gas mileage for a truck with no camper? like ford 350?

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mommadana

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We're going to look at trucks today because the more we think about it, the more we feel that a truck, camper, and horse trailer would suit our needs better than the van and bumper pull with a separate truck and trailer for the horses.  Here's my dilemma.  I can't find the gas mileage listed for the trucks we want.  Does anyone have some real experience with a larger truck and gas mileage?  We get an average of 14mpg with our chevy 12 passenger 1 ton.  That's around town and freeway mixed.  We get about 9-11mpg pulling the bumper pull.  The loaded horse trailer is about 12.  We would like to know if a truck is going to average out about the same without a camper for general around town or freeway driving.
Also, could someone please list the different names of the different brands that might work for us?  Someone mentioned the ford350 that I believe is comparable to our van right now being a 1 ton but I think the suspension on a truck is different.  I know chevy, GMC make trucks
The camper we're looking at has a 1500 lb dry weight.  Sorry if I'm beating this to the ground.  The numbers are hard to wrap my head around.
We'll also look at trades if anyone wants to upgrade to a vehicle with more seats/room (45,000 miles, 2008) and a larger trailer (24' sleeps 8 for us but has 1 nice bed, two couch beds, and one dinette bed) and might want to trade their good miles good working truck and/or truck camper please contact me.
 
You won't find MPG estimates on 3/4 and 1-ton trucks since the government does not require it.

My 2010 GMC 2500 with the 6.0L gas engine gets 13 - 14.5 MPG depending on my right foot's mood. It's a mix of city (well, "village") and highway driving. Towing (8,500 lb TT) results in about 9 MPG. I'm thinking a 3500 with the gasser should be about the same. Ford has a new for 2011 6.2L gas motor - not sure if there's enough owners out there yet to report on it's performance/mileage.

If you go diesel, you will get higher mileage but I have no personal experience.
 
hmmmm, we've been thinking diesel for the easier towing but I didn't realize it ALSO got better mileage.  That's a great benefit.  I wouldn't have known that. 
 
I have a gas half ton pick up that gets good milage. But if I were going to look at a 3/4 ton or 1 ton truck, I would definitely go diesel.  If looking at new trucks, the diesel will likely cost $5000+ more than the gasoline truck of the same size. And diesel fuel current cost more per gallon but that could chage in the future too.  But with the diesel engine, you will get a more powerful truck, better milage and have more options for towing later if you chose at some point to go with a TT or 5th wheel.
 
It seems like diesel fuel can be a lot less or more.  I wonder what makes the difference. 

Would you rather have a diesel 2500 or a gasoline 3500 if it was the same price?

OK-for the list of trucks that might work I have
GMC Sierra 2500 or 3500
Dodge Ram 2500 or 3500
Ford 250 or 350
Chevy Silverado 2500 or 3500
 
If I'm remembering correctly you will be pulling a 4 horse trailer along with a slide in camper in the back of the truck.  You will need a 1 ton diesel; and I would get a dually especially pulling the horses.  If you have a flat on a rear tire on a single axle, the truck will drop down significantly.  With a dually you have an extra wheel holding up the camper if you have to deal with a flat tire.

We have a Chevy diesel 2500 4 X 4 and on our last trip, not pulling....no slide in camper...and highway driving, we got 20.4 miles per gallon.

FYI, a 4 horse trailer usually weights 3-4,000 lbs, maybe more. You can estimate a horse weights 1000lbs +/- making 4 horses a total of 4,000-5,000 lbs.  Then add your tack (saddles and equipment) then add hay and you are pushing 8,000 to 10,000 + lbs in the horse trailer.  Now add the weight of the slide in camper, which you estimate at 1500 lbs, which is suspect to me.  Our light weight camper weighted 2300 lbs.  Then you have to add the weight of the truck, all the kids and adults and their gear and you are up there pretty good.

Marsha~
 
Thanks Marsha!
I've seen a few campers listed at 1500 lbs so that's good to know it might not be accurate.  Is there a weight sticker typically on campers that I can look for or would we need to actually take it to a weight station?
on another note...if we have a 4 horse but only had two loaded should we still put them up front? 
 
mommadana said:
Would you rather have a diesel 2500 or a gasoline 3500 if it was the same price?
Click to expand...

I think Marsha made a good point.  Seems like you need a 1-ton truck for your application due to load requirements.  If you buy used, the price difference between diesel and gas should be less. 
 
I have a 2000 Ford F-250 4x4 with the 7.3 diesel with 218,000 miles on it and it gets 14.5 of the highway and just under 14 mixed highway and surface streets. Also have a 10,000 GVW dump trailer that I pull with it sometimes and that usually drops it to about 11 mpg (pulling about 6,000 pounds). I love my diesel for towing. I'm sure the newer diesels probably get better mileage, but mine has been so reliable, I hate the thought of getting rid of it.
 
I also have a 2000 Ford f250 4x4 with the 7.3 powerstroke diesel with about 271,000 miles.  I have a superchip installed and I get about 16.5 mpg on the highway.  I like this truck and it pulled by 33ft 5th wheel very well but milege went to about 12 mpg pulling the large trailer.
 
What's a superchip?

I know I'll need a 350 or 3500 but I guess I'm trying to understand what the difference between gas and diesel makes...pulls faster, longer, more, just gets more reliable miles, ???

We found a few to look at today...going to go out and have fun.
 
As Utahclaimjumper mentions, you need to load your horses in the middle two horse stalls: number 2 & 3, right over the axles, if it's a slant load trailer.  If it is a head to tail parallel trailer then put one in the front on the right side and one in the back on the left side, or vice versa, to balance.

The difference between diesel and gas is torque.  Diesels have more torque; plus the higher you go in elevation the less power a gas engines has.  Elevation does not affect a diesel engine very much. 

One time I climbed up to 7,000 feet to a campground in the southern sierras.  The grade was steep and I had a 3 horse trailer full of horses, the slide in camper and everything was loaded to the max.  At the end of the grade, we could only go 5-8 mph and the gas pedal was to the floor.  With that gas truck (a 454 gas engine) I got 6-7 miles mpg but it was a 93; things have changed over the years.

I my humble opinion, I would not pull your load with a gas engine, I'd  get a diesel.  If you decide on a diesel make sure you also get the  tow/haul mode on it.

Marsha~
 
Forgot....on a slide in truck camper there is a sliver sticker somewhere on the outside of the camper.  Ours, was on the rear near the door of the camper.  It will tell you the capacities.  Often it will give you GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) which is how much the truck camper can carry total.  Often that number does not take into account water that you put in the fresh water tank, nor the weight of propane; and the weights of the holding tanks i.e. black and grey water.  Then you have to estimate how much the kids, clothing, food and equipment will weight.

On a truck, that info may be on the inside of the driver's door jam also on a sticker.  I just looked at my truck and it's GVWR (gross vehicle weight rating) is 9600 lbs.  I know that the truck weights somewhere around 6600 lbs or so, so that means if I were to get a slide in truck camper and fill it will all  my goodies it would need to weight less than, 3000 lbs.  If I were to pull a trailer, I need to know the CGVWR (combined gross vehicle weight rating) which is how much can the truck carry and how much can it pull combined.

Marsha~
 
OK, going out to look at horse trailer numbers now.  I thought my trailer was a lot more-didn't realize that top number was combined WITH the weight it holds.  ;.) It is a 4 horse straight load but we can tie at a slant if we want. 
We are in Utah which is high elevations so there's another huge point for diesel.  Now that all of my family has moved here we'll mostly be taking 30 minute to hour long trips just up to local mountains or Antelope Island (5 minutes away)
 
ahhhhhhh finally went out to get the actual numbers from the horse trailer.  I've read all about them so many times but I'm hoping someone can give me practical application of what it actually means.  Then we can look at the weights we'd be ok with for a camper trailer.

GVWR 6880
GCWR 5000
GAWR lb/5200 R/5200

 
I've got a 2007 F350 diesel and get an average of around 14mpg with mixed use driving. Towing a 3,000lb enclosed trailer with a couple of 400lb bikes, gear etc and it drops down to around 11-12 mpg at 55mph. We used to tow with a large gas SUV and are very happy to have switched to diesel power
 
mommadana said:
I'm hoping someone can give me practical application of what it actually means.  Then we can look at the weights we'd be ok with for a camper trailer.

GVWR 6880
GCWR 5000
GAWR lb/5200 R/5200
Click to expand...

Well you got me stumped.  The GVWR is Gross Vehicle Weight Rating which is how much it can carry..6800lbs.  But having a GCWR which is Gross Combined weight rating lower than a GVWR, seems odd.  Plus I don't recall my horse trailers having a GCWR.  Are you sure you read the GCWR correctly?

The GAWR is Gross Axel weight rating, which is how much the axles can carry; or 5200 lbs, left and right.


Marsha~
 
hmm, I could have read them wrong so I'll send hubby out to look this time.  :-\
 
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