Miles per gallon while towing 22' C-Dory

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Gratitude

New member
What mileage should one plan on while towing a 22' C-Dory on road trips? I currently have a Toyota 4-Runner with the V-6. Based upon other threads the wheel base may be a little short?

Please indulge me with several different scenarios:

1. My 2001 Toyota 4 Runner.

2. A Toyota Tundra with V-8 & Cab over camper.

3. Ford or Chevy 3/4 ton with Cab over camper.

4. Ford F250 Duramax diesel with Cab over camper.

Thanks to all for your responses, and congratulations on a wonderful web site!

Jim
 
Can't help with those but will relate my experience on our rig.

We have a 2001 Dodge Ram 2500 with the 8.0L V-10 gas engine and get about 10 while towing and about 11 without the boat. It gets 10 no matter what we tow, even out 12000# Coachmen trailer! Would have gotten the Diesel that year but they were so loud we couldn't hear the radio. We've got about 115K on the truck now with no problems....

Charlie
 
...Hmmm, F250 with a Duramax. Haven't seen one of those....

We have an '05 F350 crewcab w/6.0L diesel (just turned 50K miles).

Highway mileage w/o anything: 14-17 (depending on how much of a hurry we're in).

Highway mileage with the (cabover) camper: 13.5mpg (on a 9800 mile trip to AK when truck was brand new).

Highway milage with cabover camper and CD22: 11mph

Casey
C-Dory Naknek
Lake Montezuma, AZ
 
Jim

My Ford F-150 gets about 17 on the hiway, 12 towing the 22.

The 4 L Cherokee gets about 20 on the hiway, 12 towing the 22.

The gas motorhome gets 7.5 towing the 22, the 3300# Toyota pickup, the 3600# Cherokee, or the 4200# Jeep Rubicon. I'm sure the Toy truck tows the easiest, but it's very close with all of them. I have no idea what the motorhome does without a tow...I always drag along a toy.
At current prices, I figure about 50 cents/mile just for fuel!

But wait! If you are shocked at that, a fully loaded 22 at planing speeds will get around 3 nmpg. At fuel dock prices of, say, $5/gal that works out to $1.67/mile ! So, while you are breezing along at 18 knots you are burning through 30 bucks an hour!

The economical answer to all of the above is don't go far and anchor out a lot.....

See you at the pumps....

Roy
 
I managed to get right at 14 mpg towing my loaded down 22'. was a 200 mile round trip to Sekiu. Thats with a 03 Dodge diesel. Was quite happy with that mileage
Chuck
Bootleg Hooch
 
We're towing with an '06 Dodge TurboDiesel and love the torque.

Not towing: around town 17-19. On the interstate going 70 MPH @ 1900 rpm- 20-22 mpg

Towing Valkyrie (CD22) 10-12 mpg depending if we are in the mountains or not.

I hoped that our mileage towing would be higher, but suspect that our tall radar arch, radar on top of that and rod holders create a lot of drag. I figured that the extra stuff adds up to over four square feet of windage- ouch. Kind of like bolting a 2'x2' piece of plywood on top of the truck.

Has anyone ever played around with some sort of wind deflector like the big trucks have to route the air flow over the top of the boat so we're not pushing a lot of air with the flat surface of the front windows of the cabin?

Nick
"Valkyrie"
 
I can only give some examples. The Honda Pilot gets about 22 mpg on the road not towing--towing the C D 22, it got about 12 mpg.

The 7.3 L Diesel Excursion gets about 20 miles a gallon on the highway--towing the C Dory 25, gets 12 mpg. We thought about the wing--but haven't done it yet.

The 30 foot Ford chassis RV, with V 10, gets 8 miles a gallon, no matter what--(haven't tired it with the 25)--but the pilot or the C Dory 22 seem about the same, and not much better when not towing.
 
Jim Garner":2h5th528 said:
1. My 2001 Toyota 4 Runner.

4. Ford F250 Duramax diesel with Cab over camper.

Jim
Click to expand...

Jim I tow with a 2003 4Runner, a genuine Chevy 2500 with the Duramax, and a Ford Class C E450 based gas RV.

With the Toyota I've never towed much more than 50 miles in one day. The Chevy I did make several trips to the greater Los Angeles area and got 14 mpg towing. Around town not towing I get about 17 mpg and if careful can get as much as 20 mpg on the freeway at reasonable California speeds, ie: not more than 15% faster than the speed limit.

As for the E450, it's a short C (23.5 ft.) so I get a whisker under 10 mpg not towing. Will report mileage when we tow with it for any reasonable distance but I don't expect miracles....

Don
 
Please let me preface this reply by indicating that though I have not weighed my boat and trailer, C-Batical is pretty well equipped and I suspect the gross weight is probably close to if not over 5,000 lbs. My 2005 Toyota Tacoma, double cab. however, is proving to be a more than adequate tow vehicle that conservatively averages 19-20 mpg without boat and 12-13+ with boat. My truck has an automatic transmission and I do not use overdrive when towing and try to keep my speed between 60-65 mph.
 
I towed my 22 Classic with an old single axle trailer from Wyoming to Houston and got about 14 MPG with my Jeep Cherokee. Of course it was about 6500 feet downhill! I went mostly about 60 MPH. Now I've got a dual axle trailer. I haven't checked the mileage but it feels like it's a bit less.

Mike
 
I tow my 22 with a Ford Sportrac and their V8 engine. It gets a lowsy 9mpg towing and a lowsy 14-15 not towing. It rides nice though. My dad towed my boat with a Chevy Diesel and camper and got 14 mpg. It probably always gets 14.

I'm surprised at a few of the above smaller vehicles getting 12 mpg towing but not all c-dory's are equal. It's easy to accumulate 100's of pounds in gear. Last time I weighed mine partially loaded it was 4300 lbs.
 
I run a 2002 Dodge 4WD with Cummins diesel and 6-speed manual trans. It's got a 2" lift and 285R17/70 Toyo Open Country AT tires (both of which affect mileage.) It also has an AFE air intake, Banks exhaust and a very mild Edge chip (non-adjustable.) With this setup and 305R17/70 M&S tires (which I later dumped for the 285s) I got 10 to 12 mpg towing the 10,000# Tom Cat from WA to AZ and back at 60-65 mph. With the new tires I get 19 mpg around town, up from 17-18 with the more aggressive tires. I expect to get 11-13 mpg towing with the new tires. My only problem is that on long uphill pulls I have to keep my RPMs down to about 2000 in 5th gear (~50 mph) or else the engine temp gets higher than I like. I may need to have the fan fixed or replaced.

Warren
 
2003 Duramax (Stock) 16-17mpg towing 55-60 mph (no interstates and a lot of frost heaves). 22-24 mpg 55-60 mph, 15-17 in town in winter using diesel fuel arctic (DFA).

Tom
 
My wife says the whole fuel mileage thing is a"guy thing" It sure seems to get a lot of interest! OK I run a 2005 2500 Crew Cab Duramax with medium mods and testosterone fuel additive[just kidding] . Its all about speed for me . 55mph will get me 14 + mpg, 65mph brings it down to 12.5 or so,75 mph 11.5 .This is with a 22 C Dory.
Marc
 
So Bob, in your opinion the Honda Pilot can handle towing the CD22 pretty well?
thataway":3804snce said:
The Honda Pilot gets about 22 mpg on the road not towing--towing the C D 22, it got about 12 mpg
Click to expand...
I'm not real happy with my 2000 Dodge Durango. It can tow alright but the mpg is terrible. 10 mpg in the city where I drive everyday, 14-16 mpg on the highway, 10 mpg while towing. We don't tow much, probably 100 miles one way at the most but usually less than 50. So it would be nice to have an everyday vehicle with decent gas mileage and 22 mpg sounds really good to me.

Peter
 
Jazzmanic":3p0n6gjp said:
I'm not real happy with my 2000 Dodge Durango. It can tow alright but the mpg is terrible. 10 mpg in the city where I drive everyday, 14-16 mpg on the highway, 10 mpg while towing. We don't tow much, probably 100 miles one way at the most but usually less than 50. So it would be nice to have an everyday vehicle with decent gas mileage and 22 mpg sounds really good to me.

Peter
Click to expand...

Peter- My '98 Durango has gotten an average of 14.7 mpg over the first 100k miles. Highway mileage is from 15-17. Towing the CD-22 seems to get about 12-13 on the flats, less in the mountains, probably down to 10 in the Sierras.

I know the 4WD, even though disengaged, eats up some mileage, just from the friction of turning parts of the drive mechanisms.

You may have a different engine than my first year model, which is a 360 cui (5.9L) V-8.

It does seem like it eats a lot of gas, though!

It tows the CD-22 with ease (with oversize 31 x 10.5 tires), and I've carefully towed my Sea Ray 265 Sedan Bridge (7000+ lbs loaded + 1500 lbs for the trailer) around locally without incident so far, keeping the speeds down and staying on the backroads more than the freeway (which really requires a wide load permit with the 9-foot width).

In launching the Sea Ray on a steep ramp made me a bit nervous at first, but the 4WD and compound low range made it seem like driving a tractor, even with some sand on the asphalt!

Joe. :teeth
 
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