it doesn't feel like the car wants to shift into top gear even at 8 klm per hour. Any advice would be appreciated. I love the car and without a trailer on she's perfect approx 9 to 11 l per 100 klm.

 

[commodore_vy]

Gday general...


I do alot of towing with my VZ ute....base model.....i know not a crew man...but should be able to get a good idea of how fuel consumption is...



I have a 1tonne boat...single axle...on the freeway at 100km/h im running 16.5L/100km....around the city...goin easy 18-20l/100km....upto 25l/100kms....


I recently have been towing a few horse floats....empty float...700kg....
12.6l/100km....only been opn freeway....

with 2 big horses (+900kg)
so thats 1.6tonne.....im doing 15l/100km.......but i was only doing 80-90km/h...



so make of it what you will....


let us know what kind of trailer you are pulling pls...as i work for a trailer company....and this imformation would be very helpful to me...thanks


VZ_UTE (from UTEZ.com.au)

aka Jase

 

[Daza]

I am surprised to hear commodore_vy gets such good fuel econmy with large trailers. Any one I have spoken to who tows with a VZ 6 auto has been disappointed with the econmy. The diff ratios in these are way to tall IMHO. A 3:45 would be a lot better rather than the 2:8? and the 3:0?. Flat towing with my V8 M6 ute with an 30 year old 20' caravan is 16.5l/100 at about 90kmh. 5th only though had about 500kg(Motor bikes,fuel and no tarp) in the tray and the van would easly be 1600kgs(Never bothered to weigh it). Have to be gentle on the clutch though.

General You may need to use the power switch to allow the gearbox to change a little later?

How heavy was the trailer? High sided furniture style? Was there plenty of stop start as this will really hurt the consumption figures. How many kms has it done as it still could be tight. 9-11 l/100kms is surprising from a Crewman, I would have thought 11-15 would have been closer to the mark.
Daza

 

[steane]

I am surprised to hear commodore_vy gets such good fuel econmy with large trailers. Any one I have spoken to who tows with a VZ 6 auto has been disappointed with the econmy. The diff ratios in these are way to tall IMHO. A 3:45 would be a lot better rather than the 2:8? and the 3:0?.
Daza

I think you have hit the nail on the head. Our auto VZ onetonners were absolutely shocking on fuel even when not towing. My manual styleside gets good economy for a big car ie 8.5 lph highway and 11-12 lph around town driven sensibly.
I have a friend with a VY Crewman V6 and he has the same fuel economy complaint so I'm not sure that it is an Alloytec thing. It may be a case of excessive weight (Crewman)and poor gearing?

 

[commodore_vy]

well my figures are pretty correct...


ive done 17 000kms of towing and 30 000 all up...so i dunno...

 

[general]

crewman towing problems

Going out on another fuel test run this afternoon will post details tomorrow

 

[Reaper]

Gday general...


I do alot of towing with my VZ ute....base model.....i know not a crew man...but should be able to get a good idea of how fuel consumption is...



I have a 1tonne boat...single axle...on the freeway at 100km/h im running 16.5L/100km....around the city...goin easy 18-20l/100km....upto 25l/100kms....


I recently have been towing a few horse floats....empty float...700kg....
12.6l/100km....only been opn freeway....

with 2 big horses (+900kg)
so thats 1.6tonne.....im doing 15l/100km.......but i was only doing 80-90km/h...



so make of it what you will....


let us know what kind of trailer you are pulling pls...as i work for a trailer company....and this imformation would be very helpful to me...thanks


VZ_UTE (from UTEZ.com.au)

aka Jase

Hiya - what state are you in??? I need a custom trailer made soon.

Reaper

 

[general]

Fuel economy blues

Fuel economy test no good.
10l 100klm no trailer
20l 100klm empty horse float. Approx weight 680kg
Tried with power button in and out but it does not want to shift into top gear unless your doing 120klm/hr. Tariler brakes were disconnected and checked. They are all new. Fitting Hiclone and new filter so we will see how that goes.

 

[vzsv8]

VX rules maybe?

A couple of years ago I towed about 1000kg of boat up the coast. I just followed the traffic at around 100kph ( I also had my son on green P plates following ). Anyway after the run up and back at the fill it averaged 9.5 l/100km which is nearly 30 mpg. Frankly I was a bit stunned, on the same type of run without the boat it can get down to 8 to 8.5 but I thuoght this was amazing. The motor is a 3.8 Ecotech with 20,000km and no I do't want to sell it.
Perhaps the torque curve of the Alloytech is a bit top heavy for towing, the Echotech seems to make maximum torque at about 2000 to 3000 rpm.
Interesting, Steve

 

[muso]

In spite of old tech push rods the Ecotec is in my opinion one of the best motors out there for a good balance of power and economy, they have more than ample power for the average person.