HYPERMILING & TOWING: A Misconception

[Christ]

Hm... where's my video of an S-10 towing a Saturn L200 on a utility trailer?

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Anyone who seriously believes that safety and handling are irrelevant, please stay far away from me. (fat chance... too many idiots already out there. *sigh*)

[Christ]

When taken out of context, it seems like that's what the person who said that was saying. Why not quote the whole sentence?

Safety and Handling concerns are fairly irrelevant on this forum. We're probably the safest, most conscientious drivers on the road, and if you were here long enough to really have any grounds to critique any one of us, you'd already know that.

Does this thread have any significant place/relevance here? I mean, the concerns are un-informed, at best.

I'm not trying to be rude, but you're directly speaking out against a well-known tenet, teaching, and set of facts, based on contextualization of a series of words that you've obviously misunderstood in their original format.

I find it interesting that of the thousands of people that visit this forum yearly, (several of which drive trucks, large, small, or otherwise, and tow trailers) you're the only one that's ever pointed this "concern" out.

EDIT - This is in RE: to the original post on this topic.

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Good point... I'm not happy with the way we're communicating in this thread. Lots of assumptions and misunderstanding. I'm gonna bow out now.

[Frank Lee]

(longer drivetrain life due to decreased engine load).

This is one premise and it's all messed up.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by slowmover

This is a matter of forgetting acceleration, deceleration and any handling dynamics.

Nope, at least not two of those. Acceleration and deceleration depend on the total weight. Load plus trailer weighs more than load alone, therefore your A&D is going to be worse. (Braking MIGHT be a little better because of the extra tires on the trailer, but you've still got more mass to decelerate.) Handling is going to depend on trailer & load geometry. I'm no expert, but in my experience (which includes a spell driving logging trucks, among other things), in the best case handling with trailer is going to be worse than without. (This assuming the load is within the vehicle limits, of course.)

Think of a Tahoe with Dad, Mom and the kids. The cargo area is maxed out. There's a pod on the roof. And a hitch receiver mount cargo carrier with a box. Every aspect of utility and economy would be better with a trailer (and, obviously, a smaller vehicle could have been used in the first place).

Well, that pod on the roof isn't carrying the load in the vehicle, is it?

Now a counter-example, me taking the Toyota pickup out to get firewood. So I've got the bed loaded about cab high with logs, some hanging a bit over the tailgate, and yeah, it does squat the back end down just a tad (though not enough to be unsafe), and stopping distance increases, so I REALLY like to plan ahead. Now do you want to argue that I could put the same load on a trailer, more effectively?

Now after I unload the logs, I need to go to Home Depot for a couple of sheets of plywood. Again, you're suggesting that it's more efficient to hook up a trailer for the job? I don't think so.

Now if all you have is a car, then yes, a trailer might make sense for the occasional lumber run. Though in my case the car's an Insight, which won't haul much of a trailer, maybe one to haul a couple of bikes or kayaks.

[slowmover]

It'd help if the original post was read.

There are times when the load requires a trailer, and choosing the correct trailer for tow vehicle and load will make a difference for both safety and economy. There are times when the tow vehicle could carry the load, but it would not be in the interest of safety to do so. The fuel penalty can be minimized, and the attendant safety considerations not compromised. There are cases one can make that the trailer, carefully chosen, rigged and equipped will use less fuel in tow than heavily loading the tow vehicle driven solo. They might be rare yet they exist. I've done it.

The assumption that towing is automatically the wrong choice when fuel economy is a prime consideration has to be weighed against alternatives; especially if the alternatives just shift the burden to another. Most vehicles are capable of quite a bit, but the details must be attended to for proper performance.

I, too, have driven OTR. And heavily loaded my pickup. And used trailers to make life easier. And I can go on, refute, offer counterexample and all the rest. Whoopee. Thought maybe someone might also read that Tip and come away with the same impression: tow=bad. It isn't. There is more to it than I wrote, and I see that none of the responses so far understand how to make the tow vehicle/trailer their most efficient and not compromise safety. I'm not the one making poor assumptions, here.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by slowmover

It'd help if the original post was read.

I did read it. You claim that it's always better to tow something than to carry it inside, which is nonsense, expecially when it relates to performance.

Sure, there are times when towing's the better choice. I'm not, for instance, even going to try to convince my horse that she ought to ride in a pickup bed :-) And it's better to tow the occasional load - those sheets of plywood, for instance - behind a small car, than to always drive a vehicle big enough to carry them. But you're paying an additional penalty, the extra weight & drag of the trailer, in order to reduce the cost of driving all those times when you're not pulling the trailer.

[Frank Lee]

I'll admit, I didn't finish it. Too much was wrong in the beginning, then it got way too long. In my experience, when it starts out bad, it doesn't get much better.

[some_other_dave]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

I did read it. You claim that it's always better to tow something than to carry it inside...

That's the way the original post sounded to me, as well.

-soD