Another new Lil Snoozy

[MCDenny]

As I posted on the 'Snoozy update' thread, we took delivery of our new trailer May 8. Alan had everything ready for us and the paperwork took just a few minutes.

Here's a pic of us leaving:



We are traveling from St Matthews SC southwest about 450 miles to our daughter's house in Enterprise, AL, then north about 500 miles to our son in Clarksville, TN, then another 300 miles north to our other son's house in Chicago, then 300 miles east to our home just north of Detroit. I'll have a good idea of the RAV4 V6 towing mileage by then. It was 15.1 mpg on the first leg running between 60 and 65 on the freeway. We got 27 mpg driving sans trailer down to SC going about 70 on the freeway.

We were pleasantly surprised that we could open the RAV's side hinged back door fully. It's higher than the tongue and the nose of the trailer body is just far enough aft to clear the door.

We had Alan take out the couch and bed as we plan to build two twin beds and a closet in place of the standard floor plan. I spent a lot of (enjoyable) time doing new floor plans on the computer and posted our final one a few weeks ago. Of course, now with the actual trailer we can see new constraints on the design and have changed a bit.

We taped up some cardboard to visualize the new plan:










The blue horizontal line represents the top of the mattress.


This adds some storage forward where the top and bottom come together, avoids having to disguise or move the plumbing connections where they go through the body and increases the 'outside access' storage. The closet moves from next to the bathroom to next to the forward twin bed.

[kootenaigirl]

Will be great to see it once you have completed your mods. Really interesting to hear about your gas mileage also. Keep us updated.

[Vickie B.]

Even looks good when not completed!! Thanks for update--loving all this!

[Tim Wood]

Congrats on your new trailer, they are very nice. Will have to show pics during your revamp of the layout.

[Ken C]

I sure like the mockup you have there. Its gonna turn our real nice, thanks for the photos and congrats on your new trailer.

[MCDenny]

We just got home today. Here's the final mileage data: baseline without trailer - 827 miles mostly interstate with cruise on 70 gave 27.1 mpg. Returning home the long way with the Lil Snoozy - 1493 miles mostly interstate with cc set on 65 gave 14.8 mpg.

This with a 2007 Toyota RAV4 V6 AWD. EPA 19 city, 26 hwy.

I should add the RAV pulled the trailer just fine, very stable, no sway. The surge brakes seemed to work well. I don't have sway bars or a weight distributing hitch.

I am disappointed but not surprised by the nearly 50% reduction in mileage. I towed an 18' sail boat to Fl last year and only got around 18 mpg, even though the boat/trailer weighed only 800 lbs and was a good bit lower than the car. I suspect the engine computer is so highly optimized to get the best mileage in the EPA test that significantly changing the weight and aero drag with a trailer has a huge effect on mileage. I've found even carrying a couple of kayaks on the roof made a big dent in mileage.

[Roger C H]

I understand that car computers can be programmed for the type of service it is to be put to. Maybe your computer could be tweaked to accept the towing profile.

Just a thought.

Our Subaru mileage doesn't drop that much when towing Homelet. We only lose about 2 mpg.

BTW: Congratulations on the new rig. Have you chosen a name for it yet?

[Ken C]

This nice member here can answer and give all sorts of ideas about your Rav4, our resident expert if you will.
Jon's Journeys

[Donna D.]

Slooow down. Consider pulling the trailer somewhere between 55-60 mph, bet the MPG go up... and it could be appreciable up. Try it, just one trip... then you'll know.

[Cyndivg11]

I noticed in my trip from Oregon to Pennsylvania, just slowing down 5 to 10 mph decreased my gas consumption considerably.