2025 Maverick Hybrid First Highway Towing w/ scale weight slip & real MPG #'s

That's the trailer and truck as configured for the trip, before WDH adjustment. 521 miles from Northern Michigan down into Ohio I-75S/MI 23S. Cruising speeds of ~70 MPH, passing at up to 82 MPH. Winds 10-15 MPH. Tow/haul mode used. Excellent performance, acceleration, handling and road manners, far better than the SUV it replaced! The trailer is a Karavan 5.5x9 from Tractor Supply with brakes added. Hitch is the Andersen weight distributing.

3 tanks of 87 regular:

Mileage improved as the hills leveled out and daytime temperatures rose. Final tank has about 40 miles of urban rural mix, further improving that tanks result. Overall average 20.2 MPG.

CAT Scale weights:
Steer 2420 lb
Drive 2800 lb
Trailer 2200 lb


Taking into account a heavy tongue load this trip, total trailer weight was likely 2600-2700 lb. Overall weight for the rig was 7420 lb. with a mostly empty fuel tank. ~3360 payload+trailer, 4060 truck curb weight (GVWR-payload capacity)

This load was easy and comfortable for the truck and the driver. Average torque demand 20-30% ("power meter"), merge and interstate hill climb unremarkable, not difficult, full throttle never required.

The rear axle was right at the factory limit specification - without the WDH it would have been over by a few hundred pounds most likely. I set the WDH with less tension than I normally would use for the first trip shakedown, front fenders still had about 1/4" rise from unladen height.

*edit: I thought I'd throw in a highway grade chart to explain a bit of the difference in MPG from the first third of the trip compared to the last third. The beginning of the trip I-75 has a decent amount of 1% - 3.5% grades, while the latter part is much flatter. This is just a snapshot of the partial trip from https://flattestroute.com that makes viewing the elevation and grade % fairly easy.

is that not over the trailer weight limit for the hybrid?

robbyrob said:

is that not over the trailer weight limit for the hybrid?

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No, it has AWD+4k tow package on this one (2025)

robbyrob said:

is that not over the trailer weight limit for the hybrid?

Click to expand...

New for 2025 we can get AWD in the Hybrid and get the 4000 pound towing package that has a trailer brake controller.

Generally, each 1,000 lbs in towed weight deducts about 5-6 mpg, an easy way to calculate your expected MPG on a 2025 Hybrid Mav. This is my towing experience.

heady said:

Taking into account a heavy tongue load this trip, total trailer weight was likely 2600-2700 lb. Overall weight for the rig was 7420 lb. with a mostly empty fuel tank. ~3360 payload+trailer, 4060 truck curb weight (GVWR-payload capacity)

The rear axle was right at the factory limit specification - without the WDH it would have been over by a few hundred pounds most likely. I set the WDH with less tension than I normally would use for the first trip shakedown, front fenders still had about 1/4" rise from unladen height.

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Thanks a lot for putting all of this information together.
What exactly is the factory limit specification? If without the WDH you would have been over by a few hundred pounds, then there is something wrong with the calculation if the trailer only weighted 2700 lbs. Just trying to understand the calculation.

Manollo3 said:

Thanks a lot for putting all of this information together.
What exactly is the factory limit specification? If without the WDH you would have been over by a few hundred pounds, then there is something wrong with the calculation if the trailer only weighted 2700 lbs. Just trying to understand the calculation.

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2800 lb. Rear axle weight rating, 2710 lb. front axle weight rating. It just had to do with weight distribution across the axles. To add more confusion, the total rating of the axles combined is higher than the stamped GVWR on the truck, 5,510 lb. vs. 5,320 lb. GVWR.

*The payload in the truck contributed to the axle loads too - I had ~3360 extra lbs being pulled, didn't really matter where it was at, truck or trailer, as long as I was under what the tires and axles could realistically handle. The combination of the three axles in this truck+trailer configuration is good for a maximum of 9,010 lbs. gross weight.

Thank you for the clarification. Still amazed to get that close to the limit. Did you have a change to check the tongue weight? Would be interesting to see that number.
Will definitely need to pay attention to this as well once I find a little camper to pull behind.

The 2022-2024 FWD Hybrids will be remarkably similar. My 2022 is.

Just less confidence & traction in wet, snowy, or off pavement conditions.

But the times I'm off pavement with a trailer I'm under 25 mph as well. And I never tow in the snow. Well, there was that one surprise snow storm in June....

Manollo3 said:

Thank you for the clarification. Still amazed to get that close to the limit. Did you have a change to check the tongue weight? Would be interesting to see that number.
Will definitely need to pay attention to this as well once I find a little camper to pull behind.

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I didn't weigh the tongue on this loadout, I could have, but I knew I'd be well over 10% tongue weight with this load so I didn't really care the exact figure, just that I had enough for high speed dynamic stability. The last load I had similar to this one was lighter overall and the tongue was 462 lb. on that trip.

Those are very nice results. Thank you for taking the time. My results are very similar w/ my MY2024 EB (similar distance, decent elevation changes, lighter weight at about 1600lbs, speeds between 68-70mph, 22-24 mpg, but overall very, very comparable.). I am impressed with the Hybrid Towing.

Happy to see non-youtber click bait testing. Love it. Also the results, too.

Thanks, and you're welcome (to anyone that finds it useful)! I usually do this with each new vehicle, as I'm basically addicted to hard data and it can be really difficult to find at times; easy to find estimates for weights, mpg, but very tricky to find actual results with the sources posted.

This is fantastic information. I bought a 2025 AWD Hybrid in Elko, Nevada and will be flying down from Alaska to pick it up in a couple weeks. Thanks for putting this together. Do you have your rear axle empty weight? I'm just curious how much total weight was added between the truck and trailer to the rear axle. I have a 2024 Honda Transalp that weighs around 500lbs and will just fit in the bed with the tailgate down. I'm curious how it will handle that weight and roughly where it will ride for sag.

heady said:

2800 lb. Rear axle weight rating, 2710 lb. front axle weight rating. It just had to do with weight distribution across the axles. To add more confusion, the total rating of the axles combined is higher than the stamped GVWR on the truck, 5,510 lb. vs. 5,320 lb. GVWR.

*The payload in the truck contributed to the axle loads too - I had ~3360 extra lbs being pulled, didn't really matter where it was at, truck or trailer, as long as I was under what the tires and axles could realistically handle. The combination of the three axles in this truck+trailer configuration is good for a maximum of 9,010 lbs. gross weight.

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Except you can't add gross axle numbers together because of other limitations. Each axle has a little higher rating than combined limits because of imperfect loading, such as was done here. Ford set the tongue limit at 400#. Some will load heavier, or put a few items in the bad which can load the rear axle heavier.

5,320 is the most Ford and Federal testing allows on the vehicle itself, total. 4,000# is the max allowed on a trailer, with 400# of that on the hitch. About perfect for a 3,500# trailer axle.

The Ford/Federal approved Gross Combination Vehicle Weight Rating is 8,315# on the Hybrid with 4K tow. You had about 900# extra capacity, but all of that would've needed to be on the trailer axle.

Your tongue is still overloaded quite a bit. Something I personally wouldn't have been too comfortable with on a Sheet metal "frame". I would've shifted the load back some and re-weighed so I knew how to load safely for next time.

Thanks for posting the Cat slip, as I also have the 4K tow.