Fuel Economy

What sort of fuel usage have you got without the van. Then probably double it. You'll be towing something with the aerodynamic profile of a house brick!

You'd have to be happy if you got better than 20L/100, Barry.

Bob

No experience with a Nissan but our V6 Pajero dropped from 15 to 26 l/100k towing a 17' poptop. Our diesel Jackeroo drops from 13 to 16.

Cheers

Pete

What you really need to work out is what it would cost you to update to another 4wd. The difference between economy now and with another 4wd could buy a LOT of petrol.
Say the economy blew out to 26l/hk..?.....and a newer 4wd had a towing economy of 18l/hk......do some figures to work out if it's worth your while??

Barry.
The engine is reliable and long lasting but best to have the timing checked to ensure you get the best out of the petrol.
This may sound strange but it may be more economical to use 98octane fuel as it burns more efficiently and with careful driving will probably give more distance for the same amount of $$$$$s.
A friend of mine had one and towed a heavy camper trailer and achieved 18mpg which is around 6.3k/L. I would expect your to be about 14mpg or about 5K/L or 20L/100km.
One thing you can do is wisely use the down hill runs to gather momentum to get you up the next hill as far as possible with sparingly use of the accelerator.
If you know your auto, you should be able to use a gear which gives the best amount of lockup of the torque converter clutch while cruising. Tyre pressures will also govern the economy and a little more pressure than normal will provide less rolling resistance and more economy too.

I presume you have an auto fluid cooler to handle additional auto fluid heat so it doesn’t get too high and begin to overheat the vital engine cooling system. If either overheat then the show may be over.

If you want to tow heavy trailers and big 'vans on a regular basis, you need a diesel, it's that simple.

Petrol engines do not have the ability to provide economy when heavily loaded for extended periods - whereas diesels do.

Petrol engines are responsive and provide reasonable economy when lightly loaded - but load 'em up and economy goes out the window.

Toyota have dropped the 4.0L V6 from their current model range - for one simple reason.

New sales of the 4.0L V6 model Hilux have been dropping like a stone over a number of years, until the V6 petrol engine made up less than 3% of the sales figures.

You don't need to be Einstein to figure out why no-one was buying the V6 petrol model.

For the same reason, you can buy a used 5 to 15 yr old, 3.5L petrol Rodeo or Colorado, for about half the price of a used 3.0L diesel, in the same model range.

Cheers, Ron.