Fuel consumption - comparison

A 2005 prado would've been the old (pre D4D) diesel with under 100kw and considerably higher fuel use. Would be more interesting to compare with a D4D.

I got an average of 14.2lt/100km in my 2007 Pajero 3.2 deisel towing a cub camper with a tinny on its roof. Weighed the camper and its 935kg loaded.

I averaged 102km/h for the entire trip 7215km over mostly undulating roads from Parkes to Alice springs and return.

Cheers Wilko

I used to tow a 21'6" Jayco Heritage with our 2005 Prado diesel and I also was very disappointed with both the performance and the fuel economy.

The fuel economy varied between 15 l/p/100 to 17.5 l/p/100.

Towing our new van which weighs in at 1500kg the fuel figures did not vary.

We now tow with a Falcon XR6 Turbo and have heaps of performance and the fuel figures are not that bad. They vary from a 17 l/p/100 to 19 l/p/100. But at least we can go up hills and keep ahead of the traffic.

Hope this has helped you a little.

Dusty.

I towed a 1.8 tonne caravan van behind a ford Territory (RWD)

I was getting 17 to 18 litres per 100 K on regular unleaded

about 19 with 10% ethanol

switched to vortex and averaged 15 litres per 100k for a 6 week trip


normally get 16 litres per 100k in the city , 11 litres per 100k highway

one trip on the highway I got 10 Litres per 100K

running on vortex no to see what I get

I must be a little lucky.

I have a Mazda Bravo 2.5l Turbo/Intercooled diesel 4 x 4.

In the last couple of weeks I have returned home after 10460 kms to Cape York and returned via Coonabarabran to the coast. I was towing a Kimberley Karavan which weighs about 1.8 tonnes.

My average fuel consumption was 16.2l per 100 kms with diesel price average of $1.37 per litre.

My speed average, guessing, could have been around 90 kms per hour.

Overall, I am very happy with that.

DW

We bought a 2.5 tonne van, so upgraded to a 100 series turbo diesel landcruiser to tow it. We are doing the big lap, so have had a good mix of all types of roads, winds and altitudes.

We are averaging between 16-17litres per 100km. We only tow at speed of 90km/hr to achieve this efficiency because of such advice of other fellow exploroz & caravan magazines.

Our dad has 100 series diesel landcruiser (not turbo diesel) and towes a 1.5kg van. He also drives at 90km/hr and gets 16-17litres per 100km. (Same economy, much lighter caravan).

Interestingly, we did Cape York peninsula with a group (no towing) which included 2 x 100 series diesel landcruisers and our 100 series turbo diesel landcruisers. Considering we 3 did exactly same kms, same speed and exact same journey and shopped at same diesel bowsers the $$ result. Our journey cost us $430 in diesel for this 2 week adventure. The non turbo diesels both cost around $680-$700. It was an excellent exercise in proving that a turbo diesel can get better fuel economy as its expends less energy to get to cruising speed.

In your journey mentioned above you did a lot of higher altitude driving, it would be interesting to compare your litres/100km if you took a journey at sea level altitude. All of our cars (petrol/diesel) get 50+% better fuel efficiency at sea level than at mountain altitudes. (We live in the mountains, so pay for it every day!!!)

Cheers
R2D
PS how was Tumut - were the orchards in bloom yet?

Hello to everybody......now have a good laugh at mine.....
A 99 Troopy with the standard diesel motor and fitted with a safari turbo also it’s second R151F gearbox (do not tow in fifth gear anymore) towing a Jayco 22ft van weighing at 2.5 tons....and with all the crap in the Troopy and on top of it, rack, boxes, etc.

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Consumption 4.5 litres per kilometre or 22 litres per 100 kilometres bang on the nose almost everytime no matter the conditions while towing at 80-90 KPH on average most of the time if my EGT’s stay within range.
And without the van 6.5 litres per kilometre or 16 litres per 100 kilometres.

Jason,my 2005 F250 steel tray back on my all trips just on 5.250T with a steel tray top camper & extra 130l fuel tank & extra 100l water amongst other things always returned around 16l/100k,same unladen.

Bob.

we have a 3.0l turbo GU manual and towed our jayco outback camper through the flinders ranges( including some of the PAR's which were low range most of the day) and got 14.1l/100klm average. on a recent trip to the desert with a roofrack loaded and no camper 13.2l/100. towed a tinny on offroad trailer around the gulf and 13.6l/100. all pretty good i reckon. Around town for comparison is 11.3l/100.

hi jason b
imho i dont think there is anything wrong with your fuel figures they are very exceptable
you could'nt expect much better than that considering the nature of the terrain travelled
i went all through that area several years ago with a jeep cherokee with 360cu inch rambler 5.9ltr v8 petrol with gmh turbo 400 auto gearbox and quadra track fulltime 4wd
it was an incredible tug vehicle and a rev cycle aircond 18ft tandem axle w/ electric brakes viscount supreme $8000 van behind it
once i sealed it to stop dust entering it did a fantastic job on the rough roads apart from a new set of spring bushes and set of tyres there were no other major drama's compared to the issues people are having these days with the moden vans that seem to be thrown together but ride on high tech suspensions and far better rds

both vehicle and van weighed 2tonne each and i dont recall too many flat bits of road in the area you mentioned
for the entire trip around aus we averaged 23 l/100km at 100-110km but fuel was a whole lot cheaper in 1980/81
and there was still a huge amount of gavel road in those days and the sealed roads were narrow
nothing like the highways we have today that people still complain about
in comparison i dont know what they are winging about
i think people are getting soft and expect to much and expect every thing to be wonderful even in the outback remote areas

aus has lost its originality and uniqueness to a large degree

but thats progress and of course there is a huge number of travellers now days
where as in 1980 you hardly saw anyone
who was a round aus tourist
sorry getting back to the core of the subject

i used to tow and old 16ft viscount 1500kg loaded with a 1996 mazda bravo diesel after market safari turbo 97kw
but only averaged 90km and used 16l/100km

the same 16 ft caravan behind a non-turbo 2.7ltr 1988 nissan navara diesel used 16lts /100km but only could manage average of 80 km/hr and that was by really having to use the gearbox constantly to keep the engine at the right revs
where-as the mazda did it a lot easier at a faster pace with far less gear changes
mind you the nissan only had 64kw
so you can see the difference the turbo makes even with the old tech motors and the v8 gas guzzlers
cheers

Jason,

I also tow a Trak Shak.

It is a long time since I bothered to work out fuel figures accurately but here goes.

I have a 2001 GU 4.2TD, around town I get between 13 and 16l/100km. On a trip with the Trak Shak, 5 people and a full load of gear I remember getting 16 to 20l/100km.

I usually travel pretty close to the speed limit but I am not afraid to travel faster when I am in a hurry. Fuel consumption is rarely a motivator in my driving style.

The other thing I notice is that I seem to get better fuel figures in rolling hill country than I do in either flat or really steep country.

As for ease of towing, the GU is a pretty good tow vehicle and covers the ground pretty well with or without the TS in tow. As an example, a few years ago we travelled from Broken Hill to Ballina in one day. 1550km in 16hours and 10 min. We did travel pretty quickly between Wilcannia and Cobar but it was speed limits the rest of the way.

Thanks for the post, it's been interesting reading.

Duncs

Hi again Jason,

Agree with the comment "thanks for the posting, interesting reading."

The thing that strikes me with this posting is that people are actually being honest and not exaggerating their fuel consumption.

As for the XR6T being a good tow car, I can only comment that I have used many and varied tow vehicles over the past forty years and the Xr6 is the best yet by far. I doubt we will ever go back to a 4wd.

Cheers

Dusty

Just back from a trip to Fraser Island in our manual, diesel JK Wrangler towing a 1 tonne camper & averaged 12.7L per 100. I found this amazing considering I run oversized 285/75/16 tyres & travelled at the maximum speed on Cruise. Touring around the Island it dropped to 16.
I put the result down to fitting a Staunbauer chip before I left & towing in 5th not 6th. I expected the huge improvement in torque but the econemy was a bonus.
For a large petrol Jason, I think the Adventura did pretty well. The smaller engined Prado is probably a mismatch for towing a 1.8 tonne van & as your mate discovered would need to drive it hard to maintain Highway speeds. Would be an interesting comparison swapping trailers :-)
Cheers Craig............

Thanks everyone for your honest replies, this is exactly the info and feed back I was after when I posted this thread. It is interesting to me to see how we all achieve our objective of enjoying the great out doors. The a ray of tow vehicle and caravan combinations are almost endless and this thread has highlighted that we are all individual and have made our choices for reasons that suit our needs (and in my case budget).

Thank you all for your comments, and keep them coming.

I have a camper trailer and the tare weight is 1100kg unloaded, With all my camping gear on board, 60 litre water tank plus two jerrys of fuel and two more of extra water,I would estimate mine weighs around the 1.8 ton mark.

My previous vehicle was a 3.5 litre V6 petrol Jackaroo and I got around the 18l/100km mark consistently.

My current vehicle is a 3 litre turbo diesel Holden Colorado and I have just returned from a trip of almost 1000 km. The average fuel consumption according to the vehicle's computer was 8.4l/100km. It only went up a bit during a stint of off road travel in 4WD, but the majority of the trip was on bitumen roads.

The main reason I can think why the fuel consumption was so good was the speed I was travelling at. I was lead vehicle in a 4 vehicle convoy and set the cruise control on 85 to 90 kph for much of the trip.

I also have noticed an improvement in average consumption in city driving since installing a snorkel on the rig.

My original reason for upgrading to a turbo diesel was a hopeful improvement in fuel economy over the petrol engined vehicle but to see the vast difference (from 18l/100k to around 8.5l/100k) is most satisfying. I used to travel at 100kph in the Jack so perhaps the lower speed has more of an impact than I thought possible.


Bill.