Towing with a 200-series Toyota Land Cruiser (1 Viewer)
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
- Thread starter
- #1,582
That's about what I get towing my 25' travel trailer on a good day. Speed makes the most difference though... I can manage almost 10 mpg if I keep it 50-55, but 70-75 will drop me into the low 7s
supercarrera
Club Esprit de Four
So, the aerodynamics of a huge effin brick are suboptimal. And a huge effin brick pulling an even bigger effin brick is worse. 
- Thread starter
- #1,585
Yep. Practically speaking I lose about 1mpg per 5 mph.
Irony is I drive my FJC or FJ60 everywhere (35k miles a year)So, the aerodynamics of a huge effin brick are suboptimal. And a huge effin brick pulling an even bigger effin brick is worse.
When I drive my 200 series, I feel like it has the drag coefficient of a Porsche Taycan, in comparison.
So what have you found the optimal speed to be? There is a bell curve there, I'm sure.
After 10 summers and at least 80k miles towing my camper. For me it is 55-60 mph.
- Thread starter
- #1,589
Optimal for what? Mpg? My patience?
Mpg wise it’s probably 50-55.
For a short trip maybe 1-2 hours away I’ll do 65. For a drive to Colorado I do 75 and just deal with 6.5-7mpg. IMO it’s worth 2 tanks of gas and the associated stopping time vs driving 55 which is 15-20mph under the speed limit and spending hours longer on a 1000 mile trip.
For what it’s worth my experience was that 40 mph gave me my best mileage. I was on a remote gravel highway in a rainstorm and was sliding all over in the mud. On other trips i was unable to go more than 300 of the 370 km’s to the first gas station without using one of my Gerry cans but this trip, pushing mud and sliding, i made it easily. I was worried starting out because i thought that two Gerry cans might not be enough. Boy was i wrong! Obviously i wont be travelling at 40 again but it does show how hard it is to punch a hole in the wind with two big, heavy boxes.
I've seen photos before, but can't recall now. Remind me, what make/model of travel trailer do you haul?
For the gravel road, I'm assuming you're talking about the Dempster highway; how well is your trailer holding up to that kind of use?
I know you didn’t ask it to me directly but I have an outdoor RV. I’ve taken it on the lower part of the Dalton, the McCarthy Road the Dempster and top of the world. That said I’ve pretty much destroyed it and rebuilt it. The worst one was last summer I found out that the vibration had loosened my water tank and put a small perforation in the fill hose at the same level of my subfloor. So when I filled the water tank, I was slowly saturating my floor. I had to pull everything out, including my slider and all the cabinets and replaced the floor.
There is no way I would take a leaf spring or torsion axle trailer on any of those type roads again. When we get a new camper it will likely have Timbrins.
What type of campers are you looking at/thinking about?
I had Timbren suspension on a small FSR trailer years ago, and while it towed great, I've since come across quite a few mentions of potential problems with that suspension type and am not sure I'd want it on a large, heavy trailer.
I’ve got probably another three years with the ORV (kids are 16 and 18). When I go those fore-mentioned places now we use ground tents or our RTT set up And leave the trailer at home or in a nearby location for a few days.
When it comes time to replace the ORV I haven’t put a ton of thought into it. I have a buddy with an rPod on timbrins he’s had for two or three years now and really likes it. It was done at a local shop here has started to specialize in doing that to rPods.
I have a buddy that had a black series and had nothing but problems from it.
This is data from my 100 under ideal conditions and not towing. It shows the curve is not at all linear and mpg plunges at higher speeds. I've never redone the test with my 200 but I'm sure the curve would be similar even if not the same numbers.
I have a 25’ Keystone Cougar and it hasn’t held up too well. Most of the problems showed up before we hit the gravel, pinched water lines, tie wraps in the ground ‘block’ between the conductor and lug, screws found on the bottom of the oven every time we stopped, stove burners shaken apart, drawers collapsing (stapled to the bottom of the counter, how could this go wrong?) valances falling off, the aluminum checker plate on the front of the trailer is so thin that the gravel wore holes in it, the brake wire goes through the axle and it wore the insulation causing periodic shorts and “short circuit, no brakes” messages, wheel flares vibrating loose just to name a few. On the Dempster we found 3” holes in the floor so dust ingress was epic. We had to spread sheets over everything to just be able to clean it out after every move. When i was having electrical issues i called the manufacturer for a wiring diagram and was told that there wasn’t one “we just kinda make it up as we go”. No bull. It’s interesting to hear that Cole’s OR isnt too different but i think that I’m winning the lousy build competition.
Dang. I was hoping to hear that you had found a unicorn capable of handling the Dempster without too much trouble. All that sounds very much inline with what I would have expected from most trailers. That's a shame.
My ORV is fairly well Made. When had to repair the floor I called ORV and they DID send me structural plans and electrical diagrams. They were spot on. The issues was that whoever wired mine stapled the wiring to the under side of the floor boards Instead of connecting the wiring to the sub floor. So when I cut out the sections of rot, I cut through wires…. I also found areas where there was a Philips screw next to a torx, next to one of those square inset screws…. I guess at least it was all screwed together instead of staples. Also the way it was assembles from the bottom up make repairs way more difficult then they needed to be. Like if I had to remove the cabinets I’d have to cut them out or remove the roof….
Overall I think it is a top quality trailer. But not intended for those long trips on dirt/gravel roads.
at this point it will likely be disposable when I get done with it. But I still am way happier with it then the airstream we had prior.
Okay, so I’m a clear winner in the lousy build competition!
It’s all relative.
