ive got a gas thirsty truck that gets poor mileage without towing
~14-15mpg avg on the highway, when towing my dads small boat this drops to around 12-13mpgs
i recently purchased a boat of my own that is larger by a fair margin than my dads and find the mileage a bit more depressing ~10mpgs. losing 2 or 3mpgs isnt a big deal when talking a 20mpg vehicle but this is a big percentage loss to me. I recently weighed the rig on a truck scale and the trailer / boat combo was about 4,000 lbs. for a truck rated to tow 10.3K i didnt expect mileage to take such a hit, im scared to know how low it would be towing my "next" boat.
being an ecomodder of sorts i thought changing the aero a bit might help with the number. i pumped up the tires and noticed a little relief, but not nearly enough. from my observations i believe the boat is too far from the truck. the trailer was modified by the previous owner to fit this much smaller boat. The pic below shows how much extra tongue there is between the truck and boat. the trailer also over hangs the rear of the boat by about 6".
i will also note that there are currently no fenders on the dual axle trailer, i see some potential here as well.
help me out ecomodders, give me your best suggestions.