horrible gas milage while towing

My son is in a high school band and as a band daddy i volunteed to use my kubota rtv 900 a utv type fourwheeler that weights in at 2300 lb. with the cab to pull props on and off the field.now my 2008 tacoma dcab 4x4 trd off road pulls it fine but im only getting 10 mpg so it seems to me that a lot to give up from 19 mpg when not pulling any thing. we live in a hilly area. but we still have 3 more weekend of compatition left. these truck mpg falls on there face while pulling anything makes me start thinking should i have gotten a tundra. on a brighter side only 3 more weekends but i still love my truck im disapointed with mpg. should have looked at only 28000

 

We pulled a car and car trailer from Iowa to Jacksonville, FL a few months back and my MPG only dropped 2-3... we ran 93 octane the whole way back

 

may be i better get it checked out

 

Everything will get worse mileage towing. My Tacoma normally gets 20-21 MPG on the highway and this year towing my boat it got 17-18 MPG. By comparison, my old F-150 was lucky to get 17 MPG on the higway unloaded and towing the exact same boat, I would get 12-13 MPG. So when you look at it that way, my Tacoma actually gets similar mileage towing my boat as compared to what my old F-150 did unloaded . . .

I guess the primary benefit to going with the Tundra would be the capability to tow much heavier loads more effectively than the Tacoma. Overall though, I really doubt that you'd see any cost savings when talking about a 2,300 lb trailer. Actually, I think you'd see overall increased costs just because of the additional fuel useage you'd use with the Tundra while not towing.

The fact that you are seeing a drop from 19 to 10 leads me to believe that your trailer has allot of wind resistance, the terrain is really challenging, you have lots of heavy throttle application, etc. These are things that will severely impact the MPG for any tow vehicle, Tundra included. Unless you are running into a situation where the Tacoma is running into capability issues, I'm not sure it makes much sense (from a pure MPG argument) to switch over to a full size.

 

I had a 06 Tundra with 4.7, it only got about 14mpg around town unoaded and pulling my camper probably around 10mpg ot less. I get 14mpg with the Taco pulling the same trailer, & 16-18 around town unlaoded. My Tundra wasnt rated to pull much more weight either it just it did more easily up hills and from standing starts, it was definately not more fuel efficient.

 

I have seen 10mpg in a buddies V-6 TRD off road towing a 18 ft trailer with only two dirt bikes in it at highway speeds!

 

I may have even got worse then 10MPG pulling my 4500Lb 24ft Jayco trailer from Ontario to Nova Scotia this summer, I was not happy.

 

That's a fair sized trailer with a large amount of surface area and pulling it through the air at highway speeds is just simply going to require allot of work on the part of your truck. You just can't get over the physics of it. Getting around 10 MPG towing that load, especially with a V6, isn't really THAT bad IMHO. I'll bet you did no worse than most 1/2 ton V8's would do with a similar load . . .

 

you might want to consider a TRD supercharger. It'll give you the boost you need and save you a few mpg. Less of a struggle for your na 4.0 engine

 

"10mph"???

 

Maybe I can sell this to my wife, because it is "her Trailer" HAHA.

 

Personally, I would not buy a Tacoma for towing anything with "weight" on a daily or weekly basis. Small truck, tow small things. Big truck, tow big things. I tow a 6000 lb 25 ft travel trailer with a diesel rated at 10,000 lbs, and feel I am getting close with this "work ratio" load wise. Can not imagine a 24 ft 4500 lb load with a 6500 lb rated truck for very long. Not that it can not handle it, your just working it hard, hence the bad gas mileage stated above.

 

05 V6 Prerunner, tow 5k travel trailer and I get 10-12. Depends on my hills.....Just how it is. Not bad for gas pusher V6....

 

I got about 90 miles on one tank pulling a 19ft toyhauler(5500lbs) against 30-40mph winds. I was p/o'd.

 

yes when we tow our enclosed trailer in the winter time snowmobiling our mileage is around the 10-12 range. Winter blend gas, mtns, etc. A big ol' non-aerodynamic box behind us.

We use to get around a consistant 14 in the 4.7 V8 tundra (1GEN). I was a little surprised but it is what it is I guess. Doesn't stop us from going on our trips.

 

I have a 24' SeaArk C/C Jon boat, tandem axle galvanized trailer. With my DC/LB 4x4 I get 11.5 mpg (avg.). The f-150 2wd 4.6l v-8 I traded for the Taco, got 10 mpg...... So much for the v-8 theory.......

 

I'm sure any truck it will lower the MPG when towing. I get an avg of 18 when I'm not towing, but I speed (Atlanta autobahn). When I tow my bass boat I get 12-14mpg. Some hills in my area.

 

The Tacoma actually gets great gas mileage when towing if you start comparing to the guys that run the bigger gas trucks. My 26' travel trailer weighs in just about 5000# and I get between 9-12mpg depending on where I'm going. Read RV.NET forums and see what some of these guys are getting... 5-7 in a lot of cases. For the "little" bit that I tow (4000 miles out of 93000 on the truck) I'm more than happy to get 20mpg when not towing and 10 when towing. Sure has saved me $$$ from a full size truck that gets "bad" mileage all round towing or not.

 

so im stationed on fort bragg, NC and i have a good chance on being stationed in washington state....i want to tow my wifes chevy colbat which weighs about 2800 lbs..i will need to get a tow package, tranny cooler..i dont have the tsb thing done..if i do this i plan on renting a dolly or something from u haul

could i do this? would it suck really bad? if i do get sent to washington state it will be next summer which leaves me alot of time to upgrade my truck

ive been thinking about this for awhile so any help will be nice