8.9 MPG in a moving truck
 

My wife and I moved yesterday. I'm glad we have great friends because I was to sick to unload the truck.

However thats not the point. We rented a 15' truck but the company said that they wanted to give us the 24'truck for the same price because they were out of the 15's.

This truck is based on an international chassi, and it was a diesel! Huge truck but it was really easy to drive.

The move was a one way trip that was just shy of 30 miles.

The only problem was that once you got up above 45mph the front left wheel made this howling noise and started to shimmy a bit.

So I could only drive about 40mph.

I'm sure this helped abit because the engine was running at about 1,500 rpms in 3rd gear. I wonder if I had been able to get up to 5th gear if the rpms would of dropped more.

I filled it up when I took it back and it took 3.37 gallons. Which works out to about 8.9 MPG.

Any one have a better or worse experience with one of these huge trucks?

You sad sad little man .... I only say that because I too check mpgs no matter what I'm driving now a days ... Had the trip been any longer I would have messed with the tire pressure and started neutral coasting .. LOL

^
i would have done what trik suggested if it was a long trip, but since it was only 30 miles it isn't a big deal for you but you should have told them about the problem when it came back, other people will rent it and their mileage may go down too.

Rental truck maintenance is spotty. I used to live on an island with increasing population and a large supply of U-Haul trucks. They were only available for local use. I had to go fetch a reliable one before loading, but at least they told me why. Crossing mountains and half a continent, on gasoline with an auto trans, with a 26' box, @55 MPH, I think I got about 8 MPG US.

rental truck maintenance is horrible!
i drove a 15footer from Uhaul and it would indicate a faster speed than i went.
I suspect foul play, so they earn more money per mile.

I have never rented a good uhaul. Even the brand new ones feel like they need to be recycled.
I told the lady at the return location about the issues and she took notes but I doubt any thing will ever be done.
As expensive as those trucks are to buy and to maintain its probably cheaper to just let them go untill they are undriveable.

When I was a kid my family had a long move and my parents rented a uhaul, and were going to do most of the driving at night. My dad said he hit a bump and the lights shut off.

My dad rented one recently and had a simple round trip. The mileage on the return was nearly double the miles going. He called them out on it and they paid the difference immediately. Pretty much proves they rig that stuff up.

The trucks are likely not filled all the way when you drive off. It's childs play to make them read full but to be short 2-4 gallons. First stop is to top-off fuel if you want an accurate read. Before that, insist that tire pressures be checked. Inspect tire casings as you go: weird treadwear, bubbles, bad cracks, etc. I've had good/bad PENSKE trucks, good/bad UHAUL. For the size you need check out the competition. Worn-out seats are an automatic decline for me.

On the diesels:

Obviously, run 5-mph slow in town (and only accelerate up to five below that, glide up afterwards); on the big road run 55-58 or so --always use the cruise control (except in hilliest terrain) -- plan rest/fuel breaks every two hours, etc., keeping glass clean (inside/out) is high priority at stops. Same for mirrors (and start inspection of interior controls with wipers/washer; insist on zero-smear). Insist that agent help you get pass. side mirror perfect (move eyes, not neck, once proper seat posture established to baseline; all mirrors should split horizon 50/50; with eyes forward get mirrors to show barest amount of truck walls. After that it's a trade-off between adjusting high for truck roof or low for tires depending on mirror type).

Good advice, Slowmover.

I rented an Isuzu diesel 16 ft truck last month. Drove it 30 miles, and I put in 3 gallons to refill it. I stopped at 3 gal, figuring that was fair, and not knowing if the tank could have taken a couple more gallons. When I returned it, I asked the dealer what kind of mileage those trucks get, and he said 6-10 mpg.

I once traveled in a full sized gas engine school bus...best on the highway was about 9 mpg at 50 mph....typically maybe 7-8 mpg.

At one point I had an mpg meter installed and once saw 2 mpg going up a long hill in 2nd gear.

Had a 1970 Challenger RT got about 8-9 MPG

I think the best way to maximize mileage on those things (besides driving 50mph) is to pack well. I rarely see one loaded to it's max, which means they could have gotten a smaller size truck.

I'll put what most people load into a 14' truck into my full size pick-up (and get 25-30mpg)

I took days to pack my house and shop into a moving van. Remembering a friend who had had to re-pack three times to get the load distribution right, I measured the fender to tire distances frequently, so it went down evenly, front first. It really should have been plackarded with limits to such activity. With better internal shelving, I might have been OK with 2 or even 4' less length, but I doubt it had much effect on mileage. The load was tight enough not to shift during deer-avoidance. :-)

I drove over 400 miles this winter in a budget (international diesel) 24' box, avg 9.5MPG. Would have been higher if temps. had been higher and I wasn't pulling grade for 200 mi. beats a uhaul though--once had a gas 10' uhaul that got 4MPG over 100mi!!

I'll put what most people load into there full size pick-up on my car....

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I used to work for a moving truck company and the 35 ft. GM3500s powered by diesel usually returned 8-11 mpg while the old gas powered 20 ft F-350s with the 460 motor usually did around 5-6 mpg. The 20 ft. Ford V10s would usually give back 10-13 mpg so that's what I always used for personal use...haha.

I rented a GMC cabover diesel moving truck this summer to move. It was a 16' model. I calculated 14 mpg with it. I think this truck is the same as an Isuzu NPR. Seemed like a reasonably efficient moving truck. It had a fantastic turning radius and drove pretty well for a top heavy, stiffly sprung vehicle. If my vending business ever gets big enough to need a big vehicle like this I would happily drive one of these trucks every day. I really liked it.

I rented a small moving van from Penske in the spring (afraid of UHaul's equipment). They, of course, ran out of the small van and I got stuck with their largest gas econonline based cube van.

This was, of course, to move a studio apartment. When I say the van was bigger than the studio ... it really was.

FIrst thing I did was top off the tank to the first click. Then put 12 miles on the van before returning it.

It took 3.6 gallons to the first click again! Nuts! Horrible gas mileage.

Looking back, it would have been cheaper to just rent a large trailer and use the Cherokee.

Careful with the NPRs, they may be reliable and fuel efficient but they are ridiculously expensive to maintain. I know, I have a Mitsubishi Fuso right now for my business and it's by far and away more expensive than a typical E-350 diesel despite 23 mpg.

i remember renting U-halls a few times over a month moving.

at first glance i was like get the 14' its 19.95 a day !!! then i saw the 17' at 29.95 a day and said get it....rate per mile of the two was the same.

reason is the 14' was a older 1 ton and had a EFI 460
the 17' was the 1.5 ton model with the modern 6.8L V-10 mpg of the two where quite close...even though the 17 foot was near a 1/2 ton more empty...

they had about 5 of the 14s out front for sale and 4 more for rent...
i think there going away in do time....



same goes for the 24 and 26 foot models
the 24s have a EFI 454 they clam 8 mpg out of them.
and the newer 26s get 10 mpg they have the newer GM 8.1L

Just moved so I thought I'd post mileage here.
Rented a 26' uhaul, gmc gas, didn't check which year or engine. Truck was packed solid, with only a few inches to the roof for most of the box, and probably a heavier load than typical with a large loaded tool box, and file cabinets loaded and many boxes of books, binders/ folders, and the like. Pulling a car trailer with the saturn on it for all but probably 30miles.
Ran a total of 720 miles using 97.771gal for 7.36mpg total
Best tank was almost all highway, averaging about 57mph I saw 7.56mpg
I'm guessing the bits around town,(moved stuff for wife's work at same time) loading unloading, the truck was getting 5-5.5mpg

Got 11mpg from my neighbors v10 Dodge dually pulling a two car trailer with a Subaru. He was surprised because he usually got 8mpg no matter how he drove it empty. That's almost 30 percent improvement!

I rent 26' box trucks from penske on the daily for long distance and local for my moving company.
If I'm doing a long trip the first stop I make I go and check all the tire pressures.

I get like 9 MPG on a trip to Florida or Tennessee and back to Maryland half full half empty.
They all have 6 speed automatics and run on diesel.
They are governed at 70 MPH and lose alot of power going uphill even empty.
I don't make any effort to get better mileage or hyper-mile the only reason I check the tires is so I wont have a blow out. Customer pays for fuel. They can fit a entire house of things and stuffs so I think 9MPG is amazing.

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