Top tips for improving fuel economy when towing a caravan

You may have a car or SUV with decent fuel economy when travelling around town or on the highway, but what about when you hitch a caravan to it? The extra weight and strain on the engine, as well as the not so aerodynamic shape of said caravan can add a few extra litres per 100km to your vehicle's predicted fuel economy figures.

To help you maximise your travel budget as well as improving fuel economy when towing a caravan, we’ve put together some practical and helpful tips to get you on your way.

If you can avoid it, don’t carry tall loads on a roof rack on your tow car or caravan, as they can rob you of two or three kilometres from every litre of fuel used.

The caravan or camper shape can also affect this. Pop-top caravans are more economical to tow — particularly into head winds — than full height caravans. Campers and caravans with tapered front panels are also more economical than those with blunt noses, as they allow the wind to spill past down their sides rather than confronting it head-on.

You’re meant to be smelling the flowers when you travel, so cruising at around 85-95km/h in 100km/h or 110km/h zones will use less fuel than if you go faster. Also rethink using cruise control. It’s not very good for fuel consumption when towing, as it doesn’t anticipate road conditions and traffic ahead.

Choosing to take a less hilly route to your destination, if there is an option, will save you fuel, even if the actual distance travelled is longer.

If there is a bitumen route to where you are going, choose it over an unsealed road every time, even if it is a little longer, as there is far less surface drag on your tyres.

The most economical tyre for a camper or caravan is one with longitudinal grooves around the carcass. They can stop it slipping sideways on wet roads, yet minimises its tread contact and hence rolling resistance, when travelling longitudinally, which is most of the time.

Select a trailer tyre that is biased towards highway use, then pump them up to the allowable maximum to reduce their rolling resistance. In most cases this means a cold pressure of 45-50psi but bear in mind that pressure increases with heat build-up, so keep your cold inflation pressure around 4-6 psi below the maximum inflation pressure, which is usually stamped on the outer tyre wall.

Then get ready to drop the pressures to 30-33psi once you hit an unsealed road to increase tread adhesion and avoid skating. Carrying a portable air compressor is essential to juggle pressures.

Most of us have lifelong bad driving habits, like pressing harder than necessary on the accelerator than we realise. Next time you are on the open road, select the speed you want to travel at (usually the one that falls in the middle of the tow vehicle’s torque range in top gear), then gradually ease off on the accelerator to the point where you are still maintaining your desired speed. You will be surprised at how much you are over-accelerating.

If your tow car has a ‘smart’ automatic gearbox, don’t select ‘Sport’ mode, trust it to know which is the best gear for the terrain and don’t try to double-guess it by over-riding it manually.

A properly adjusted automatic transmission will do its best to keep your engine working in the heart of its torque (or peak pulling) range, even if it’s running at higher revs in a lower gear than you think it can pull. For this reason, large engines working lightly within their torque range are usually easier on fuel than smaller engines struggling under the same load.