Towing Mileage on Vortec 5.3L...

HillHound · March 18, 2002

In case anyone's interested I thought I'd post my mileage from an ATV trip we took this weekend. I took two atvs, one in the bed and one on a trailer. The total weight of both quads and the trailer is about 1900lbs plus all of our extra junk. The mileage I came up with round trip (450mi) was 13.5 mpg. Not too bad. It was 90% interstate @ 65-70mph, and keep in mind it's all in WV which has alot of hills.

Most of the time when I tow that load on this trip I just put the tow/haul on and set the cruise control to about 65-70mph. Seems to do well. The Dodge Ram 318 5-speed I had used to get between 11 and 12 mpg on this same trip with the same load. The Ram was better for towing at lower speed but for towing my stuff at interstate speeds the 5.3L more than makes up for it's low rpm torque. I can hold 70mph hauling my atvs up any long hill I've seen around here, and the Ram 318 was lucky to hold 60mph on some of these hills even in 4th gear.

MountaineerTom · March 18, 2002

Good to hear Ron.

Did it do much "gear hunting" while in the tow/haul mode on your trip? Just curious, I havn't done any towing back home yet, and everything is pretty much flat around hear. ???

HillHound · March 18, 2002

Good to hear Ron.

Did it do much "gear hunting" while in the tow/haul mode on your trip? Just curious, I havn't done any towing back home yet, and everything is pretty much flat around hear. ???

Tom,

No, not much gear hunting. The tranny (with tow/haul engaged) seems to downshift firmly on hills and stay there until you pull the hill. Tow/haul defintely helps. The engine/tranny seems to keep enough reserve power in the 1900 to 2400 rpm range to hold the speed constant at 65-70mph on slight hills and level ground. Under those conditions it never "gear hunts", but just stays in overdrive. Keep in mind I have 4.10 differential gears.

I don't pretend to be moving a real heavy load, but I could'nt be happier with this setup for the loads I do haul/tow (usually 1500 to 3500lbs total).