Towing economy ? V6 Petrol 120 series

[Marty 120 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Marty 120]

Talk to Central Coast Turbo Charge in Gosford. Knows his stuff and will explain everything he does, (or doesn't) do to your vehicle. Not certain on the LGP experience but an A Grade mechanic.

[artman555 Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close artman555]

Hi Guys
Im a newbie here so my first attempt at a post. Not sure if this is relevant to anyone but I have a 2005 V6 GXL Auto 79k and tow an Avan Aliner 2B which weighs just on a ton loaded. Also have a Waeco CF35 , a wheel chair, a bike and all sorts of stuff in the back of the Prado so an extra few hundred kilos when travelling. Just did a trip from Gold Coast to Yeppoon, and back via 1770 , Agnes Water (shocking road) and Bundaberg then to hervey Bay and back home. 70% towing 30% sightseeing. Total fuel 326 litres total klms 2128 and most into a strong headwind, Avg fuel consumption was 15.3 lt/100klms. I sat on 90-100 most of the time going up in overdrive unless hills , coming back in 5th with the cruise on. Very happy with those figures. Anyways,,,hope I havent bored you Cheers Artman....

UPDATE> Well you learn a lot over the years. I have updated my van to a 17.6 full height van at 2240kgs loaded. Over the last 2and a half years I have towed this van from Gold Coast to Cooktown , out to Mt Isa, out to Cunnamulla, along the Murray in Vic, and through the highlands of New England tablelands and a million places in between. Around 50,000 klms all together. The wonderful PETROL Prado has averaged 18-22 klms/100 towing and 13-14 around town. Best use was 11.4 trip to Sydney and back , no van and worst was coming back from Mt Isa into a howling crosswind at 25.6 klms/100.
Since I bought the Prado it has averaged 17/100 across the board if you include all towing and non towing mileage. I am very very happy with that. I have considered a diesel a few times but you just cant beat the ride and quietness of the petrol. I have added a dual battery setup, UHF, King springs and Nitro shocks and changed my tyres to Pirelli Scorpion ATR's which perform beautifully and no road noise at all. When I looked this morning at my figures is has cost me $18889.00 to do just over 70,000 klms in the last 4 years with fuel averaging at $1.56 per litre = roughly 27cents per klm. More stats means $5396 per year in fuel or $103 per week over that period.
I dont think I will be upgrading my wonderful Prado 120 anytime soon as it still runs like the day it was built.
Cheers to all, safe travels
Arty...

[okkanui Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close okkanui]

UPDATE> Well you learn a lot over the years. I have updated my van to a 17.6 full height van at 2240kgs loaded. Over the last 2and a half years I have towed this van from Gold Coast to Cooktown , out to Mt Isa, out to Cunnamulla, along the Murray in Vic, and through the highlands of New England tablelands and a million places in between. Around 50,000 klms all together. The wonderful PETROL Prado has averaged 18-22 klms/100 towing and 13-14 around town. Best use was 11.4 trip to Sydney and back , no van and worst was coming back from Mt Isa into a howling crosswind at 25.6 klms/100.
Since I bought the Prado it has averaged 17/100 across the board if you include all towing and non towing mileage. I am very very happy with that. I have considered a diesel a few times but you just cant beat the ride and quietness of the petrol. I have added a dual battery setup, UHF, King springs and Nitro shocks and changed my tyres to Pirelli Scorpion ATR's which perform beautifully and no road noise at all. When I looked this morning at my figures is has cost me $18889.00 to do just over 70,000 klms in the last 4 years with fuel averaging at $1.56 per litre = roughly 27cents per klm. More stats means $5396 per year in fuel or $103 per week over that period.
I dont think I will be upgrading my wonderful Prado 120 anytime soon as it still runs like the day it was built.
Cheers to all, safe travels
Arty...

Agree with you Arty .. the cost differential on the diesel didn't cut it for me either given the annual km's I do (and usually only keep vehicle for 3-4 yrs max). I now have 150 series petrol, and it is even more fuel efficient than the 120. I have averaged 12.5L/100kms city driving (Melbourne) over past 3yrs, and can quite easily get 10L/100 highway driving - sometime less depending on wind direction lol. Towing my 2 tonne boat/trailer normally returns 14-16L/100 which I am also very happy with.

[mcfqn Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mcfqn]

Hi guys, thought I'd contribute to this discussion too.

This will probably get me flamed, but in addition to the 2006 V6 120, i also own a 2011 3.0L CRD Patrol which has been my primary tow vehicle of my Jayco Swan (~1.5t). The Patrol gets 18.5L/100km towing the Jayco but is slow to accelerate and you really need to rev the guts out of it.

Last weekend i thought I'd give the prado a go at towing. It was only a short 200km round trip, but I only used 1/4 of a tank so approx 22L for 200km which is far far better than the Trol. Even round town the Prado get better fuel economy.

I've owned a 3.4L V6 90 series, a HZJ105 with 1HZ + turbo + intercooler + 3" exhaust, a 3.0L CRD Patrol and the 2006 V6 120, and i must say, the 120 prado is the best tow vehicle to date - fuel economy wise plus acceleration and maintaining speed.

[kevdebbi Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close kevdebbi]

We have a 2003 v6 Grande and recently towed the boat up to the Gold Coast from Newcastle and back, our economy averaged around 18L/100km. Its an alloy boat around 5meter and 1200kg. Not too bad I guess, the normal economy is around 15L/100km.

[Hendo66 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hendo66]

Just, completed 3 week, 8000k trip from Perth-Broome-Cape Leveque-Gibb RR-Bungle Bungle's-Fitzroy X'ing-Broome-Karajini NP-Perth trip with 4 people, luggage, Camper Trailer, Cooper AT3's, rear draws/Engel, ARB Bullbar, beer etc and averaged 22L/100K which considering what we carried quite a bit of dirt driving, probably going a bit quick and into head wind on way up and trying to get to Broome in 2 days isn't too bad?

thoughts?

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

Just did an excellent comparison. Sydney to far south coast to pick up my new second hand camper.........13.5 l/100km - just me and no other stuff in the car. Picked up the camper [700+kg] and refueled. South coast back to Sydney maintain the same 100kph as I did going down.....18l /100km. For those who don't know this trip it is never an economical one - lots of traffic, roadworks, hills[ especially the Mt Ousley area northbound] and bends. I suspect that a trip out west in the flatlands will see a better figure than this. I used a mix of 4 and drive/5th [downhill or dead flat]. Up the Mt. Ousley hills it was hunting a bit between 4 and 3 so I put it into 3 at which it happily held the 80kph speed limit with less throttle than it was using in 4. I have done virtually no towing in this car in the 6 years that I have had it but it seems that 4th gear , about 2000rpm and 100 kph works well towing - heaps of go when needed and absolutely no laboring of the engine or gearbox. Given that extensive travel heavily loaded with a spare on the roof rack yields about 15-16 l/100 I sure can live with 18 towing especially when towing is only a fairly small part of the total km.

[Toyrota Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Toyrota]

Toyrota

I have a 120 VX, tow a Jayco Dove Outback, 1400kg loaded. The most recent trip over the west coast of SA, was 1800km with the van on the back, used 16.3 - no air con. I try to sit around 100kmh tops, and its pretty flat so i can get some coasting in 5th. Our Petrol Pajina was always around 18. Lot depends on tyres, speed, weather, terrain... a head wind with a full van on will see your fuel consumption blow out... towing the old full van in a head wind with the Pajina i found it best not to think about it. I forgot to get the tyres back to 40psi after some sand driving and ran with them at 34 ... extra 1.5 l/100 that day.
But the 4.0 is sweet as, we live semi rural, so no stop start, always 13-14 l/100 which i am very happy with. Best thing is the wife loves it, makes it easier when want to spend $ on accessories!

[Rusty62 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rusty62]

Our 120 VX D4D returned 12.3 towing 1000 kg camper Brisbane to Camberra, no bullbar, standard tyres and 50 mm lift. After Bullbar, spots, 265/70 BFG , and changing the tyres on the camper to same as car, now returns 13.5 - 14.5 at the speed limit. Never worry about using the right foot up hills but don't like using more than 3000 rpm.
Rusty.

[thisavros Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close thisavros]

Brisbane to Perth and back towing a home box camper (~900kgs) that's 1.6m high and averaged 23L/100 on the tar at 100km/hr
Yes we did do some desert work etc but i'm not worried about consumption over that type of terrain as you rarely get above 30kms/hr. (Googs track etc)

I placed 2 stone guards in front of the 25L water bottles held on either side of the trailer and noticed they were bent forward (along with some serious stone hits)
This made me think that there is a huge vortex behind the Prado but before the trailer.

Has any one thought of spoilers or trims to help with air flow in relation to economy?..most likely on the trailer

[tassie tiger Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close tassie tiger]

We have been towing our expanda outback with v6 120 auto.

On 91 octane she ran around the 21lphk's sitting on the speed limit.

On 98 octane it got down to around 18.5.

Power is fantastic.

[mcfqn Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close mcfqn]

an update, just came back from towing our Jayco Swan from Brisbane to Townsville (2800km round trip), running on BP ultimate pretty much the whole way, 4 adults and two kids plus the camper packed for 2 weeks holiday and managed to return 18.5L/km corrected for larger tyres.

On the return trip we struck a strong headwind between Mackay and Rockhampton which increased the consumption to nearly 20L/100km and dropped the speed to 80km/hr.

I did a comparisson between a paper air filter and my K&N and found that with the K&N the auto box held gears better (didn't drop down as much) and the car was more responsive and felt like it had more torque.

Placebo?? maybe, but it was a good enough difference for me to keep the K&N in.

[dazzman Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dazzman]

We have a 2008 120 GXL V6. Just returned from an ADL-Canberra-ADL trip. We were towing a Challenge camper trailer and averaged 15l per 100kmh sitting on 100km/hr for most of the trip. If any gets the chance, visit a wreckers and get the multi function display from a Grande model to replace the GXL one. I did and it works a treat for giving me fuel consumption etc. Overall I was very impressed with the fuel consumption towing as around town I average 13.5-14 per 100. a friend of mine has a 3.2l diesel NS Pajero with a similar camper trailer and on trips he averages 16L per 100.

[ravenhard Member Find all posts View Profile Close ravenhard]

So I just completed a syd-Uluru-syd trip 6500kms towing a fully loaded 1.2 camper trailer. The Prado fully loaded with the wife and 2 kids, had an awning on an empty rhino platform. Got between 20-22litres per 100km doing about 115kmh trying to keep up with my mate in a ranger. So not too bad as I really wasn't driving for economy. Wished I left the awning off as most of the trip was really windy and didn't even use it once as the times we could use it it was blowing a gale. Might have saved 1/2 litres per 100 considering the massive cross winds driving along the Stuart hwy

[slydar Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close slydar]

well we have had a couple of experiences after buying our 2006 120 vx in December. took it for our usual annual summer break to samurai beach for three weeks with the gic camper fully loaded and new roof rack with chairs and extra steel camper/annex poles and three solar panels and seemed to get a lot better mileage than when we took an unloaded box trailer to albury to collect a new camper top (same design as the gic) and got what I think was a woeful 20l/100km for the whole trip. we have bfg at lt on and I can only hope not having the air pressure right after giving up on the lousy air pump at the starmart servo near anna bay (took almost an hour to get the tyres from 15 to 33 psi - my worn out compressor was faster). theyre back up to the 42 they were at when we bought the car so we will see how it goes next run