Has anyone bought one of the new light weight 5th wheels like the Cougar High Country He(Helium Technology) and gotten actual MPG imporvements?

I am curious to the difference since the aero drag is not much different how much MPG a 2000 pound lighter trailer might get me.

My 5'r rig is old and heavy and my tax return is burring a hole in my pocket

 

I can't speak for fivers, but when I was hauling for a living I didn't notice much difference when a couple thousand pound lighter or heavier. The position of the skinny peddal makes a bigger difference than a couple thousand pounds. My .02.

 

The dominate factor for towing is speed, not weight.

 

I didn't see much of a MPG change when I went from a 30' 5th wheel to the 40' version of the same make. Maybe 1 or so, but the 40' one is also taller.

Slowing down even by 5 mph makes a difference.

Personally, to make a light weight I would think they would have to use less structural material and less insulation.

 

We were going to buy a Durango 1500 series D295CS which is a light weight 32 foot, even with 16 inch wheels and a larger fridge we were looking at making a bunch of compromises with this trailer. Not only was it 12 inches lower in height the room in the basement was greatly reduced. The biggest sticking point was the price the dealer wanted, we decided to buy and when we went to the dealer they couldn't find the trailer we wanted, they had given it away as a lottery prize. That turned out to be good luck for us instead of buying a trailer our 2500 could pull we bought a 3500 and bought the trailer we wanted, a Crusader 320 5ver, haven't picked it up yet. We got a way nicer trailer 4 feet longer and 2000lbs heavier than the Durango, we also saved $7000 in price. Lighter weight trailer should not translate to lighter wallet.

 

From what I can see the Cougar High Country is an exception to the trade-offs of light weight design. There is a lot of storage. 2 or more slides, full height interior.

Based on the weight combination I would save over 2500 pounds over what I currently have. I run about 12,000 pounds loaded now for the trailer and I think I would be about 9,000 loaded with the new rig. Also in NorCal where I live every trip requires pulling grades where I think weight = reduced mileage. Open road I agree with others that have poseted the skinny pedal and self control = better mileage.

Now the challenge is finding the model I want. Seems that most of the Cougars have freestanding dinettes and I want to booth style to get the extra bed.

 

I don't know if you have looked at Prime Time Manufacturing, they have only been building 5vers since last July, they are backed by Forest River though. Some of their thinking is definitely outside the box, they make a trailer with a lot of nice features that you would see in trailers costing much more money. There are not a lot of floor plans to choose from but some of them come in quite light in weight. I had never heard of them, my wife came across them on the net while searching for the right floor plan.

 

I think parking next to a dumpster and tossing everything that aint nailed down is a good way to improve mileage. I've seen people spend hours setting up all kinds of crap at camp sites, and spend a whole Sunday truing to figure out how to wedge it all back in there. Loose weight, gain mileage.

Wind load has a big factor on it too. Even if it's a heavy side wind. We ran into some strong cross winds one time. I could see the fuel gauge dropping, like it was scared of the speedo needle and wanted to get away from it. We stopped, pulled out a map, and took a different path that was more wind friendly and got control of the excess fuel usage.

We've also changed to instead of loading the rv to the hilt with soda and groceries, we leave with stuff for sandwiches only, then find a store and shop after we park. What extra we spend in a bit more higher food prices sometimes, we way more than make up for it in fuel savings.

 

Travel speed is the key (as above). Lighter weight helps in hilly terrain. Beyond terrain and travel speed is the number of stops and starts. The lighter weight helps with this. Be easy on any start, don't accelerate to final number but come in below it and "drift" up to speed a ways down the road.

Really, a diesel is fairly insensitive to weight in the way a gasser is . . you can really tell if another 1,200-lbs is in back with one of those.

 

You put exactly what I was thinking from my own experience. One day I got the idea to lighten things up. I ditched the full set of pots and pans, stopped filling the water tanks thinking it was safer because I knew the water supply and bought a filtration system and test kit. I also started buying bottled water close to my camp instead of hauling it. I took out a lot of what I had stored. I did make sure I had extra filters and the correct tools for the truck and trailer and after I went around making sure I had all the wrenches etc, I was shocked at how small the tool kit became. Very good advice about this.

For me cross winds will either shorten or end my day of travel. I hauled campers for a couple of yrs and had lots of road time prior and it was staggering how much I could save by getting off the road when the wind was crazy. Dropping my speed down from 70 to 60 made a large difference too. From my own experience with hauling lightweights and heavier RV's, I prefer to haul the heavier rigs [within reason] over the lightweights. It can be worse hauling a lightweight on bumpy roads or in windy conditions. They can move around a lot more. Pin weight and distribution of the weight and how level the RV rides helps lots too. I noticed that some of the lightweights did not have a real good weight distribution over their axles and put the weight on the truck. Even though it was not a lot of weight in the truck, it made for a wagging tail behind the truck. I would not want to have that with my own RV.
Food for thought. Enjoy your choice.

 

I'm with Scotty, the wind is the biggest deal on mpgs. Slow down or park it. I personally like pulling the heavier 5th wheels, sometimes get better mileage than 6000lb TT's.

 

Wind load -- pressure drag -- is the reason I have owned (and will own another) truly aerodynamic trailer. 15+ mpg at 63 pulling a 34' trailer; 16 had I dropped to 58 mph (my current highway travel speed). Numbers consistent with other CTD and aero trailer owners.

When the 5'ers and other square boxes are parked we're still rolling.

Couldn't agree more about a well-balanced rig (hitch rigging) as above. When loads are properly placed on the various axles, all is good. It's worth all the trouble to chase after (scale tickets) and do correctly for braking, handling and mpg.

Axle weights are great, but scaled-weight-per-tire (axle end) is best.

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Well sold the heavy 96 Aljo and looking to pick up a new Cougar High Country next week. this reduces dry weight over 2,500 and I get a full belly pan and smooth nose and fible glass smooth sides for better aero.

I'll be happy with 1 mpg but from what I can see it should be better than that.

Ill post results as I get them. 5,000 mile trip comming in Late June.

 

It will be interesting to see your results.

 

Well after looking long and hard going to get the new rig from Indiana to save a buch of $$$$. Pick it up July 2nd.

Stay tuned