Truck weight and fuel mileage

4

4llamas

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2008
Messages
321
Location
SW Willamette Valley, Oregon
Normally I don't pay too much attention to such details, but since it was our first real vacation in the Hawk and a long trip I kept track of the fuel mileage and weighed the truck fully loaded for a two week trip. To be completely anal I should have weighed the truck and camper empty at the end of the adventure, but I didn't.
The trip was from western Oregon, to Moab, Ut, zigzag over to Cedar City, across Nevada and back to Oregon.

2001 GMC 1/2 ton, extended cab, 6.5 foot bed 5.3 liter Vortec engine, Firestone air bags. 3.73 gears in the rear end
GAWR front recommended: 3925 lbs
as weighed: 3440 lbs
GAWR rear as recommended: 3750 lbs
as weighed: 4140 lbs

3128 miles driven between first and last fill up.
230.9 gallons of gas consumed.
13.55 MPG:

I am pleasantly surprised with the gas mileage. It's not outstanding, but it ain't bad.

I'm not sure why the front weight would be so much less than recommended unless the rear axle was carrying some of the load. Or of course maybe it just isn't that heavy. The truck drove very well, it wasn't squirmy like you might expect if the front was lifted by the load in the rear. Just the facts, mam.

Llamas
 
GAWR is not a recomended weight, it is the MAXIMUM weight!
Your front is under maximum, but your rear axle is overloaded. Not good.
Thats why so many of us use 3/4T trucks even though FWC says they can be used on a 1/2T truck. Add beer, water, food, tools, etc and you are over the capacity of most 1/2T trucks.
 
Yep, we were loaded to the max.

GAWR is not a recomended weight, it is the MAXIMUM weight!
Your front is under maximum, but your rear axle is overloaded. Not good.
Thats why so many of us use 3/4T trucks even though FWC says they can be used on a 1/2T truck. Add beer, water, food, tools, etc and you are over the capacity of most 1/2T trucks.

Thanks, I knew that, but I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one using the GAWR as a cautionary recommendation. Nor am I alone in regularly exceeding that amount. 3/4 ton suspension and brakes sure would be nice.
Enjoy
 
GAWR is not a recomended weight, it is the MAXIMUM weight!
Your front is under maximum, but your rear axle is overloaded. Not good.
Thats why so many of us use 3/4T trucks even though FWC says they can be used on a 1/2T truck. Add beer, water, food, tools, etc and you are over the capacity of most 1/2T trucks.

What are you talking about... just the beer puts you over the 1/2 ton truck rating!:D
 
OK Since Salty is laying low for a while I'll do my level best to piss y'all off here.

It seems to me that with exception of satisfying your own curiosity, weighing the truck serves no purpose. If your camper is too heavy are you going to get rid of it? And if you don't there are about 9 million posts here on how to beef up the supension. Unless you're trying to make a decision to sell the camper, the truck or both I'm not sure what the point is?
 
OK Since Salty is laying low for a while I'll do my level best to piss y'all off here.

I'm not sure what the point is?

buddy-

Have all your 1400+ posts had points? :p

pal
 
BTW, I swapped my beloved '98 F150 Scab 4.6L 4x4 for a '06 F250 Ccab 5.4L 4x4. In town mileage went from 11 to 10 and wandering mileage went from 12.5 to 12.

Edna loves the new truck, 'cause she can lie down and sleep in the back seat while we're wandering. I miss the old one, 'cause it was so-o-o-o classic...
 
Enclose is a picture taken in the early 70's( #1 La Bay, #2 Borrego Springs at Yaka Pass) showing our Baja rig that was always overloaded,(100 gal gas tank,dual sport bike on back 2 sea yaks on top, 12ft Zodiac boat/16 hp motor, food and water to spend 2 months on remote Baja beach. Jay you should remember those good old days!
Les,Lqhikers
Les do I ever. I don't think we ever made a trip south in the Nissan, Bronco II or T100 when the leafs didn't have a reverse arch in them. Some times the road from Puertocitos to Gonazaga or from San Ignacio out to the laguna took hours.
And when we got there.... a Mexican family of 6, in a 30 old station wagon, with everything stacked on the roof, barbecuing on the beach.
 
No ulterior motive here

OK Since Salty is laying low for a while I'll do my level best to piss y'all off here.

It seems to me that with exception of satisfying your own curiosity, weighing the truck serves no purpose....I'm not sure what the point is?

Bingo Dude, seems you do get the point. It's whatever you want to make out of it. Just did it to shoot the shat and posted because I thought others might be interested. Making conversation, that's all.
Enjoy
Llamas
 
I've done the overloaded route. Flat tires at 65 mph just aren't fun. Wallowing around on curves, not fun. I'm happy to be past that now. If you're overweight and know it and are comfortable, thats fine. I just worry about the people who do it and have no clue.
 
Yes, the best truck rated to carry a truck camper like an FWC would be a 3/4 ton.

I would love to upgrade to a 3/4 ton truck down the road.

But I can't justify the cost at the moment. My F-150 has 85,000 miles so I'm hoping to get a few more years out of it.

I have put alot of weight in my truck and it performs great. The last 3 trucks I have had have been Ford F-150's. I'm not a big fan of one brand of trucks over the other. I bought the Fords by chance / by luck / and happend to get a good deals on used trucks. They have never left me stranded.

I have upgraded my tires to "E" rates, and I added a set of the SuperSprings to the rear suspension.

If I was carrying heavy loads all the time, I might consider a set of air bags instead of the over-load springs, but I don't want to have to deal with checking and filling air bags. The SuperSprings require almost no maintanence.

I have carried campers as heavy as 2000 lbs. for short distances, and the truck drove well.

I know I over-load my truck, but my feeling is that as long as you take care of your stuff, do your oil changes, flush coolants, greese fittings, have good tires, check & replace brakes as needed, etc. -- drive slow and safe and don't beat your truck, the 1/2 ton trucks will do pretty darn well over the years with an FWC on it.

I haven't heard of many gripes or problems from customers due to over-loading problems. I'm sure there will be exceptions to this, but most people are making too much fuss over it.

If your decesion to put a camper on your truck or not if affected by a weight difference of 100 lbs. or less, then for sure you will want to bite the bullet and get a 3/4 ton truck.

In the end, you will have to do what you are comfortable with.

I have had customers not order items, like a furnace for example (weights 25 lbs.) because they wanted to keep the camper as light as possible and not over load the truck. If you can't spare 25 extra lbs. for a furnace in a pop-up, you should go buy a 3/4 ton truck.

I have also has customers tell me they are worried about over-loading their 3/4 ton truck by putting a camper on it ?

:confused:

If you can't put a pop-up camper safely on a 3/4 ton truck, you might as well get a tent and a Toyota Prius.

Might you need suspension upgraded in certain situations? Yes, but the truck should do just fine over the years.

:thumb:

That all said, I like things lighter weight. I don't have the want or desire to over-load my truck, but it just seems to happen from time to time and I want my truck ready to handle it.





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Nice looking rig, Stan. How much clearance have you from cab roof to camper?
 
OK here are the stats:

F350 4x4 6.0 PSD. 3.73 LS front and back, 285/75/18 AT's

GVWR 11100. Camping Wt. 8650 lbs. full fuel, water myself and Dylan

Mileage in town 12 mpg, Hwy mpg 14-17, average 15+
 
Explain how an open air vehicle is "fully air conditioned." :rolleyes:
You sweat the wind hits you the sweat evaporates Bingo.
 
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