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Towing with a TDI



 
 
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  #51  
Old February 18th 15, 01:51 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Nigel Pocock[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 53
Default Towing with a TDI

I did about 7500 miles towing trailers round europe last year behind a SWB
toyota land cruiser tdi and a VW passat TDi130 estate.
With the land cruiser you didnt notice you had anything on the back (even
with a Nimbus 4 in a cobra trailer). However fuel consumption was in the
low 20mpg and it was uncomfortable.

The Passat was great. Measured fuel consumption was 47mpg with a LS6/18 in
a tube trailer. Very comfortable and stable up to well in excess of the
legal lmit.

As said elsewhere the TDI engine characteristics are great for towing.
Loads of mid range torque that avoids constant gear changing that you get
with a similar size petrol engine.

The trick with stability with trailers is to get the weight distibution
corect. You want as much as possible over the axle(s) but with a sensible
amount on the draw bar. (not hundreds of pounds as I have seen advocated
here) If you put all the spare gubbins in the front and back of the trailer
you end up with a "dumbell" which is potentially unstable.

Nigel


  #52  
Old February 18th 15, 03:44 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 463
Default Towing with a TDI

On Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 7:00:07 AM UTC-6, Nigel Pocock wrote:
I did about 7500 miles towing trailers round europe last year behind a SWB
toyota land cruiser tdi and a VW passat TDi130 estate.
With the land cruiser you didnt notice you had anything on the back (even
with a Nimbus 4 in a cobra trailer). However fuel consumption was in the
low 20mpg and it was uncomfortable.

The Passat was great. Measured fuel consumption was 47mpg with a LS6/18 in
a tube trailer. Very comfortable and stable up to well in excess of the
legal lmit.

As said elsewhere the TDI engine characteristics are great for towing.
Loads of mid range torque that avoids constant gear changing that you get
with a similar size petrol engine.

The trick with stability with trailers is to get the weight distibution
corect. You want as much as possible over the axle(s) but with a sensible
amount on the draw bar. (not hundreds of pounds as I have seen advocated
here) If you put all the spare gubbins in the front and back of the trailer
you end up with a "dumbell" which is potentially unstable.

Nigel


Nigel, your mpg numbers are obviously based on British gallons which are kind of an inflated type of imperial gallons (too lazy to look it up right now). I think our mpg values would be 10-20% lower than your numbers. Why can't we all go metric???
  #53  
Old February 18th 15, 04:19 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Steve Leonard[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,076
Default Towing with a TDI

On Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 8:44:53 AM UTC-6, wrote:
Nigel, your mpg numbers are obviously based on British gallons which are kind of an inflated type of imperial gallons (too lazy to look it up right now). I think our mpg values would be 10-20% lower than your numbers. Why can't we all go metric???


And report in kilometers per liter?

  #54  
Old February 18th 15, 04:29 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Nigel Pocock[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 53
Default Towing with a TDI

At 14:44 18 February 2015, wrote:
On Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 7:00:07 AM UTC-6, Nigel Pocock wrote:
I did about 7500 miles towing trailers round europe last year behind a

SWB
toyota land cruiser tdi and a VW passat TDi130 estate.
With the land cruiser you didnt notice you had anything on the back

(even
with a Nimbus 4 in a cobra trailer). However fuel consumption was in

the
low 20mpg and it was uncomfortable.

The Passat was great. Measured fuel consumption was 47mpg with a LS6/18

in
a tube trailer. Very comfortable and stable up to well in excess of the
legal lmit.

As said elsewhere the TDI engine characteristics are great for towing.
Loads of mid range torque that avoids constant gear changing that you

get
with a similar size petrol engine.

The trick with stability with trailers is to get the weight distibution
corect. You want as much as possible over the axle(s) but with a

sensible
amount on the draw bar. (not hundreds of pounds as I have seen

advocated
here) If you put all the spare gubbins in the front and back of the

trailer
you end up with a "dumbell" which is potentially unstable.

Nigel


Nigel, your mpg numbers are obviously based on British gallons which are
kind of an inflated type of imperial gallons (too lazy to look it up

right
now). I think our mpg values would be 10-20% lower than your numbers.

Why
can't we all go metric???


47mpgUK =39mpg US = 6l/100km
My brain hurts now

  #55  
Old February 18th 15, 05:02 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Tango Eight
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 962
Default Towing with a TDI

Apples / apples comparisons really aren't possible between US and anywhere else. Emissions regs are a bit different in USA, resulting in lower economy US for both diesel and gas. As well, USA gasoline is diluted with ethanol for political reasons (basically, Archer Daniels Midland corporation owns more of Congress than "We, the People") which further erodes gas economy.

T8
  #56  
Old February 18th 15, 05:42 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Mike the Strike
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 952
Default Towing with a TDI

On Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 8:19:31 AM UTC-7, Steve Leonard wrote:
On Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 8:44:53 AM UTC-6, wrote:
Nigel, your mpg numbers are obviously based on British gallons which are kind of an inflated type of imperial gallons (too lazy to look it up right now). I think our mpg values would be 10-20% lower than your numbers. Why can't we all go metric???


And report in kilometers per liter?


"Inflated imperial gallons" - don't you mean deflated American gallons! I expect a pint of beer to be 20 fluid ounces, not 16!

Mike
  #57  
Old February 18th 15, 11:46 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Dan Marotta
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,601
Default Towing with a TDI

Why can't we all go metric? Because 10s of litres per 100 miles is a
silly measurement compared to miles per gallon. Same with knots
airspeed and lift/sink vs. km/hr and m/s. How about inches per teaspoon
for mileage?


On 2/18/2015 7:44 AM, wrote:
On Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 7:00:07 AM UTC-6, Nigel Pocock wrote:
I did about 7500 miles towing trailers round europe last year behind a SWB
toyota land cruiser tdi and a VW passat TDi130 estate.
With the land cruiser you didnt notice you had anything on the back (even
with a Nimbus 4 in a cobra trailer). However fuel consumption was in the
low 20mpg and it was uncomfortable.

The Passat was great. Measured fuel consumption was 47mpg with a LS6/18 in
a tube trailer. Very comfortable and stable up to well in excess of the
legal lmit.

As said elsewhere the TDI engine characteristics are great for towing.
Loads of mid range torque that avoids constant gear changing that you get
with a similar size petrol engine.

The trick with stability with trailers is to get the weight distibution
corect. You want as much as possible over the axle(s) but with a sensible
amount on the draw bar. (not hundreds of pounds as I have seen advocated
here) If you put all the spare gubbins in the front and back of the trailer
you end up with a "dumbell" which is potentially unstable.

Nigel

Nigel, your mpg numbers are obviously based on British gallons which are kind of an inflated type of imperial gallons (too lazy to look it up right now). I think our mpg values would be 10-20% lower than your numbers. Why can't we all go metric???


--
Dan Marotta

  #58  
Old February 18th 15, 11:48 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Dan Marotta
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,601
Default Towing with a TDI


On 2/18/2015 9:42 AM, Mike the Strike wrote:
snip
I expect a pint of beer to be 20 fluid ounces, not 16!

Mike

Best argument yet that I've heard for using any sort of Euro measurement!
--
Dan Marotta

  #59  
Old February 19th 15, 04:44 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Bruce Hoult
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Posts: 961
Default Towing with a TDI

On Thursday, February 19, 2015 at 11:46:10 AM UTC+13, Dan Marotta wrote:
Why can't we all go metric?* Because 10s of litres per 100 miles is
a silly measurement compared to miles per gallon.


It depends on whether you're filling your tank and then asking "ok, now where can I go to?" or saying "I want to go to X, what will it cost me?"

The latter is, I would submit, more generally useful.

Quick, if you're going to travel 1000 miles, is it a bigger saving to get 22 mpg from something that was previously doing 20, or to get 45 mpg from something that was previously doing 40 mpg?

In fact, the former will save you a lot mo 4.5 gal vs 2.8.

Which can be readily seen from converting to l/100 km: 11.76 vs 10.69 and 5..88 vs 5.22. The difference between the first pair is 1.07 l/100km while the difference between the second pair is only 0.66 l/100km.


Same with knots airspeed and lift/sink vs. km/hr and m/s.


I don't care what the units are, only whether it's up or down, and getting better or worse.
  #60  
Old February 19th 15, 03:49 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 463
Default Towing with a TDI

On Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 4:46:10 PM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
Why can't we all go metric?* Because 10s of litres per 100 miles is
a silly measurement compared to miles per gallon.* Same with knots
airspeed and lift/sink vs. km/hr and m/s.* How about inches per
teaspoon for mileage?






On 2/18/2015 7:44 AM,
wrote:



On Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at 7:00:07 AM UTC-6, Nigel Pocock wrote:


I did about 7500 miles towing trailers round europe last year behind a SWB
toyota land cruiser tdi and a VW passat TDi130 estate.
With the land cruiser you didnt notice you had anything on the back (even
with a Nimbus 4 in a cobra trailer). However fuel consumption was in the
low 20mpg and it was uncomfortable.

The Passat was great. Measured fuel consumption was 47mpg with a LS6/18 in
a tube trailer. Very comfortable and stable up to well in excess of the
legal lmit.

As said elsewhere the TDI engine characteristics are great for towing.
Loads of mid range torque that avoids constant gear changing that you get
with a similar size petrol engine.

The trick with stability with trailers is to get the weight distibution
corect. You want as much as possible over the axle(s) but with a sensible
amount on the draw bar. (not hundreds of pounds as I have seen advocated
here) If you put all the spare gubbins in the front and back of the trailer
you end up with a "dumbell" which is potentially unstable.

Nigel





Nigel, your mpg numbers are obviously based on British gallons which are kind of an inflated type of imperial gallons (too lazy to look it up right now). I think our mpg values would be 10-20% lower than your numbers.. Why can't we all go metric???





--

Dan Marotta


Dan and Steve,

Here are a couple more good solid American-value based reasons not to go metric:
1. The scientific community is all metric. Can't trust those bozos.
2. You want us to go Euro-style? Will never happen in this country
3. Powers of ten are too easy to convert. We rather stay with funny conversion factors and fractions, keeps the mind sharp.
4. Isn't metric the first step to Sharia law?
6. Only liberal socialists (and the Chinese/Russians) use the metric system.
5. The French invented the metric nonsense
6. I don't understand metric

Anybody else? Did I miss any other 'good' reasons?
 




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