caravan towing trip

[GK200]

Hi, We went on a short trip last weekend with our caravan and wanted to share some findings about fuel consumption and gear selection.

We have a Dec 09 KX-S AWD only 5000km on the clock, trip was only 400km round trip. Van is 1650kg. As I'm still new to the Kluger I thought I would try a few things towing. I decided to use 4th gear in S mode going to Berri in S.A. Fuel read 21L/100 km. No wind really at all. Speed was 100km/hr .I thought we're not going to get far on a full tank at this rate.

On the way home I used 4th gear on the very steep hills only, then decided to leave it in 5th and go easy on the pedal, we had a slight tail wind. Fuel consumption was 16.2 L/100km. Using 5th gear in S-mode. It doesn't take much of a road rise and it jumps back a gear.(or should say 1/2 agear??) only went back to 4th when I had to push it harder to get up a steep hill. maybe it goes back to 4th overdrive or something??

Anyway, 5th gear is ok on the flat road. I must say, the Kluger is much better than the Commodore towing the van. Kluger does it easily and you feel a lot safer.

Does anyone know of any gearbox issues with towing in 5th gear?

cheers

Geoff :)

Edited March 9, 2010 by GK200

[Rocketeer1]

dont know the model, all i can say is ensure it has a really good tranny fluid cooler fitted, and even consider going to a quality trans fluid. Heat is the typical killer of auto trannys.

The computer should be calibrated to ensure there is no over-torquing of the box, so shouldnt be an issue using fifth, long as it does kick back when required.

[SamF]

Hi, We went on a short trip last weekend with our caravan and wanted to share some findings about fuel consumption and gear selection.

We have a Dec 09 KX-S AWD only 5000km on the clock, trip was only 400km round trip. Van is 1650kg. As I'm still new to the Kluger I thought I would try a few things towing. I decided to use 4th gear in S mode going to Berri in S.A. Fuel read 21L/100 km. No wind really at all. Speed was 100km/hr .I thought we're not going to get far on a full tank at this rate.

On the way home I used 4th gear on the very steep hills only, then decided to leave it in 5th and go easy on the pedal, we had a slight tail wind. Fuel consumption was 16.2 L/100km. Using 5th gear in S-mode. It doesn't take much of a road rise and it jumps back a gear.(or should say 1/2 agear??) only went back to 4th when I had to push it harder to get up a steep hill. maybe it goes back to 4th overdrive or something??

Anyway, 5th gear is ok on the flat road. I must say, the Kluger is much better than the Commodore towing the van. Kluger does it easily and you feel a lot safer.

Does anyone know of any gearbox issues with towing in 5th gear?

cheers

Geoff :)

Hi, I towed an 1750Kg caravan around Australia last year (21,000K). The manual does say that you should tow in 4th gear. However I usually place the transmission in manual select mode and put it into 4th on hilly or headwind situations, but on flat roads, I select 5th manually and like you found that I can get about 16L/100K in this mode. The Kluger had no problem, nor did the transmission seem to suffer. I think the reason the manual says to tow in 4th is because it drops out of overdrive on all but flat roads and the transmission "hunts" up and down gears all the time. Which is probably more harmful than leaving it in 4th gear. I must admit that I did not have the same consumption variations as you experienced between 4 th and 5th. My variation between the two was more like 1-2 L/100K.

The best consumption I got was 15L/100K and the worst, fighting a gale headwind from Port Hedland to Broome, was 21.5L/100K.