Towing with Diesel WOW!!
Submitted: Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 19:03
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Member - barry F (NSW)
Hello everyone, Me and SHMBI have just returned from a three week trip down south,
Echuca,
Bendigo,
Ballarat,
Castlemaine, Wangaratta & home to
Newcastle. All of the above & surrounding areas are a nice part of the country even if a "bit" dry in
places, especially around Echua. It was our first visit down that way & we thoughly enjoyed what Vic has to offer including the friendly people.
ANYWAY!! it was also our first experience towing with DIESEL & all I can say is WOW!!
We have a 16 foot pop top Jayco, which weighs about 1500 Kg in travelling mode & had been pulling it around with a Camry Altise V6 3 Litre. This time out we were towing it with a current model Mazda BT 50 diesel. When towing we sit on about 95 KMH which pulls 2000 rpm in fifth. ( its a manual)
Hills?? Head Wind?? What hills & what head winds!! The Camry would have dropped down a cog & done the job, but the diesel just gave a grunt, let out a bit of a growl now & then & got on with the job WITHOUT dropping down a cog at every opportunity. I am impressed!!
For those interested in fuel consumption, figures are as follows
Total Trip 3650 K's @ 468 Litres = 12.8 Litres/100 K's for trip
Of which 1974 K's were towing, using 280 Litres = 14.18 Litres /100 K
Anyway its nice to be back home & looking forward to catching up with news on this great site
Reply By: Member - Olcoolone (S.A) - Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 19:46
Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 19:46
Yeah alot of people don't know or want to belive what the new diesel engines and 4x4 utes are like.
We have a current model Hiux D4D and really like it, alot of people have remarks about how good the new BT-50 and Rangers are.
I don,t think any of the new 4x4 utes are as bad as the press makes them out to be and they are very capable off roading.
Just think 10 years ago the comfort and the power you have would of been only avaliable in a few top of the range 4x4's.
What are they like for long didtance touring.
Regards Richard
AnswerID:
269927
Follow Up By: Member - barry F (NSW) - Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 20:06
Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 20:06
G'day Richard, I agree with your comments, Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi & for that matter any other brand serious about having a share of the market & maintaining it have to perform to a high standard all of the time. But hey, fuel consumption AND PERFORMANCE go hand in hand to anyone travelling big or small distances.
Regardless of towing our van with the
sedan or the twin cab, we find the ride "firm" ( you feel all the blxxdy bumps!!) probably because we use a Haymen Reese weight distribution kit which sort of "marries" the tow vehicle & the trailer together. But it stops floating & the unsafe condition that "floating" creates!!
Cheers
FollowupID:
532834
Reply By: QLD Kev - Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 19:56
Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 19:56
G'Day Barry,
Good to see you had a good trip.
I just want to know what SWMBI stands for, is it She Who Must Be Ignored LOL cause I reckon I do it to
mine all the time as
well
Watch out for your beer fridge at home remember she has it hooked up to zap you every time you go for another beer. Just thought I'd remind you as it has been a few weeks since I had heard from you :))
Cheers Kev
| Russell Coight:
He was presented with a difficult decision: push on into the stretching deserts, or return home to his wife.Lifetime Member
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AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Member - barry F (NSW) - Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 20:15
Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 20:15
Well Well Well & another
Well!! Didn't take long to drag you out of the woodwork!! Nice to hear from you.
Your interpretation of the abbreviation is correct but please don't tell her. I am a a wimp.
Beer frig is in tact even though I have been home for 6 or 7 hrs, just a small dent.
We had a nice surprise upon arriving home this arvo, amongst all the bills & threatening letters etc we had a cheque from lotto for $1126.36. How about that. Better still it is in MY name!!
Best wishes
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Follow Up By: QLD Kev - Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 20:25
Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 20:25
I bet she opened the letter from the Lotto agency and only told you when it was in your name LOL
At least it would pay for most of the fuel that you used while you were away.
Cheers Kev
| Russell Coight:
He was presented with a difficult decision: push on into the stretching deserts, or return home to his wife.Lifetime Member
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Follow Up By: Mamba No 1 - Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 21:31
Saturday, Nov 03, 2007 at 21:31
ooohhh that will get back hahahah SWMBI
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Reply By: wigger - Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 14:30
Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 14:30
Barry,
What sort of BT50. 4x4 or 4x4. I have a
ranger(same gearing and motor) but the speedo is way out, reading 10kph fast at 100kph and so the fuel consumption figs are not quite as good as you might think. Have checked reading against GPS to confirm and at 110 on speedo, it takes 36 + secs to cover a kilometre, which means that it's actually only doing 100kph.
Originally I was worried that towing a heavy tandem trailer at indicated 100 kph was too tough on the 2.5 motor at just over 2000rpm but now I know that the motor is turning over at 2200rpm (true 100kph). I"m curious to know if the 5th gear is a direct drive in the gear box. If it's not then I'd be careful about
leaving it in 5th "and letting it get on with the job" when approaching hills.
However there are other bods on the
forum who will say otherwise.
AnswerID:
270030
Follow Up By: Member - colin M (NSW) - Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 14:48
Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 14:48
I have a
Ranger TD auto 4x4 which is the same as the Mazda and the owners manual says to take it out of overdrive when carrying heavy loads. I took ours out of overdrive on the trip from
Tweed Heads to SA and back towing a boat and tray top camper, no problems throughout trip. Presume Mazda manual would have same advice. Our fuel consumption was 16.68L/100km towing baot only and 17.5L/100km when towing boat and tray top camper.
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Follow Up By: Member - barry F (NSW) - Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 18:53
Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 18:53
Hello Wigger & Colin
its a 4x2 manual with a common rail three litre turbo diesel. Sorry I cant answer you question as to whether or not 5th gear is direct drive into gear box, as I don't know what happens after I poke it in the slot!! As to accuracy of kmh or indicated distance travelled, I have no reason to beleive either to be incorrect, but maybe they are??
The manual/specification state that the motor reaches maximum torque at 1800 rpm, so I assumed that if you were pulling in the vicinity of 2000 rpm, then you would not be stressing the motor??
Any comments, good or bad on my "logic" would be appreciated please.
Also it has been my experience with petrol powered vehicles that you can "feel" the load coming on & therfore the need to drop back a cog now & then ( before the motor becomes stressed )without the need of a tacho to tell you what to do.
On our trip I used that same principle when needed. Any advise or comments would be appreciated. Cheers.
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Follow Up By: wigger - Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 19:14
Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 19:14
Barry' OK if yours is the 3l motor then it's got 380nm as opposed to the 330 of the 2.5 so this would make a difference. I've been careful to keep the revs
well up on the 1800 where the max torque flat "curve starts because a cluey diesel mechanic said to me that with heavy loads you can get a considerable increase in EGT on long climbs if you let the motor get into the bottom area of the torque band and if this is sustained then it can do serious damage. Without a guage it's not possible to know if this happening so I just play safe on climbs like the F3 just past the Hawkesbury going south. The Bravo gearboxes used to fail in 5th
because they were running off the side of the main shaft so until I find out what the BT50/FR box is like I tend to be careful with 5th when towing.
I have actually checked the distance travelled accuracy and it is very close (not even 1% out) but the speedo is very suss and you can really bleep other drivers off by not doing a true 90-95
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: wigger - Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 19:27
Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 19:27
on single lane carriageway.It's very easy to caculate the error if you pass a measured strip such as on the M4 or F3. If a km takes more than 36.6 secs at "100kph" it's reading fast. It's also good to know the truse speed so that you can get past the speed cameras at max (such as on the Buringbar range) without getting booked. 10kph is a big error at 100 and its about 9 at 80.
I don't want to disillusion you but these sorts of motors make me
a bit nervous about their long term cost of keeping going. All this variable geometry turbo, 32 bit processor. piezzo injectors stuff is
not cheap to service/replace and I'm thinking that it would be nice to have a truck with one of those wonderful OM 617 engines that just go for ever. Read the Pajero owners
forum on the latest DPF problems if you want to know what hi tech engines can be like.
But hey have a happy day, or days, until it goes BOOM
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Cram - Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 19:39
Sunday, Nov 04, 2007 at 19:39
We just did our first big trip in our TD5 Disco towing an off road camper trailer. We travelled around 7000ks most of them were towing. We averaged 12.3litres/100.
Very happy with the diesel. Just wish the price of the fuel was a comparable to unleaded. In
Newcastle at the moment it is near 10c a litre dearer.
FollowupID:
533040
Follow Up By: Member - colin M (NSW) - Monday, Nov 05, 2007 at 15:21
Monday, Nov 05, 2007 at 15:21
12.3 is good, yes its hard to understand why diesel is so much dearer than ULP.
Sorry when you guys get on the real technical stuff about torque and all that I am out of my depth.
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