Quote:
Originally Posted by Falcon67
"That 5er sticks up higher than your travel trailer, making frontal area a concern."
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A lot of people think that, but it’s not realistic. If you look at the front of a 5th wheel, it’s much more streamlined than most travel trailers. Also, the connection point puts it much closer to the cab, much of the air come off the cab of the truck and flows up over the nose of the 5th wheel. A bumper tow is back far enough with the airflow drips down behind the cab and hits the front of the trailer pretty significantly. I transported RVs, have over 100k miles towing every type of towable you can think of. I always got consistent fuel mileage with 5th wheels, travel trailers were all over the board. The worst one I ever towed was a 7k lb 27’ bumper pull tow hauler. That thing was like a parachute behind me. My fuel mileage on that was nearly 4 MPGs less than 5th wheels. I love it when I see a travel trailer going down the road with the front nose concaved from the wind. That is literally a parachute, I wish I could ask the people how it tows and what kind of mileage they get, but don’t feel like turning around to chase them down.