Real world fuel mileage? Towing

[Wellcraft]

So I took my first cross country road trip from PA to Rapid City, SD with my 2025 RAM 1500 Bighorn towing a small motorcycle trailer with 2 bikes on the trailer and one bike in the bed of the truck. Initially my mpg was a decent 14.7 but dropped to 14.1 and as low as 13.7 by the time my trip was over. I maintained a constant speed of about 68 mph +/- 2 mph throughout the entire trip so was wondering why my mpg decreased by more than 1 mpg. I figured mileage would increase a bit rather than decrease but looks like I was wrong.

Weight of all three bikes plus trailer was probably around 2300 lbs

 

[Bigskyroadglide]

I just pulled a 7x14 tandem v nose trailer from Montana to Tennessee to Montana. 24 ram 1500 classic warlock 5.7 8 speed 3.92 gears. Had 2 harley road glides in the trailer. 4gen body, not 5th gen

Avg speed,out west was 80 plus, after crossing the Mississippi it was closer to 70. I pulled the trailer down via Wyoming south dakota via rapid city through Iowa and Illinois to Tennessee. Back was Tennessee to Iowa Minnesota across north Dakota to Montana.

I spent approximately $1,500 in fuel round trip. Going down, Avg was about 13.5 by the evic, i did not hand calc as I had good wind. Was 11.4 coming back as I had crappy wind.

I'm running 315 70 17.

Slowing down the mileage creeped up to mid 15s.

My experience, SD gas is bad, ND gas not much better. Illinois gas the worst.

I run 91 unless the 89 is not e15.

Lots of factors to impact fuel economy. Biggest one is right foot followed by wind.

My opinion

 

[wrench78]

So I took my first cross country road trip from PA to Rapid City, SD with my 2025 RAM 1500 Bighorn towing a small motorcycle trailer with 2 bikes on the trailer and one bike in the bed of the truck. Initially my mpg was a decent 14.7 but dropped to 14.1 and as low as 13.7 by the time my trip was over. I maintained a constant speed of about 68 mph +/- 2 mph throughout the entire trip so was wondering why my mpg decreased by more than 1 mpg. I figured mileage would increase a bit rather than decrease but looks like I was wrong.

Weight of all three bikes plus trailer was probably around 2300 lbs

There are all kinds of factors that play into the loss. Elevation increase/decrease, wind speeds, headwinds/cross winds, road type, humidity, gas quality, traffic, etc. For real though, that's a pretty good MPG and a 1 mph drop isn't bad at all.