Roadtrekking in our 210P via Lily Pads

This is our Trek in our Roadtrek 210P. Hint: Scroll to a list of "Topics and Destinations" on the right. Our RT is a portal to a much larger world and we have established "lily pads" from which we travel and we'll post about those, too. Life is a Journey of discovery in our Motorized Alpaca, a "tiny cabins on wheels". It has been said that "Life Begins at the end of our Comfort Zone." Content and photos are original unless noted. Click photos to enlarge. Copyright and disclaimers apply.

Thursday, June 9, 2022

Trek and Sunset Elephant Butte, NM - Towing 15+ MPG

Elephant Butte Sunset

This trek we took I-80 to I-76 to I-25 through Denver, but we also took highways such as NM 26. We were towing a trailer, estimated weight 1500 lbs. As a consequence, we generally travelled via the interstate highway system at 55-60 MPH, and I wanted to be on a main road with a good shoulder should there be an issue with the trailer. Ergo the trek through Denver, rather than via US 350, the old Santa Fe Trail.

I've included a few statistics in this post.

We did investigate the Colorado E-470 tollway which would have allowed us to bypass Denver. According to the online Colorado website our cost for a vehicle with three axels would have been about $35. However, if we pre-registered the toll would have been half; that's a significant savings. But there is a minimum "charge" to the account of $35 which goes in a digital wallet. We're not sure when we'll be going through Denver again. So, we saw no advantage to the pre-registration and leaving about $18 for future use in Colorado.

There were speed restrictions imposed by UHaul. They said the trailer max speed is 55 MPH. The trailer had new tires and we were towing about 1,500 lbs. I followed their recommendation.

We began on June 4 at 7:10am and arrived at our final destination on June 8 at 12:30pm local time. The trip was about 4-1/2 days. We spent four nights in a variety of campgrounds.

About every two hours we would stop for 30 minutes to stretch and get gas, etc. We also stopped once each day for a meal and that stop was about one hour. Sometimes our meal/stretch stop was a breakfast, and on other days it was a lunch. Our stop one day was a 1-1/2 hour lunch break which included some shopping. Other meals were with food we brought in the Roadtrek. The stops were more frequent than usual for us; I guess this is what Class A or Super-C owners may experience. I've spoken with a few and I was told that they generally travel about 300 miles a day with frequent stops each day.

One thing we observed on this trek was the difficulty of some RVs getting gasoline. I'd never thought about this, but many of the "truck stops" have one side with pumps for gasoline powered vehicles and the other for diesel. Getting in line at the gas pumps was clearly a challenge for some of the RVers.

Another thing we noticed was the Roadtrek seemed to travel more smoothly when towing. Some of that I attribute to the rear weight on the hitch. I usually trek with water only in the front tank. That's because I can visually inspect how full it is when the side drawer is open. However, after this experience I may fill the inside fresh water tank at the rear of the vehicle instead. That would put more weight on the rear wheels.

I suppose I could have the vehicle weighed at each tire to determine the actual weight.

Trip Summary - To Lordsburg, NM

This includes the portion of the trek up to and including Lordsburg, NM, which was our final gas stop for the 1,909 mile trek. To Lordburg was 1,760 miles. I didn't gas up when we arrived at the ultimate destination and so at the time I wrote this I was unsure of how much gas was actually used beyond Lordsburg. That final leg was 149 miles plus local driving. I used the receipts to calculate gas used, etc. Distance was per the odometer and our mapping software.

Miles driven for these statistics: 1,760
Gallons of gas: 125.583
Average cost, per gallon: $4.73 (some gas at a $0.05 discount per gallon)
Cost of gasoline: $548.49
Octane of gas purchased: 87 and 88 (some stations only had 86 and 88)
Average driving speed: 55.94 MPH
MPG (based upon receipts): 15.2 (towing an estimated 1,500 lb. trailer).

Daily Miles

June 4, 342 miles
June 5, 445 miles
June 6, 439 miles
June 7, 379 miles
June 8, 304 miles
Total trek 1909 miles.

We experienced some overnight rain in Alda NE and Ogallala, then smoke from fires as we proceeded west. There was a nice sunset at Elephant Butte NM. We didn't drive to the lake because I was towing a trailer. That means very wide turning radius and less than simple backups.