petrol useage WHILE TOWING

Gipsy,

I had a 96 3.5 lt Pajero and it used to drink about 25lt per 100kms on average which is 4 km per litre but on occassions when I was pushing real hard it would go to as much as 30lt/100km or 3.3km per litre.

But mine only drank 16lt per 100km when not towing. Sounds like I am proud of these figures but that is not the case, it is what it is....figures you asked for.

Cheers and good luck.
Trevor.

Mate, 20L/100km is way too much even for heavy city driving. Friend of mine has automatic Pajero and when his wife use it for only bring kids to school and visit mall (i.e. worst possible driving pattern) it returns17L/100km. On more “car-friendly” driving routs he can get 15 and even lower on freeways.
What I am saying? Have a look at your car – it really asks for attention. Transmission (if auto), injectors, filters, oxygen sensor, spark plugs and spark plug leads are major offenders. Back to original question – you have to add up to 10L/100km for heavy towing, thus expect 30L if you do nothing.
Cheers

Gipsy, I get 4.5 Kms to the litre with my 4.2 Turbo Diesel towing a 21' caravan, less with a head wind, more with a tail wind. Talking to different caravanners the usage does not appear much different even if you tow a 16' van.

My method of checking is simply to fill up to when the pump clicks the third time (Lts) and reset the trip meter (Kms) and after a number of fills get the average.

I do not tow in fifth.

Peter

Gipsy'
We get 5.34 Km to the Ltr from our 4.2 turbo Patrol towing an off road 16ft van with a loaded weight of 1800kg.
This equates to 18.87 ltr per 100k's or 14.97 MPG.
Also we do not tow in 5th.
I that your vehicle may use around 25ltr per 100 when towing your van and this may jump when in a head wind or hilly country. Most vehicles seem to use approx 25% more fuel when towing reasonable weights.

Gipsy,
I recently retired my 93 NJ 3L auto GLS LWB wagon. Sad to see it go as it had been very reliable and never let us down.

Not towing around town would get 7k/l ie ~14 l/100k. On the open road get a bit better provided kept to 100kph or below. Towing we would get ~20l/100k.

As said by others give it a good check over as you should be doing better than you indicate unless you really push it.

It will depend whether your Pajero is petrol, diesel or LPG.
I understand when towing with diesel, 20-30% more,
with petrol, 40-60% more
with LPG, 50-60% more.
Depends on how you drive, what weight you are towing, head or tail wind, of course.
As others have said, 20L/100km when not towing seems very high, unless you are on LPG, even then too high.
I have a 3.0 petrol Mitsubushi Challenger, towing 1700kg van.
11L/100km without van, 15-17L/100km towing van.

goodday gypsy
you will probaly get about 3ks pl when towing thats what i got with the old petrol patrol
NOW whats all the bullsh&&t about towing in 5th gear in a patrol unless you have a model that was sus to the spline being faulty and you use your brains and change gear when needed and not let your motor/gearbox labour you should have no problems
once i get on an open road i always use 5th gear and we go along nicely and try to not stop at every bowser!!!!!!

steve

Hi, I had a '96 NK 3500 DOHC & got around 16lt/100km's a on a run unloaded....... Put the Jayco Eagle Outback on & were nudging 25lt/100km's Needless to say the cars gone now. Don't get me wrong I loved this car & had it for over 7 years.. it went everywhere but..............
With the price of petrol we have changed to a more economical diesel & halved our fuel bill.

Toyota Prado D4D deisel towing a 18' caravan
up the Hume from melb to canberra to batemans then down to melb.
Average 14.5 L to 100K

Excellent

Whenever we go somewhere with our Unimog, everybody's first question is:
"HOW much fuel does this use?",

Answer: Not nearly as much as a petrol 4x4 towing a caravan!!!

I guess, it uses what it uses, and we can't really change it anyway, unless we go for a prius, put a tent in the back, but who wants to do that?