[Vwdiesel] Final report on towing trip with New 2004 Passat TDI

[Hayden Chasteen]

Well we made it home on Sunday but I have been catching up on many 
things.  Just wanted to update everyone on the overall performance of 
the Passat pulling my 1400 lbs trailer.  As I said before, the car went 
up every mountain pass that it was asked to go up with out complaining 
and with out loosing any speed even while on cruise control.  The 
highest pass we went over was Pipestone near Butte at a bit over 6300 
feet and we passed cars going up!  On many occasions, on mountain 
roads, people moved over into the slow lane or into the slow vehicle 
pulloffs to let ME pass!  Me in a diesel car pulling a trailer!  Wow am 
I ever impresses with the PD engine and the Tiptronic set up in the 
Passat.  We drove a total of 6498 miles and consumed 232 gallons of 
diesel fuel for an overall fuel economy of 28 mpg.  Highest mpg with 
the trailer on the car actually worked out to 32 and the lowest was 24. 
  Lowest mpgs were when climbing and going into a head wind.  I always 
drove between  60 and 65 mph despite speed limits up to 75 in a few 
states.  I just don't feel safe pulling a trailer at speeds above 65.  
We saw one guy jackknifed in the ditch in Missouri and judging from the 
skid marks on the road, he must have been going well in excess of 70 
(the posted speed limit) when he lost it.  Luckily, they ended up in 
the ditch with out turning either the car or trailer over.  Now that 
the car is thoroughly broken in (anther 800 miles and it will get its 
second oil change at 10000 miles) I want to take it on the road with 
out the trailer to see what it can do. BTW the trip was generally 
without incident.  Only two things happened: on the second day, a large 
pheasant in Nebraska took out my grill and grill emblem (and NO we 
didn't eat the road kill).  Luckily it wasn't a foot higher or it would 
have gone through the windshield at 65 mph.  The second incident was a 
flat on the camper at 60 mph.  Once again no real problems.  That is 
about all I guess.  hayden

Visit my website at  www.home.earthlink.net/~dieseltdi
Proud owner of:
2004 Passat TDI GLS, 2.0l, 8 valve, 136 HP, 247 lb/ft of torque, Blue 
Graphite, Anthracite leather interior, ABS, ESP.
1998 Jetta TDI (Wetterauer Chipset, 2 1/2" exhaust, K&N Filter, propane 
dual fuel system, 109K+ miles, and running biodiesel)
1981 Rabbit Pickup ( with a freshly rebuilt turbo engine), Will burn 
biodiesel and WVO with a propane injection system.
One, yet to be finished, Caddy trailer (the back end of the truck that 
gave its life to my just completed Rabbit Pickup).
And many, many, many VWs; from a 1946 Beetle (11 Beetles total), to 
Vans (5), Rabbits (3), Karmen Ghia (1), Jettas (5), Passat (1), Dasher 
(1), New Beetle (1), and Rabbit Pickups (3) most now gone but not 
forgotten.