Hilux dual cab SR5 2.7l vs 3.4l

Hi Dave,
A few years (2005) ago I was going from Carnarvon to Exmouth in my auto 4.5 80 series towing a 5.8 m tandem poptop complete with family on board(teens).
I caught up to a 3.4 Prado towing a smaller poptop single axle and passed him(him n wife only). Due to one of the kids call of nature he went by again and I ended up catching him and followed him into Manilya roadhouse. We filled up and I said gidday etc had quick chat and he proceeded to work out his fuel consumption on a calculator. I then asked him to work mine out.
He was somewhat annoyed when he worked out that his Prado had used about 5 ltrs of fuel more for the distance (approx 170 kms) than I had going a touch faster with more load.
The point is that if you tow etc be prepared for heavy consumption. The 80 series was doing about 5 km per ltr at the time doing about 95 to 100 kms an hr. He was doing about 90.
Regards Alan

Dave,

I have a 3.4 Extra Cab. Have done nearly 95,000ks and averaged 11.95l/100ks. Recently towed a campertrailer on a 3,500ks trip and averaged around 14.21l/100ks. There was a lot of 100kph travel. Hilux + campertrailer loaded would have been about 3,000kgs.

Well when I drove a 3.4L prado I always wondered about the 2.7, cheaper to register, bit better fuel consumption (bout 1 - 2L/100km), but then i heard that as the 2.7 was just a chopped off 100 series 4.5L motor it actually had a quicker take off than the 3.4 and has more torque from idle. For what I needed this sounded in retrospect a better option than the 3.4. Towing, maybe not. Traction, same stuff can be bought. Just depends I spose.

They do bring out a 3.0l Turbo Diesel which may be worth a look at for you...