Thanks to all of you who replied to my questions about gasoline mileage. Yes, I did forget about the mileage and decided to enjoy the ride. My Yukon did well enough for us; it did cry a mornful tune in the mountains near Butte, Montana and on some steep gravel roads in Idaho. My wife and I traveled 6600 miles out West and enjoy all of it except the weather.
We were not ready to leave West Yellowstone on about the first week of October when a cold front with rain, wind, and snow moved in rather quickly. It was my first experience with removing the fresh
water hose at night to prevent a frozen hose. We finally had to leave for home--O'Fallon, Missouri. The wind and rain escorted us all the way from West Yellowstone to Billings, Garyowen, Cheyene, Ogalla, and Greenwood, Nebraska. The rains finally stopped in Greenwood and the wind finally eased off in Columbia, Mo. The gusty winds up to about 35 or 40 mph was a new experience for me. Of course, the weather turned much warmer in West Yellowstone a few days after our exit.
This leads me to some other questions. First of all, everything on our trailer worked and did so for the duration of the trip, includingn the furnace. However, the cold weather ran us home. We don't some cold weather--below freezing at night with some rises in temperatures in the day to say the 40s, 50s, or 60s is okay with us; however our trailer is not designed for freezing temperatures--no underbelly covering, no wrapped water tanks, no wrapped water pipes, no storm windows, etc. We did develop what seems to be a grabbing effect by the trailer brakes. I have an appointment at the dealer for this problem.
So, you guessed it, we are now looking for a new travel trailer with a winter package. In addition, we found ourselves walking over each other in the kitchen and dining area. We also have two small dogs that sleep in crates. And so it goes. We are looking for at least two slideouts (or half-slides), a small slideout bunk area for the dogs and their crates, two swivel chairs in addition to the sofa or in place of the sofa, and we need plenty of storage for 6 to 8 week trips. Our North Country 22FB has great storage. We must go with the ultra light weight trailers, too, because of the Yukon XL. In our part of the world, we have found the Rockwood which is light weight and has the needed winter package; however, the storage does not meet our needs. I have been on-line a lot but have not find anything in my area; so, we will probably travel to other states if necessary. There is a Flagstaff travel trailer within about 50 miles of us that we may check out. We just returned from a fly fishing trip here in Missouri this evening. We must have our present trailer winterized within the next two weeks; so, we intend to begin looking for a different trailer during the winter months. Any ideas?
Also, since we have been home, I am finding that the two batteries on our present trailer do not hold a charge even over night. This was not a problem until recently. My dealer gave me a "quick fix" just before our last trip by installing an item which enables me to disconnect the battery. The battery is supposed to hold a full charge when disconnected from the rest of the trailer. This idea did not work and furthermore, there are items on the trailer that require some electricity from the battery all the time, so I am told. In short, the technicians at the dealer did not think there was anything wrong. I intend to settle this issue and the issue about the brakes this week with the service department at the dealer tomorrow. This dealership--Bill Thomas--has been great except for a few issues with the service department.
You all have no doubt heard all these stories before.
Cold weather requires using the furnace and the furnace requires using the battery. You might try a reasonal sized generator of you are havng issues running batteries low.
Also, a TT with 2 slides might put that GVWR in the range the Yukon is not meant to handle. A cold weather TT like an Arctic Fox (for example) with 2 slides will be heavy, heavy.
As always, just an opinion. Good luck with your choices.
I always do my mpg calculation for long trips at 9 mpg and that's pretty close. I was off once I was doing a lot of mountain towing and ended up at 7.5 I have changed tow vehicles but not the calculation and it still works.
I've got an 06 Silverado with 5.3 & 3.73 axle. And, have been towing a trailer about the same weight and size as yours for the last few years. I've got as low as 8.8 mpg, when I was in a hurry and running at 75 mph on the freeway. With a tailwind and driving conservatively in overdrive I've got 12. Generally it's in the 11's. With this combo, it always seems if I run in third I've got more power than I need, but in OD it tends to shift up and down a lot unless taking it easy and it's really flat. I thought perhaps the 4.11 would be better for OD towing (20-20 hindsight).
Did a 12,000 mile trip to and from Alaska this summer pulling a 31RLDS Hornet travel trailer which weighed 9300 pounds loaded. I pulled it with a 2006 Deisel ford F250. I averaged just shy of 10 mpg for the trip.
2006 Ford F250 Crew Cab 6.0 Diesel 4X4
2008 Keystone Hornet 31RLDS
Ford Integrated Brake Controller
Equalizer 1200 WD Hitch
pacificnw wrote: Cold weather requires using the furnace and the furnace requires using the battery. You might try a reasonal sized generator of you are havng issues running batteries low.
Also, a TT with 2 slides might put that GVWR in the range the Yukon is not meant to handle. A cold weather TT like an Arctic Fox (for example) with 2 slides will be heavy, heavy.
As always, just an opinion. Good luck with your choices.
Thanks for help about the battery. I do have a generator and a good thing, too.
After getting the battery charged via the generator, we camped some cold nights at a state park where there was electricity. I thought the furnace would operate off the electricity rather than the battery. Is that true? If it is, I may have some other problem with my battery. Now, the battery won't hold a charge even overnight; I must use my generator just to charge the battery even before using my electric jack. Just running my engine on my suv won't charge the battery up enough to use the jack. Do I have serious battery problems or some other problems.
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