I would think a small trailer might not have too negative an affect on fuel
mileage.
But, I have a friend who Always checks his mileage.  ( a vanagon guy too )
On his old Loyal type subaru wagon he gets 24 to 26 on the highway I think.
Towing this very small tent trailer...........not a large flat one, but just
a small bubble of a little low one with tiny tires, he only got about 20.
mmmm kinda surprised.

On the other hand, driving a Syncro Westy with a 3.3 liter SVX engine, and
towing my utility trailer just heaped with stuff until it was embarrassing,
and the van jammed with stuff, I got 16.5 mpg for several tanks moving from
port Townsend Wa to southern Oregon.
And that's good mileage for an SVX syncro westy without at trailer !  

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Allan Streib
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 6:33 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: NOVC Comment on fuel economy, drag and velocity

On Jan 23, 2008, at 4:36 PM, Frank Grunthaner wrote:

> Take Home Lesson: 30% fuel economy loss at average speed of 80 mph
> with
> mountain bike perpendicular to direction of propagation. Not a lot
> of surface area.
> Large effect.

Last spring we drove to Florida with a Radio Flyer wagon tied to the
roof luggage rack of our Ford Focus wagon (wanted something to haul
the kids and their toys, beach chairs, etc. back and forth to the
beach).  The impact on fuel economy was quite dramatic, in fact it
would have been cheaper to buy a wagon there and leave it than it was
to haul ours down there and back.  My guess is that it would be
better economy-wise to haul a small trailer than have anything on the
roof.

Allan