Economic truck for towing
 

Hi all, new member here.

I'll just give a quick intro here. I own a car (99 Ford Escort 2.0) and bike (79 Yamaha XS650) and have been following some of your ecomod tips. Seen a huge difference in the Escort (35-40 mpg now). Have a Scangauge in the Escort and it does wonders - great investment.

Now, with that said, I'll present you with the perfect oxymoron. I'm looking to buy the most fuel efficient pickup truck for towing that I can. I'm looking to tow around 3000 lbs (boat and trailer). Ideally I'd like something with a manual transmission. Due to my budget I'm looking at early to mid 90s trucks. Ford F150 4.9L V6 looks like it could handle that kind of load well but it sucks gas. EPA rates 18 MPG highway but I've searched around and heard a lot of stories of people getting lower than that. Chevy and GMC have 4.3L trucks that do a little better on mileage but I don't know if they would do as well as the F150.

So, what would be a good truck fuel economy wise for the load that I want to tow? First hand experience (even if you towed over capacity) welcome :)

Edit: One more thing, I'm probably going to wind up having to get a 4x4 truck which might mean lower MPG. Living in New England there are virtually no 4x2 trucks for sale here.

and here enters the need for a small diesel mid-size truck. You don't want to tow 10,000lbs, but you want the economy that the diesel offers. American Automakers fail.
/rant.

I'd suggest the Dodge Sprinter, but the cost may be prohibitive, as well as finding the smaller setup so you're not hauling around dead space. From reading a few forums, owners are returning 20-35mpg, with and without loads. I'd assume you could pull 25mpg with the boat. A lot is determined by the setup, axle ratio, tall, extra long wheelbase, etc.

Seems the newer 6 cylinder nets quite a bit better FE. But that'll run you over $25,000. You can pick up the earlier 5 cylinder diesel, a 2002 model, for under $10,000. Could the fuel savings make a difference? If it's 21mpg at 65mph versus 29mpg at 65mph, wouldn't take too many loaded towing miles to show it.

That's my top pick. Not 4WD, but a good set of tires fixes that. Plus you're not towing the boat in the winter, are you? I'd rather drive your escort in the snow than a RWD van. (for safety only. For hooning totally the van)

I recently bought a new Nissan Frontier, and its 6-cylinder engine, 261 HP is more than enough power to pull 3000 pounds. If that is all you are doing, a smaller engine in a small truck might be fine.

The 5-cylinder Chevy Colorado's have a high fuel economy considering how much power they have (unfortunately for me I could only find one for sale in my area in the configuration I wanted and it had a crappy transmission).

Or look at an older 6-cylinder Tacoma or Frontier, they should have enough towing power for you, and beat out the F-150 on FE because they are smaller and lighter.

Thanks for the replies guys. I didn't give a price range but I was looking for something rather cheap (ie. <$1500). The more I think about it, and the more research I do, I might wind up going for a mid-90s 4.9L Ford F150. I can get them in the $700-1000 range with the 4x2 and standard transmission which is what I'm looking for. I can get something more efficient if I go up in price to around $1500, but for the miles I plan on running it a year MPG might not be that big of a deal after all. Not looking to commute with it/use it in the winters, just maybe take it out once a week in the summer to pull a boat to a boat launch.

With everything for sale around here being 4x4, I'd be looking at smaller engines that get the same mileage as the 4x2 4.9 anyway. So while I'm not getting much better mileage, I'm at least getting more power for less money.

Everyone tells me you buy a truck to haul, not to save gas. I guess they're right :)

I can't stand talking to "truck people" about an economical truck. They all think that to tow my car/trailer combo that I need a huge V8 dually diesel AWD truck.

Consider the early 90's toyota truck. (I don't know if they had tacoma/tundra back then, it may have just been "toyota truck" still like the 80's). I have heard of people really pushing the limits of that truck and it surviving anything.

Do yourself a favour a search "kill a toyota truck" on youtube. You'll find a TopGear or FifthGear 2-part segment on the toughness of that truck. IMPRESSIVE video.

Does it have to be a truck?

Top 10 Vehicles for Towing

Both the Subaru Outback and, believe it or now, Hyundai Elantra are rated to tow 3,000 pounds. The Subaru also gives you AWD.

A beafy car could tow that, 3k isn't too much. But your ego will probably not allow that.

Buy a junker for a few hundred and spend the rest on gas.

The Subaru would certainly seem to be fairly economical, but that may not be the best choice I guess. AWD is nice for slippery stuff but over-rated for anything else, from my 3 years of experience anyway.

Sadly they didn't mention my truck though. :( Lol, can't win 'em all I guess.

You know what, for 3000 lbs you don't even really need a truck. Every car is pretty much capped to 1500 lbs in North America, but if you look at the same cars oversea, they are somehow able to tow 3000 lbs with brakes.

My 2008 Hyundai Elantra is rated 1500 lbs with brakes with a 2.0 gas engine. The Hyundai i30 Estate (very similar to the Elantra Touring here) from UK with the 1.6 gas engine is rated for 2640 lbs with brakes.

The 2009 Jetta TDI is rated for 1500 lbs with brakes here. But it magically is able to manage 3100 lbs over the pond (from VW UK website).

I always take tow ratings in NA with a grain of salt.

IMHO you can tow 3000 lbs with pretty much any semi recent v6 passenger car if you balance your load right, are driving on flat grounds and driving like you know you've got 3000 lbs behind. I'd add brakes to the trailer if you need to deal with hills.

I get what you're saying, and I'm not disagreeing but along with everybody and their mother having a big SUV or truck in the states we also have these pesky ratings and standards that prevent a lot of people from seeing their vehicles potential. I've seen some SERIOULSLY crazy stuff being towed, hauled or carried in 3rd world countries that Americans would never think to do but despite the rules and whatnot, along with rental companies that won't even let you rent a truck, trailer or car dolly without the approved equipment, some people still manage to get along just fine with class 1 hitches and the like.