Towing with a V8 Mercedes
Discussion
Does anyone here have experience of the sort of mpg one gets with a V8 Mercedes (especially a W211 E500) when towing a tonne of caravan down the motorway?
We like tenting, but were contemplating getting a caravan for our European roadtrips. Thing is, most caravanners nowadays have an economical diesel to pull their caravans, and there is precious little information about elderly petrol Mercedes when it comes to tugging a shed through France.
The only reference I can find is someone on a caravanning website saying that his E500 got around 12mpg when hauling. No further info, so for all I know he was hammering along at 100mph with a 2-axle caravan up the mountains. Doing the sums, bearing in mind that our trips are ~800 miles each way just to get there, the difference in petrol costs between 12mpg and 20mpg is over £300, and the difference between 12mpg and 30mpg is £500 (both return trips).
As my E500 gets a smidge over 30mpg on a long run with a boot full of luggage, it starts to look a bit of an expensive hobby when the fuel and pitch costs alone cost the same as a week in a basic but clean hotel - not taking into account the £10k or so for a decent used caravan. Hence the interest.
We like tenting, but were contemplating getting a caravan for our European roadtrips. Thing is, most caravanners nowadays have an economical diesel to pull their caravans, and there is precious little information about elderly petrol Mercedes when it comes to tugging a shed through France.
The only reference I can find is someone on a caravanning website saying that his E500 got around 12mpg when hauling. No further info, so for all I know he was hammering along at 100mph with a 2-axle caravan up the mountains. Doing the sums, bearing in mind that our trips are ~800 miles each way just to get there, the difference in petrol costs between 12mpg and 20mpg is over £300, and the difference between 12mpg and 30mpg is £500 (both return trips).
As my E500 gets a smidge over 30mpg on a long run with a boot full of luggage, it starts to look a bit of an expensive hobby when the fuel and pitch costs alone cost the same as a week in a basic but clean hotel - not taking into account the £10k or so for a decent used caravan. Hence the interest.
hman said:
Buys v8 mercedes - worries about mpg..
Useful contribution, thanks buddy 
No hman, I am not worried about MPG, otherwise I wouldn't have been running a V8 Mercedes as a daily driver for the last few years.
However, what I AM considering is if towing a caravan to the Mediterranean would end up costing the same as or more than just staying in a hotel, because then we might as well just enjoy the drive and not tow a small house on wheels behind us.
donkmeister said:
hman said:
Buys v8 mercedes - worries about mpg..
Useful contribution, thanks buddy No hman, I am not worried about MPG, otherwise I wouldn't have been running a V8 Mercedes as a daily driver for the last few years.
However, what I AM considering is if towing a caravan to the Mediterranean would end up costing the same as or more than just staying in a hotel, because then we might as well just enjoy the drive and not tow a small house on wheels behind us.
I guess it will depend how rapidly you intend to tow. I have that engine in my 129 and it is very efficient for a 5.0litre V8 when run at sustained high speed. It gives me about 27.5mpg running at 100mph. At 60mph, even with a shed on the back, I can't see it being horrific. At 80 it might hurt a bit more, though.
No experience of towing with a Mercedes V8, but with a thirsty petrol Shogun. It was a big caravan, dual axle, around 1400kg when laden.
Leaving the autobox in Drive, the mpg dropped from around 22 to 13-14, ie about 2 /3 of what a non towing petrol Shogun would do, but shifting the box myself, using the +/- I could increase the mpg to around 18pmg.
This suggests that the calibration on the Autobox is no-where near optimal for towing a heavy load, I suspect that this is true for all Autoboxes, so you may find you can significantly improve the mpg by taking control yourself.
Towing long distances though, takes a real long time, everything just takes longer and motorways, etc become a real drag. Personally for the distances you intend, I would either fly/hirehotel or drive/hotel
Leaving the autobox in Drive, the mpg dropped from around 22 to 13-14, ie about 2 /3 of what a non towing petrol Shogun would do, but shifting the box myself, using the +/- I could increase the mpg to around 18pmg.
This suggests that the calibration on the Autobox is no-where near optimal for towing a heavy load, I suspect that this is true for all Autoboxes, so you may find you can significantly improve the mpg by taking control yourself.
Towing long distances though, takes a real long time, everything just takes longer and motorways, etc become a real drag. Personally for the distances you intend, I would either fly/hirehotel or drive/hotel
Edited by DavidY on Thursday 18th May 11:56
r129sl said:
I guess it will depend how rapidly you intend to tow. I have that engine in my 129 and it is very efficient for a 5.0litre V8 when run at sustained high speed. It gives me about 27.5mpg running at 100mph. At 60mph, even with a shed on the back, I can't see it being horrific. At 80 it might hurt a bit more, though.
Certainly - I bought mine expecting to average high-teens, but have averaged 22mpg over 25k miles of mixed driving. My record was around 31-32mpg on a late-night run from Edinburgh to Bedfordshire, no effort made to economy just drove it. Amazingly economical for the size of engine and car. I understand 60mph is a typical towing speed, above that things can start to get "exciting".
donkmeister said:
Useful contribution, thanks buddy
No hman, I am not worried about MPG, otherwise I wouldn't have been running a V8 Mercedes as a daily driver for the last few years.
However, what I AM considering is if towing a caravan to the Mediterranean would end up costing the same as or more than just staying in a hotel, because then we might as well just enjoy the drive and not tow a small house on wheels behind us.
Dragging a tonne and a half of "accommodation" for hundreds of miles? Add in cost of pitch and the unmitigated joy of emptying the bog.No hman, I am not worried about MPG, otherwise I wouldn't have been running a V8 Mercedes as a daily driver for the last few years.
However, what I AM considering is if towing a caravan to the Mediterranean would end up costing the same as or more than just staying in a hotel, because then we might as well just enjoy the drive and not tow a small house on wheels behind us.
Not for me thanks.
MB V8 to a nice hotel? - yes please!
Not the same car, but I towed a medium sized single-axle caravan with my V8 450SLC many, many years ago and can't say I noticed much difference. That was the old 3-speed auto, normal consumption was about 18mpg from memory, and it might have dropped to about 15mpg. That was driving fairly gently. Booting it would probably be single figures.
Gassing Station | Mercedes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff