Mileage report - Towing

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Flight-ER-Doc

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This past week I traveled from San Antonio, Texas, to Ridgecrest California, and back. 2015 Expy Max, 4x4, 3.5 Ecoboost, 68000 miles starting out.


I drove the same route (I-10 to US-395) both directions....The trip out was in an empty truck (just me and the dog), the trip back was towing a 5500# trailer. Speeds out were the limit + 5-10 mpg, speeds back were the limit - 5-10 mpg.

I have previously checked my mileage display by calculation, and it is accurate within rounding error.

The trip out, my overall mileage was 17.7 mpg, for a total of 1425.3 miles over 21:37:54 hours. My best mileage was the last tank of gas, 18.4 mpg over 434.2 miles. This was pretty much Phoenix to Ridgecrest.

The trip back, towing the trailer, my overall mileage decreased to 13.3 mpg, for a total of 2845.5 miles, and a total time 45:16:02. My last tank of gas got me 307.6 miles, for 10.1 mpg, but my worst mileage for a tank was in the low 9's, 9.1 or 9.2 mpg... This was (I think) El Paso to Van Horn, Tx.

The trip out, temperatures were high - 100+ degrees every day, and I had the AC on pretty much continuously even in the back (for the dog). Coming back, the same except for the last day when the temps came down to 70-80, in rain.

At no time during the tow was the Expy unable to accelerate or keep up - even in the Rockies or the West Texas hill country (where the limit is 80 mpg and nobody drives that slowly, usually). Even pulling up hill, I could accelerate if needed.

And the last factoid I'll share is that that my info center told me I had 48% of oil life remaining when I started, and 16% now...So, off to the dealer for an oil change.
 

crector080862

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That's funny since you brought this up so in July I drove my 07 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer from George West Texas to Denver Colorado on the way there I got 18.2 miles to the gallon when I got there I added a quart of oil and drove back the only difference was I had a microwave on my way back so not much weight difference and I literally got 12 and a half miles to the gallon.
So the only contributing factor that I could figure is driving there I ran it at the lower end of the hash marks on the dipstick coming back it was at the top part of the hash marks is it possible that adding an extra quart of oil topping it off can make that big of a difference

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