Towing with premium
 

2016 3.5L EB. This will be my first time towing any significant weight with my new to me. Roughly 4K pounds. I’ve read premium fuel is recommended. Is it super necessary? I have a 36 gallon tank that’s currently 3/4 full of 87 octane and I don’t feel that adding a 1/4 tank of premium at .60 cents a gallon more will gain anything once it’s all mixed together in the tank. Towing about 2 hours at highway speed.

No, it is not necessary. It will tow fine without it, slightly better with it. 4,000 pounds is not a heavy load.

Thanks!
90% of my daily commuting is by bicycle so I could drive the truck to work all week to use up half a tank if necessary before the weekend but glad to hear I don’t need to...

I've filled using both reg and prem with and w/o our 6000# TT and see no big difference so I only use reg. Granted we do have a few hills here and there but if we ever venture out to like Colorado, then I will use prem for that wee bit of boost on them hills.

Contrary to these guys, I absolutely saw a difference in premium versus 87. Especially in daily driving, but moreso with towing our TT (which is also light). Even with lighter weight, higher octane fuel allows for more optimum ignition timing, meaning it'll make more power/torque across the powerband versus 87...this could let you hold 8th gear at cruise versus 7th when towing on the highway....I also saw better mpg when towing to the tune of 2-3.5mpg. Whether or not that's worth it to you is subjective given the price...….but all in all I found my truck just runs better on 93.

We tow 6750lbs of boat in and out of the Marina up some pretty decent hills on 100 degree days. I run premium during the summer when we are at the lake every weekend. In the winter when the truck isn't doing truck things I run regular.

There is a noticeable difference in power between 87 and 93 and I get a bit better mpg /w the higher octane. The truck would tow the boat no problem on either grade, Figure 93 is cheap insurance.

I'm no rocket scientist but I'm guessing time of year can make a difference on how your engine runs/performs due to how company changes their gas mixtures? I know I read this 'mixtures' on here or somewhere so honestly I may not be tracking my experience long enough since I think I only compared to ~4-5 tanks on reg and prem but forgot what time of year that was and I've only owned my truck for 19mos now. Since camping season for us is in a few weeks, I may run prem for ~5-6mos and switch back to compare so I get a better data point. Oh well, YMMV :)

I agree my tests are totally unscientific. I just feel better knowing I am running 93 when towing a relativity heavy load up grade on hot summer days. The piece of mind is worth the $15 per tank.

for me, winter fuel SUCKS. so when I run 93, the difference is even more pronounced. But then summer comes, and it's 95* with 75% humidity here, and 93 makes a huge difference during the summer too. Either way, the truck just feels 'happier' on premium. And I figured, I didn't buy this thing for fuel economy.

I think my paranoia on 93 comes from my days of daily driving a tuned WRX. This was back in 2006 and I understand the turbo charged engines of today are totally different beasts than what we had back then, but putting low octane fuel into Subaru Forced Induction engine was a recipe for all kinds of bad things to happen.