Real MPG results with my V6 high top 2500, and towing.

[jeffg113]

 Ok, so I've seen so many posts of people asking what kind of MPG results should they see with the V6 high top van.  I have logged 22 tanks of gas and 6,189 miles of driving.  My van is a 2013, so it does not have an onboard computer that displays the MPG.  I used a smart phone app called FuelLog to get all of the following stats, and it is very accurate.  So, my worst fuel mileage on a particular tank of gas was 10.74MPG.  My best fuel consumption on a particular tank of gas was 17.40 MPG, and my average MPG over the entire 6,189 miles of driving is 14.22 miles per gallon.  I have a 4500lb boat that I tow in the summer.  The van does pretty good towing the boat on the shorter trips to the river, and to the local lakes.  I will say however I was a tiny bit discouraged with the towing capabilities when I drove from Portland OR to Shasta Lake California.  Granted, there are huge mountain ranges, and not only was I towing a boat, but my van was stuffed full of camping equipment! On this particular trip to Shasta Lake, my van got 7.7 MPG!  Yes, 7.7! I was getting worse fuel mileage than my dads 35 foot motorhome!   I was able to maintain the speed limit on all of the passes, but I definitely was red lining the tachometer on almost every uphill grade.  I hate red lining any of me vehicles, but on that particular trip I definitely needed every single horsepower and foot pounds of torque to get the boat and all my camping stuff up the hills at speed limit speeds.  On that trip I was wishing I had the V8 model.  But when I think about it, my towing miles are probably 5-10% of my driving.  I imagine if I had the V8 model I probably would of got about the same MPG, because the V8 would not have to work so hard?  Overall, I'm glad I got the V6.  At an average of 14.22 MPG, that hits my max budget that I want to spend on fuel.  I'm guessing that if I would of got the V8, I would probably be getting 10-12MPG (with my driving style), which might not sound like a lot to some people, but its the difference of about 60 miles per tank!  60 miles is a long way!  Anyways, I just thought I would share MY real world results.  I'm an easy driver, and I generally drive with fuel consumption in mind.  I don't have a heavy foot.  My van currently has about 8,000 miles on it, and the only problem I've had with it is that the passenger seat belt light will come on about 50% of the time even when there is not a passenger in the seat.