How much does it cost to tow a pop up?

It depends greatly on your Tow vehicle and your driving habits. I would guess a sienna would take a hit in MPG towing 3000 pounds. I Just posted this on your other thread - but on longer distance trips I sometimes get better mileage towing, because I drive about 20 mph slower. I often creep up close to 80 without, but keep it locked in at a leisurely 60 when towing.

 

I tow a small Jayco with either a 2000 4Runner or a 2011 PreRunner (6-cylinders). I lose 1-mpg overall keeping around 20-mpg with either vehicle. Kayak or canoe doesn't change the mileage. I do highway speeds - and whatever I can get climbing up serious hills. I opted for a small unit to reduce wind drag and maneuverability in cramped camp sites.
Any money you might loose towing a pup will be gratefully recovered avoiding the lodging costs. There is no choice for us when we consider whether to watch a sunset as we fish - or watching a motel TV and wondering just what that stuff was on the remote controller!

 

I got about 18 mpg towing my 1,500 lb pup with my 2016 Sienna. But that was with a bike and a kayak on the roof, so that probably had as big of an impact as the pup.



It's hard to see but there's a mountain bike in the other side of the kayak.

 

That would depend on your tow vehicle and your pop up. I know people who tow a light weight pup with a honda and get 28 mpg on the highway. The other end of the spectrum would be idiots such as myself who enjoy fuel guzzling old vehicles like my old dirty 7.3 diesel and also have a heavy pop up. Admittedly though I still get around 19 mpg in the ol' beast. But fuel additives keep my cost per fill up on the higher end thanks to ultra low sulphur diesel at the pump.

 

It very much depends on the pup and TV. We didn't lose a lot of mpg with either of our pups, which were small. (TT was another story, especially with the 4Runner as TV.)

For us, the extra fuel costs on trips are outweighed by the savings of campground vs. hotel, our own food instead of always eating out. (We've camped for many years, beginning in a tent, then popups, then the TT. Saving money and being outside in areas we want to explore are two of the big reasons we prefer it to hotels.)

 

I have no idea, but think I will keep track on our next trip - just out of curiosity.

Either way, we are saving $900 over what a moderate resort at Disney would cost us by staying at Fort Wilderness instead. Add that to the fact of having a full kitchen and being able to prepare our own meals, the cost will pale in comparison.

 

Lots of stops and starts will kill your MPG no matter what you are driving. But once you are on the move the low profile of the pup costs you very little in extra gas. It is even possible you could end up a little ahead. Without the pup I travel at around 80mph on the highway. With the pup I limit myself to 70mph.

When I towed a 2700-ish lbs pup with my 2011 Sienna I never measured the gas mileage because I never found it to be very far off of what it would be without the pup.

 

Our Pup is 2500#, and we carry 5 people and 500-1000# of gear.

Highway -
My truck gets 18.5 empty, 17 towing while loaded. (Avg over a 6000 mile trip in all conditions @ 65mph)
Our Pilot gets 21 empty, 17.5+/- towing while loaded.

Compare that to a 21' Hybrid - truck gets 12 at best.

 

As mentioned many factors involved, how heavy is your camper, how much gear, any bikes, kayaks, what kind of wind resistance you have, where you drive (Mountains?). For me I packed my car up full of gear less the camper and tracked my mpg for both city and highway. That gave me a more real-time number to use. When estimating my mpg before a trip I used my city packed number less 1 or 2 to account for wind resistance and other factors that would slow things down. Most trips I find i do way better than I estimate and sometimes it's worse. One trip I hit bad headwind the entire way and I was litterly watching the gas needle fall every mile. I found when I have a kayak on the roof it effects my mpg more than towing alone. One of the reasons I love towing a popup is it's low profile. I don't have to fight wind resistance much.

 

It may make a big difference if a kayak is put on popup bottom facing up... The roof of TV may be same height as kayak on top of camper to ensure smooth flow of air while traveling.

 

It cost me around 3mpg at highway speeds towing this, fully loaded, with my XJ.
It weighs somewhere around 3600-3800 lbs loaded.

 

With my Chrysler van (slightly lower economy than your Toyota van but close) I get 16-19MPG towing a 2700lb or so popup(~68MPH) depending on wind, how flat the land is, etc. I can get 23-25 normally on the highway(75-80MPH). Towing with the canoe on the roof of the van is a little lower, but not all that much.

 

That is a huge difference from a PUP. I didn't know a TT would make such a large impact. Just more reason for us to stay with a PUP until God stops us.

My parents' Class A gets a whopping 7 mph. They ask if we wanted to borrow it when we were tent camping. Ummmm, no thank you.

 

Re: How much does it cost to tow a pop up

We tow a Rockwood 2318G (~ 3000 lbs when fully loaded) with a 2011 Sienna. When not in the mountains out west the mpg is 19 - 20 at 63 mph. The aerodynamics of the Sienna and popup together are really quite good. On your other post I mentioned we got 18.9 mpg on a 4,500 mile trip from Ohio to the Grand Canyon, Zion, Moab, Mesa Verde, and Colorado Springs, not bad with all the mountain passes. Good luck.

 

If it's your first pup I wouldn't purchase new. There are so many different styles, as well as amenities in pop ups. Some are important to some folks, others find some amenities obtrusive. I would REALLY suggest finding a good used pup for a first camper to figure out what is important to you personally before getting locked into a payment and the inevitable severe depreciation associated with buying new.

 

We own a TT now and previously owned a couple of pups, we noticed about a 2-3 mpg drop when we towed with our Dodge Grand Caravan. Then I bought a new truck with a hemi and it was a 1-2 mpg drop but it pulled like it wasn't even there. Now with the TT weighing in at 5500 lbs plus about 800 lbs of gear such as bikes, generator etc with my wife and 3 grand kids...my mileage takes about a 4-5 mpg hit since we pull it up small mountainous roads to our campsites. Normally I get about 12.0 mpg so with gas prices up here in BC Canada it can be expensive to own a TT and a truck...I have relegated my truck to towing duties mostly and it sits in my garage driven on weekends mostly and bought a new Jeep Cherokee for my daily driver....my wife loves the new Jeep and steals it any chance she can get rather than drive her car...lol My jeep gets around 29 mpg and I have gotten 40 on a trip to Edmonton from Vancouver.