trailering/milage with new wheels

[athomp_21]

What kind of effect would wider tires/new wheels have on pulling a trailer and MPG? This is probably a dumb question as a far as milege,but would you recommend new tires/wheels if I still plan on pulling a trailer?

[DENNY]

Wider tires will most likely hurt MPG some. What size are you talking about. Rims won't matter.
DENNY

[ponyboychris]

Most likely the weight and height of the trailier will effect your MPG more IMHO. Not to mention the type of terrain and how heavy is your right foot.

For example, I can pull my 24 foot 5'er fully loaded (about 5000#'s) with my 14 foot utility trailer full of 4-wheelers (another 1800#'s) on a flat highway and get about 12-13 MPG by keeping it under 70MPH and about 2000 RPM's. Both trailers have 15 inch rims and tires on them.

Now, if you start climbing hills, get into a nasty headwind for a while, or get into a drag race with that D-max ahead of you, you can see that MPG go down drastically.

[Pocket]

I just finished a 1500 mile trip from SC to CO pulling a utility trailer loaded with furniture and crap. With my setup below I got 14.1 mpg on the trip. Speed was usually around 72-75 mph which on my truck is between 1900-2000 rpm's (still have stock 3.73's). I have heard of others with lifts and/or bigger tires getting that kind of milage empty. I think it's mostly driving style and maybe a small bit o' luck. As a comparison, we drove my wife's SportTrac with a smaller trailer to CO and got 12 mpg. I love my PSD!

[jlesniak]

talked to a guy who put wider tires on and said his mpg went down. Tread pattern may be just as bad. More aggressive pattern = more rolling resistance. You have to push the gas pedal more to keep up speed. Did trip in winter pulling sled trailer and got 12 mpg with the snow tires. Did same trip month later with "summer" tires on and got 13.5 mph. Both doin 75-80 whole way up. May change for the 300 mile trip each time I go. Much quieter too.