Octane grade for towing |
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lgblau
Senior Member Joined: 09 Feb 2018 Location: Arizona Online Status: Offline Posts: 140 |
Topic: Octane grade for towing Posted: 20 Jun 2018 at 10:16am |
Good Morning...I recently read an article about using a higher octane gasoline while towing. Supposed to be more efficient, while giving youe engine added power. Any thoughts. Thx
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Leonard🌵
2017/179 2017 Ram 1500 |
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mcarter
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 07 Apr 2016 Location: Greenbrier, TN Online Status: Offline Posts: 3419 |
Posted: 20 Jun 2018 at 10:52am |
Some folks significant increases, mine is less than a mile per gallon.
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Mike Carter
2015 178 " I had the right to remain silent, I just didn't have the ability." |
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lgblau
Senior Member Joined: 09 Feb 2018 Location: Arizona Online Status: Offline Posts: 140 |
Posted: 20 Jun 2018 at 11:04am |
That is definitely not enough to off set the price difference.
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Leonard🌵
2017/179 2017 Ram 1500 |
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GlueGuy
Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2017 Location: N. California Online Status: Offline Posts: 2653 |
Posted: 20 Jun 2018 at 11:12am |
It will depend a lot on the engine. The higher the compression ratio, the more it will matter. If you have a fairly pedestrian N/A engine, it might not make any difference at all. If you have a fairly high compression engine, plus turbo or super charging, and you're towing a TT, it could make a huge difference. Then there's the whole world in between those two extremes. The engine on our F-150 is high compression, and it is turbocharged. The owner's manual recommends premium when towing. So we do that. If you have an engine monitor, you can see the difference in the ignition advance.
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bp
2017 R-Pod 179 Hood River 2015 Ford F150 SuperCrew 4WD 3.5L Ecoboost |
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lgblau
Senior Member Joined: 09 Feb 2018 Location: Arizona Online Status: Offline Posts: 140 |
Posted: 20 Jun 2018 at 12:20pm |
My owners manual does not address the subject, but I think A Ram blog is were I first read about it. Thx
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Leonard🌵
2017/179 2017 Ram 1500 |
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lgblau
Senior Member Joined: 09 Feb 2018 Location: Arizona Online Status: Offline Posts: 140 |
Posted: 20 Jun 2018 at 12:22pm |
Getting ready for the second trip. This time to Gig Harbor, WA. Iwill have to try a couple tanks of higher octane, and see what happens.
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Leonard🌵
2017/179 2017 Ram 1500 |
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TheBum
Senior Member Joined: 26 Feb 2016 Location: Texas Online Status: Offline Posts: 1407 |
Posted: 20 Jun 2018 at 3:34pm |
I agree that it greatly depends on the vehicle and engine. For our V6 Highlander, Toyota is pretty adamant in the user manual about not running high octane gas in it. I don't think the engine is built for the increased energy.
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Alan
2022 R-Pod 196 "RaptoRPod" 2022 Ram 1500 Lone Star 4x4 Three cats |
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mcarter
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 07 Apr 2016 Location: Greenbrier, TN Online Status: Offline Posts: 3419 |
Posted: 20 Jun 2018 at 3:47pm |
Best to test on your vehicle, towing your trailer, I did, not worth the cost to me. Just came back from Grant, AL. 11.2 going down regular, 12.1 coming back on premium. BTW it doesn't change driving habits or trans shifting. I can see the turbo, V6s would see a difference but not my 5.3 Chevy.
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Mike Carter
2015 178 " I had the right to remain silent, I just didn't have the ability." |
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jato
Senior Member Joined: 23 Feb 2012 Location: Kewadin, MI Online Status: Offline Posts: 3252 |
Posted: 20 Jun 2018 at 4:35pm |
Did that with our V-6 Explorer, saw an increase of about 0.5 mpg. For us it wasn't worth the additional cost. BTW the V-6 has 290 HP.
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God's pod
'11 model 177 '17 Ford F-150 4WD 3.5 Ecoboost Jim and Diane by beautiful Torch Lake "...and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free." |
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StephenH
podders Helping podders - pHp Joined: 29 Nov 2015 Location: Wake Forest, NC Online Status: Offline Posts: 6326 |
Posted: 20 Jun 2018 at 8:29pm |
I decided to try the higher octane for two reasons. Out west, the "regular" gas was 85 octane and not the 87 I expect and the minimum Nissan recommends for the Frontier. Midgrade there was 87 octane and premium was 89 or 91 octane (varied with stations). As much as we were already stressing the engine in the mountains, I did not want to add detonation to the mix. Some of the stations had ethanol free gasoline in premium. A couple had cheaper ethanol "midgrade" at 87 octane but the 85 octane regular and the premium were ethanol free. Results seemed to indicate that the higher octane did not really yield a significant increase in mileage. Ethanol free gas did but I could not say the additional octane of the premium did much good.
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StephenH
Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,... ouR escaPOD mods Former RPod 179 Current Cherokee Grey Wolf 24 JS |
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