Fuel mileage hauling a slide in camper.

[flyer]

I recently completed a long road trip (2500 miles) carrying my slide in truck camper. The campers empty weight is about 1900 lbs. I had about 300 lbs. of gear in it for a total of around 2200 lbs. I hand calculated my MPG and averaged 11.4 for the entire trip. Truck is a 2017 2500 Crew Cab with the 6.4 Hemi and Laramie trim. Most of the trip was flat land except for some hills in Missouri and Arkansas. Speeds were mostly in the 65 to 70 mph range with AC on at all times. Occasional speeds to 75 mph. The trip computer showed an average MPG of 12.3. So was .9 better then hand calculated. Overall I thought 11.4 mpg was a pretty decent average. A little better then I had expected. Most of the MPG discussions seems to be centered around towing and diesel vs gas so I thought I would muddy the waters with the slide in camper as you don't see very many of them.

 

[tron67j]

MPG has a lot of variables that impact it. You had the wind resistance still, but some of the weight mitigated by losing the chassis of the trailer. Nice to see your experience, I have thought about a truck camper. Thanks for posting. Hope you had fun!

 

[sandawilliams]

That is excellent mileage. I average 9.3 calculated with my 8800# travel trailer and 1500# in the bed. This is a 60K mile average over all terrain.

 

[BadHemi2014]

Sounds great compared to our dually, but our camper is 2600 dry, we figure at least 4000 lb payload including us, gear, tools etc. We see about 7 to 8 mpg!
Totally different vehicle though, 01 Chevy with 8.4L motor so not a great comparison.

Love truck campers I'm really surprised they're so rare. They can go anywhere who needs a campground?!

 

[lpennock]

Good mileage. I usually get around 9.5-10.5 with my dually and northern lite. But I've got 4.10 gears and normally run 75mph. Around 65 I get around 12. I'm also 14k loaded.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[6.4LMegaMan]

That is all almost identical to my setup. What camper do you have? Here's my rig at our last camp site. Palomino SS-1251

 

[flyer]

That is excellent mileage. I average 9.3 calculated with my 8800# travel trailer and 1500# in the bed. This is a 60K mile average over all terrain.

Actually that doesn't sound all that bad considering the weight your pulling and the weight your carrying in the bed of the truck.

 

[flyer]

Good mileage. I usually get around 9.5-10.5 with my dually and northern lite. But I've got 4.10 gears and normally run 75mph. Around 65 I get around 12. I'm also 14k loaded.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

Yeah, I found the "sweet spot" with my rig was in that 65-70 mph range. much over that and the mpg's really started dropping off. Northern lite is a nice camper.

 

[flyer]

That is all almost identical to my setup. What camper do you have? Here's my rig at our last camp site. Palomino SS-1251

Very nice rig. I have the Palomino HS750 Back Pack edition. My last camping spot was actually in my sons driveway in Florida. Ha Ha. I usually go west to Colorado.

 

[flyer]

Sounds great compared to our dually, but our camper is 2600 dry, we figure at least 4000 lb payload including us, gear, tools etc. We see about 7 to 8 mpg!
Totally different vehicle though, 01 Chevy with 8.4L motor so not a great comparison.

Love truck campers I'm really surprised they're so rare. They can go anywhere who needs a campground?!

Yeah, you have a lot bigger load. 7 to 8 really isn't so bad considering the weight your carrying. At least fuel prices are pretty
reasonable right now.