Hi there.  Welcome to the forum.

If you are towing on a wind still day traveling at about 90-100km/h I would guess that the consumption will be is the area of 7km/lt.  If its a diesel engine possibly just above 8km/lt.

As a rough estimate my consumption increases by between 20% and 30% when I tow..

Welcome on the forum Craig. 

I would be a bit more optimistic and add 30% to your current consumption and say you should be able to get about 9.25km/L as you are going to tow a relatively light Caravan.

If you have the diesel it might use about 25% more fuel. 

Towed my 1996 expo with a 2l mazda6 and a 2l Renault Megane II and was never an issue. Actually cant remember the values anymore but really was never a shock or horror story. 

It all depends on how you tow and what speed you want to travel...

Craig, My experience as well as what I have read indicates that sedan cars' consumption increases by more than a higher vehicle like a SUV or a bakkie as a lot more frontal area is exposed in the case of the lower vehicle which causes higher wind resistance.  In some cases I have read that the consumption even doubles with sedans.  I would rather expect about a 40% increase if it is important to know this beforehand.

A Focus is a sedan, so the caravan will ad a lot of wind resistance, so more speed would add more drag thus higher fuel consumption.

Take it slow and keep to 4th as much as possable.

Well there you have it. A few different views of the forum members.  Unless there is someone that actually tows with a Focus to give the exact figure we all can just speculate on what it would be.

I hope somebody can provide specific detail for you.

Take your normal consumption minis 3.

As Leon asked - the core of a closer estimate would be to know if it is a petrol or diesel Focus. Further when I towed a Caravette 6L with a 2L Monza I did not get less than 7.5 and the Focus has much better economy than the 2000 2.0L Monza Cli. The Caravette 6L was about the same weight.

I think doubling of fuel used at 100 is pushing it a bit (6.25km/L). Not many cars would use that much while towing sensibly.

Thank you to everyone for your advice. It's been helpful. My ford is 2.0lt petrol and I was estimating towing fuel consumption around 8km/lt. Please watch my next post tonight on rear suspension stiffening .

Craig

Welkom op die forum.

I'm towing my  Skipper Model T camper trailer with a Renault  Duster Diesel Auto . Towing speed between 90 and 100 km. This speed is in the max torque revs range of the Duster Diesel in 6th gear. This accounts  for the exceptional fuel economy of between 15,5km/l and 16,5km/l  I get generally : 

Neville that is gr8 consumption. Some would not think one can use so little fuel. 

That is truly brilliant Neville!  The fact that the very light Skipper runs in the slipstream of the Duster obviously is a contributing factor.  A 1 ton diesel bakkie on its own at 100k/u is about 50% heavier on fuel than your Duster with the caravan on tow. I spoke to a couple towing a similiar van with a Jetta at Jongensfontein and they reported a quite a heavier consumption.  It was a petrol car and as it is lower, the wind resistance factor of the van is somewhat bigger. I considered the Duster AWD too when I bought the Kuga, but as we were towing a Sprite Supersport at the time, I judged the Duster to be a bit under powered.

Danie-SLK wrote:

As Leon asked - the core of a closer estimate would be to know if it is a petrol or diesel Focus. Further when I towed a Caravette 6L with a 2L Monza I did not get less than 7.5 and the Focus has much better economy than the 2000 2.0L Monza Cli. The Caravette 6L was about the same weight.

I think doubling of fuel used at 100 is pushing it a bit (6.25km/L). Not many cars would use that much while towing sensibly.

Danie

Dis wat my Suzuki Grand Vitara gee. En dan ry ek mooi.

Maar sy krag en spasie.....damn dis lekker🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

You guys are very lucky.

I get a constant 18L/100km or 5.5km/L normal driving.

If I do add the caravan and drive 100kmh it perhaps go up to 20l/100km or 5km/L.

Only time I see a real difference is with sand driving, then it shoots up to 30L/100km or 3.3km/L

Ed, I used to tow a Sprite Supersport with a 2.1 Kombi at between 90 and 100 k/u and worked on an average of about 13l/100 kilos. Then I changed over to the 2L AWD diesel Kuga and the consumption went down.  At that time we only used the caravan in the Western and Southern Cape where, because of the hills and dales the consumption usually is higher.  I tried to see from the log book which trips we undertook with the caravan which is a bit difficult,  but I do remember I was quite impressed with the consumption so it must have been about 10 to 11 l/100 kilos.  It is unfair to compare our present rig with yours as the Skipper is very light and small, so our consumption of between  8 and 9 l/100 kilos at a true 100k/h does not say much.  All this makes me wonder why you and others are satisfied towing with a bakkie. 

As jy op ander drade lees, gaan jy sien daar is manne wat met n karavaan meer km/l kry met n karavaan agter hom as wat sy solo specs is tydens fabrieks toetse. Haak n wa....miskien is jy ook gelukkig dat jou km's die lug in skiet per liter😜

Ek glo ook jy behoort rondom 7km/l te kry....afhangende hoe swaar jou voet is

Wetkit wrote:

You guys are very lucky.

I get a constant 18L/100km or 5.5km/L normal driving.

If I do add the caravan and drive 100kmh it perhaps go up to 20l/100km or 5km/L.

Only time I see a real difference is with sand driving, then it shoots up to 30L/100km or 3.3km/L

As a layman I would not have thought the Navara would be that thirsty towing a Penta. It just shows why when guys with 2L diesels report using up to 11L/100km even with a full height caravan it would seem as we are talking fishing or that we can say what we want as it is our vehicle and our own vehicles are always better than the next guy.

My logbook shows to use about what Fred got with his 2L AWD Kuga towing a Super Sport. By means of comparing my Nissan 1400LDV uses about the same fuel in town that I use while towing my caravan.

As far as the Focus is concerned I see nobody corrected me when I indicated the diesel version would use 25% more fuel. I meant to say 25% less. It is all thumb such as you have a petrol version.

Danie I think we must just confirm something from Ed.  I am of opinion that he has a petrol Navara and not the 2.5 Diesel.

The fuel consumption he gave relates more to that.  I never had such a consumption with my 2.5 Navara not even while driving 4x4.

I could be wrong

Fifty years ago when I bought my first caravan I asked the salesman what fuel consumption I could expect to get driving a Peugeot 404.

I have never forgotten his answer, and think it applies equally today, perhaps more so with the current price of fuel.

He said that if fuel consumption was going to be a worrying factor to me I should not consider buying a caravan, and should rather go the chalet route or buy a tent.

He also said that if I always budget on using twice as much fuel when towing I will never be out of pocket fuel wise.

This last bit of advice was especially valuable ensuring stress-free vacations. 

Yes, my Navara is the 4L petrol.

I can never miss a fuel pump, but I am normally the first one there .

After many years of towing with different vans and vehicles I still find that my figures are time and again worse than similar combinations. I believe much has to do with how one record data.

I do not trust figures derived from odometer distances and average speed guestimates, and when is a tank full?

What I do trust are figures derived from tanks filled to the brim given time to fill the expantion chamber and distances and average speeds  given as per GPS recordings. In other words, what I am saying is that if you want to bring average towing speed into your equation I do not believe it to be the true average speed unless it is derived from a GPS. I have travelled enough kilos with a GPS to know how much slower average GPS speeds can be from what one aims to maintain, not to talk about the urge to put foot to try and do so.

I have found my most relaxing towing style is when I set the cruise control to my desired towing speed and to ebjoy the ride. Consumption may be a little higher, but I do not to control the throttle all the time.

Wetkit wrote:

You guys are very lucky.

I get a constant 18L/100km or 5.5km/L normal driving.

If I do add the caravan and drive 100kmh it perhaps go up to 20l/100km or 5km/L.

Only time I see a real difference is with sand driving, then it shoots up to 30L/100km or 3.3km/L

Hierdie konsumpsie syfers is seker n grappie ?

Wetkit wrote:

Yes, my Navara is the 4L petrol.

I can never miss a fuel pump, but I am normally the first one there .

Hier is manne wat met verbruiksyfers spog wat my oupa van sou gesê het hulle skiet nie spek nie, hulle gooi met varke.

Wel laat my toe om ook met 'n vark te gooi. Ek sleep 'n 1000 kg karavaan met 'n outomatiese 4x4 Fortuner. Ek kry gereeld 99 kilometer per liter. Dit is wat die aan boord rekenaar sê. Inteendeel, ek dink van Harrismith af tot aan die onderpunt van van Reenenspas  kry ek dit die meeste van die pad. Dieselfde geld vir die stuk tussen Howick en Pietermaritzburg. Met die omdraai slag is dit egter 'n ander storie. Dan is tussen twee en vier kilometer per liter aan die orde van die dag.

Ek wens regtig ouens wil die pad omstandighede asook die terug rit in ag neem wanneer hulle oor verbruik spog, asook GPS gemiddeldes, nie geskatte of uit die duim gesuigde gemiddeldes nie. 

Ek het een jaar my destydse Jurgens Fleetline 5 met my nuwe 3 liter Granada GLS met 'n vyf spoed ratkas en 'n 100 liter tenk van PE af Kimberley toe gesleep. Op Jansenville, wat nagenoeg 125 kilos van PE af is was die tenk leeg. Ek was moedeloos, en die vulstasie eienaar het dit seker opgemerk, want hy vra toe in watter rat sleep ek. Ek sê toe vyfde, die kar het mos baie krag. Hy raai my toe aan om net teen afdraendes in vierde te sleep, gelyk pad en opdraendes in derde, en te vergeet van vyfde. Ek maak toe so. Op Hanover was die tenk amper kwart. Daar het ek iets geleer.

Kanneman, dit is soos n forumiet op n ander bespreking gese het, hy sal nie eers daardie goeie verbruik kry nie al ry hy in n mynskag af.

Interressant om te weet van voertuig se brandstof verbruik en dan te weet as verbruik skielik die hoogte inskiet is daar fout. Wanneer jy die voertuig koop moet jy reeds jou huiswerk gedoen het en weet waarvoor laat jy jou in ten opsigte van verbruik.

Het n petrol Santa Fe AWD  gery. Boeta, sy verbruik was geweldig maar hy het n Swing gesleep met n plesier.  Sleep nou met 2.4 Fortuner en 2.2 BT50 en beide se verbruik is so tussen 11 en 12 liter per 100km. Hang ook maar af van hoe swaar my skoene is.