Good to actually get some feedback going the other way. I was kind of afraid that I might be pushing my luck with an enclosed trailer, even a relatively lightweight one. While many of my events are in the midwest (no real elevation changes at all) there will be a few out in California and out on the east coast that I may attend, so the elevation issues do concern me.
I guess it'd be good to find out what kind of mileage everyone sees while towing, as well as distances and types of driving (ie. elevation changes, flat interstate cruising, etc). I can't imagine getting anything over 12mpg, to be honest.
My loads are usually pretty minimal - jack/jackstands, safety gear, extra set of pads, fluid, few tools (since I drive a Honda, the majority of work can be done using a pretty small set of tools...nothing too complicated), cooler and clothes. In years past I've gotten away with just putting it all in the back of the race car and heading out, but after a few hairy incidents, I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to maybe have some piece of mind in towing it.
I actuallly wanted some sort of turbodiesel V8 dually, but since it was more my better half's choice over mine, she wasn't a fan of driving a pickup everyday. The LR3 really seems incredibly versatile, and drives better than any vehicle in its class that I can think of besides a Cayeenne Turbo, which was a little out of our price range, and wasn't that impressive to warrant the difference when compared with the LR3. In fact, my buddy towed his S2000 with a naturally-aspirated Cayenne V8 from Chicago to Los Angeles and back without incident, so that gave me some initial encouragement that the LR3 would at least be decently capable.
I'm hoping I'll be alright as long as I don't overdo it on the weight, but just from driving the LR3 a few times as it is, I could see where the engine would feel a bit over-worked...the thing's just so darn heavy by iteself. Wonder if there's anything reasonably cheap that I can do to free up some torque in the powerband?
