X-Trail report towing a 16' Van

[westie]

Well back from the first road trip 10 days in the van (1.4 ton loaded) out to Emerald via Rocky then back to Yapoon ( 5 Rocks) and H/Bay.



Now the Snail towed it ok and kept up with the larger vehicles and passed many of them along the flats and a couple up the over taking lanes as well.



With the 235x70x16's ( Speedo out by 7k100kmh = 107kmh) I fitted prior to the trip it seem to be ok with 90+k when locked in 2nd for the passing and hill work. Cruised around the 90-100k @ 3200rpm just under the rev band, power seems to come on once over the 3500rpm but under that there was not a lot there.



Fuel well the van is a 16' Viscount Aero Lite with 14" rims and the tyres are up to 45psi and the Snail was running 36 psi in the rear and 34 psi in the front,

we managed between 19 lt per 100k and 22 Lt per 100k into a stiff head wind from Emerald to Rocky.



Most of the Vaners we spoke to on the trip ALL got around the same 5-7k per Lt, and this was from Mit, Toy's, Pootrols and a couple of F250's, the bigger the car the bigger the van.



We had no problems with the Auto ( Overdrive OFF) but we drove for 2 hr and stopped, first day was a 6 1/2 hr driving time and the weather was mid 20's.



We did 2500k and it was due for a 50,000k service before we left so with a service prior it may have done better, I did also fit a K&N filter prior also. she goes in next week for a service and I will be getting the auto serviced also and do some K's on it before we head of again ( I never get a major serviced done just prior to a trip, had the auto belts snap from being over tensioned and brake fail, oil filter came undone, and a diff fry from no oil, all done by proffessonal machanics) , once back form the service I will reset the ECU and see how the fuel consumption is then I hope it will drop down to around 16-17 lt per 100k.



The new 235's I am not sure that was the right move but we did it also for the extra height so that we are able to go off road while away. I suppose it is a trade off in some ways as we do enjoy our time off road without the van. The extra speed is also good once you drop it out of drive passing of to retain speed up the hills and that was a big plus.