Just took my truck for it's first extended tow. Went 55 miles with 20 miles of highway and 35 on rural roads. The non highway roads were mainly long stretches, 2-4 miles, of 50 MPH. I avg. 9.4 MPG the trailer. Weight was about 9000 lbs. On the highway I had plenty of power with the trans downshifting into 3rd or 4th on the long hills but was occasionally in 6th gear too. At one point I looked down and caught myself do 78 MPH and it did not even feel like it. I had no sway at any speed or when other cars and trucks passed me. Tried to stay around 60-65 but that was hard to do. I was traveling with someone else pulling there trailer behind me and he could not go any faster then 62.
Same trip home with no trailer I got 15.5 MPG with a avg. both ways of 11.7. This truck has more then enough power to tow anything you want. I did have the sway control off the entire trip and just let the hitch do all the work as far as controlling the sway.
I am happy with what I saw on this short trip and I think I can expect to get over 10.5 MPG while towing if on the highway for a longer period of time.

So far with the Airaid intake I can feel more power and maybe a little better mileage. Since putting it on avg. 11.7 with about 400 miles and that includes about 90 miles with the trailer. Most of my driving is in stop and go traffic. But did get 15.5 on about the same stretch I got 14.6 before the intake. I'll know more when I make the trip back to the campgrounds on Thursday night and will get a better read on the MPG's.

 

What kind of trailer was it? A utility, travel trailer, fifth wheel or a stock trailer?

 

35' travel trailer.

 

Great tow report!

 

I just had my 30' travel trailer (~8000lbs wet) out for the first time this weekend. 300km round trip, up into the mountains in Alberta. Truck pulled like a champ! I only saw 2nd gear once - going up an 8% grade. Otherwise truck was in 5th or 6th on the flats, with drops down to 4th, or the occasional 3rd on rolling hills. I held my speed to about 105km/h (I've only got 2000km's on the truck - didn't want to push it too hard). Tranny shifts were smooth; the downshifts were way smoother than with my '08 Expeiditon I had before this truck. I averaged a hand-calc'd 8.9mpg, which I was pretty happy with, given that I'm not broken in yet, and was pulling against a 40-50km/hr headwind a good chunk of the outbound trip. I actually liked the sway control programming in the truck. Kept the trailer straight, and I barely had to compensate with the steering wheel in the strong crosswind gust I had coming home. This is exactly what I was hoping for in towing performance (albeit I'd like to see a bit of improvement in the mpg's), and I'm very happy with the gasser.

 

Later today I will be making my return trip with the trailer. This time there will be a lot more traffic then on the way up. Now I will see how it handles with some wind and cars and truck passing me. And will be able to see if I am able to pass other trailers. I'll post tomorrow how it felt.

 

Cool, thanks.

 

I got 8.8 MPG on the way home on Monday. Pretty good head wind and not as much traffic as I was expecting. The trip was 55 miles and took about 1 hour and 10 min. only 20 miles on the express way and the rest on rural highways. Avg about 50 mph for the whole trip. I would like to see how it would do on a longer trip with more highway miles. Should be able to get about 10 mpg on a longer trip. The way home I did hit 75 a couple of times and that is when I started to feel the trailer move a little, brought it back down to 67-68 and it was fine. No problems when I passed the semi and did not feel any cars pass me either. Used the Tow/Haul mode the whole time and had the sway control off too.

 

I've been reading alot where guys are turning the sway control off. I haven't had a need for it yet (only been pulling my flat bed trailer) but curious if it just feels "unnatural" for the truck to correct itself or if it's due to poor design.

 

I was playing with it on the way up there. Seems to correct the issue of the sway, but first it makes it worse then it's corrected. With it off seems as though you don't get that really bad feeling.

 

I hauled a 24' Cattle trailer about 220 milles today. Rolling hills, traffic & too many stoplights.. At the far end I pickup up 12 heifers weighing about 600# each and the trailer empty weight was 5570# - so roughly 12,700#..

I had reset the lie-o-meter on the start and checked when I got out it read 8.8 mpg... I don't feel too bad about it, as there were rolling hills & traffic so I felt like I was in 3rd at 4000 rpm way too much trying to go 55-60 in the "open" but less than that alot..

At one light I got to test the T/H downshifting & with the trailer brakes the thing worked as advertised.. The heifers were cussing me though...

 

So I'm curious, pulling 12000 pounds, did you wish you would've went with the 4:30 gearing? I'm curious as I'll be pulling 8000 lbs frequently, and possibly through mountains, and pulling 12000 pounds on 2 lane with alot of rolling hills.

Thanks,
Chris

Northern Minnesota

 

Yea - The 4:30's would have been nice. I think that the only thing that I would have changed when getting this truck would have been to order 4:30's and maybe the enhanced computer screen so I can read the temp of transmission a little better.

With the way the six speed trans is set up having 2 gears over 1:1 the 3:73 seem to "lug" a little in my type of driving...

 

I ordered the 4.30's on the advice of others on this board and on my previous experience with the V10. My trailer is 12K. The v10 liked to rev and the 6.2 is designed with a short stroke meaning it will like to rev even higher. What has surprised me is it seems the guys with the 4.30's are getting better mileage in town than the 3.73's. The 3.73's win on the highway hands down. They seem to average about 1 mpg better at speed.

 

Question on the sway control. Would it come into play with a truck camper in the bed as opposed to pulling a trailer? The TC is 4000# plus. I was doing some highway driving the other day and I thought it handled better with the sway control off. I was wondering if it was my imagination.