I’m renting a U-Haul truck to move 1300 miles and am trying to figure out if it would be cheaper to also rent a car dolly to tow my car or drive the car separately. The U-Haul site says the truck will average 10 MPG, but how much will it get if towing a vehicle? In other words, will towing cut the…

How big a box on the U-Haul? Im suprised they say it will get 10mpg. Does U-Haul say OK to tow a (I assume you will be using a car dolly with only the towed cars rear wheels on the ground) dolly? How big is the car you want to tow. How big is the trucks engine? gas or diesel?

Towing will likely only cut about 1-3MPG. Cars/dolly do not weigh much and the trucks with your stuff are very lightly loaded unless you have lots of tools or other dead weight.

With the biggest rental truck, 8-10 mpg is probably a good estimate. I bet the car will cost, at most, a couple of mpg, low end if it is flat and more if mountainous. Doing the arithmetic with a 30 mpg car and 2 mpg loss (8 down from 10); you will only save about $45 in fuel. A dolly or transpor…

There’s no way a loaded UHaul, large truck, is going to get 10 mpg. My 3/4 ton Dodge gets about 14 towing a boat if I take it easy on it, 12 if I’m running 80 with it. A large UHaul probably gets more like 7 or 8 loaded. I doubt a trailer makes much difference with it. I will say that unless you…

A U-haul truck will get bad enough miles. If your using a 15’ truck or better, they can more than handle the tow dolly for FWD or the car hauler for RWD and 4WD. And, it will not affect the truck’s fuel mileage that badly. You’ll definitely use more fuel by driving both vehicles. Go in peace.

You will definitely save money by towing. You are running one engine, not two. Maintain a constant speed on the interstate and your truck’s mpg while towing will not be much different from driving the truck by itself.

I appreciate your feedback about the 10 mpg. I’m renting a 14-foot truck and the U-Haul website says it will get 10 mpg, but the proof will be real-world driving.

The quote on the rental of the car dolly at the local rental place was $182, but the online site quoted $121 so your estimate of $150 is in the ballpark. I agree it might be cheaper to drive both the truck and the car plus fewer headaches of driving a very long rig…

“The car is an AWD Subaru and from the other posts, it sounds like it is not a good idea to tow this particular vehicle on a car dolly.” Unless you want to do some very expensive repair work on the center differential and possibly some other components in the AWD system, your Subaru should NOT be t…

Towing a vehicle and gas mileage

Maintenance/Repairs

winger June 18, 2008, 4:16am 10

Ah yes, the devil is in the details. Renting a 14-foot truck and yes, the car dolly means only the rear wheels are on the ground. The car is an AWD Subaru and from the other posts, it sounds like it is not a good idea to tow this particular vehicle on a car dolly. Good question about the truck’s engine and gas/diesel. I’ll do more research.

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Towing a vehicle and gas mileage

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