How much does towing a caravan effect your MPG?

[Dustydog]

Also need to take into consideration the type of gearbox fitted into the car i.e. CVT, torque convertor etc.
One thing I noticed yesterday when towing the caravan back from Somerset and travelling at a lower speed is that the car seemed to change gear more often from a high to a lower gear which then amounts to higher revs and more fuel used.
I am not sure however if this balances out i.e. towing at a higher speed less gear changes, but using more fuel or travelling at a lower speed, more gear changes and using more fuel on gear changes?

There’s another thread on this. It is often more economic to be in a lower gear , slightly higher rpm than labouring in a higher gear. Ie the engine is producing its maximum torque. The Touareg auto is pretty good and intelligent. I just let it get on with it.

 

[Beachball]

There’s another thread on this. It is often more economic to be in a lower gear , slightly higher rpm than labouring in a higher gear. Ie the engine is producing its maximum torque. The Touareg auto is pretty good and intelligent. I just let it get on with it.

Must be like the The Tiguan auto because i just let it do it for me

 

[Buckman]

There’s another thread on this. It is often more economic to be in a lower gear , slightly higher rpm than labouring in a higher gear. Ie the engine is producing its maximum torque. The Touareg auto is pretty good and intelligent. I just let it get on with it.

Our 3.0L hardly ever labours in a higher gear as it changes down. To my way of thinking using a lower gear equates to higher revs and more fuel, but I am not a mechanic. Obviously this relates to when towing the caravan.

 

[Guzzilazz]

There’s another thread on this. It is often more economic to be in a lower gear , slightly higher rpm than labouring in a higher gear. Ie the engine is producing its maximum torque. The Touareg auto is pretty good and intelligent. I just let it get on with it.

I've done some "experiments" with the XC40, and you're right... At steady speeds (on the road I did it on, 60 mph and pretty much straight) I tried 6th 7th and 8th in manual mode, and 7th showed the best instantaneous mpg read out. Obviously done in highly controlled scientific conditions!

 

[otherclive]

I've done some "experiments" with the XC40, and you're right... At steady speeds (on the road I did it on, 60 mph and pretty much straight) I tried 6th 7th and 8th in manual mode, and 7th showed the best instantaneous mpg read out. Obviously done in highly controlled scientific conditions!

That tends ( unscientifically) to support the advise in my owners manual to put the CVT auto box into its first sport mode. This gives the car a slightly lower ratio, increased revs and better pick up.

 

[Raywood]

It does depend mostly on the your combination and your right foot. The heavier the caravan the more fuel you will need to move it and the faster you go the more fuel you use to push air out the way and any late or unnecessary breaking also uses fuel. Even avoiding towns and using motorways helps.
As guide we will usually drop from about 40- 42 mpg to 28-30, but it can vary a lot even on the same route if you get heavy traffic or a head or tail wind. As an example on one trip down from Glasgow to Chester we had a headwind going down and recorded 24 mpg, coming back with a tail wind 35 mpg.

 

[Tobes]

As others have said, the most significant impact to efficiency is drag. There are two key aspects to drag. 1) slipperiness of the outfit, which is mostly made up of the frontal area of the caravan. 2) Speed. Keeping the speed down mitigates for 1).
Your original questions was, is there any kind of tow vehicle that will have a lesser impact on economy when towing. Two ways to look at that too. 1) get a massive tow vehicle whos own aerodynamicas are so poor, adding a caravan is not a big change. E.g. A VW Transporter or Transit. But this just makes solo journesy expensive too. 2) Get a tow vehicle which is super economic, so that even if the efficiency while towing is half that solo, its still not horrendous. I.e. consider electric?

 

[dogmatic69]

Currently in a petrol RAV4 2013 model. Normal is around 9L/100km, towing a 1500kg van is easily 14L/100km

 

[JezzerB]

Our petrol duster towing 1450kg gave 24mpg on average irrespective of speed. Everyday about 34mpg but it did a lot of short journeys.
Our Navara 190bhp diesel and 2000kg Buccaneer soon to be sold towing at 60mph 22-24mpg, and at50-55mph ie lorry speeds 27mpg.