Yikes

Well I took the camper out for a road test to Lancaster, PA lastnight to see how great the improvements were going to be. UGH! :bleh: I had a hard time getting it up to 65 with my foot on the floor. It's a 35' 5'er and I had loaded the front entirely up with someone's belongings to move them to CO. It is going to be a long trip. I know it is said that a turbo will make it run with the new one's, BUT right now I want a new truck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The friend I borrowed the camper from says he can pull it at 95 with his Duramax chipped up. :shrug: That would be nice. I hit 70 once down hill.
Weel I'll let you guys know how it turns out after the trip. There is going to be 7 of us going in there as well for 10 days.

If this is any comfort, you will be driving knowing that most anything that hiccups, you can fix on the road by yourself or if joe podunk mech takes a look at it, you won't loose your wallet. ten years I ran a NA 7.3, it taught me patience. Now with the turbo in the F350, I have to BOL for highway patrol cruisers.

Greg, that's a lot of weight and a lot of wind resistance. Lady Moose will do 75 with our 9000lb. 30' 5th wheel, but it takes about 200 degrees more by the pyro and thus a lot more fuel, then it does to move the same load at 60mph. If your going to Colorado, you sure will wish you had gotten the turbo first. However, you WILL make it, and se won't complain doing it.

You think its bad now, wait till you get here.

You'll swear never to pass through this state turbo-less again.

?

F350camper said:

You think its bad now, wait till you get here.

You'll swear never to pass through this state turbo-less again.

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Why not?!!!

Thanks

Agnem said:

Greg, that's a lot of weight and a lot of wind resistance. Lady Moose will do 75 with our 9000lb. 30' 5th wheel, but it takes about 200 degrees more by the pyro and thus a lot more fuel, then it does to move the same load at 60mph. If your going to Colorado, you sure will wish you had gotten the turbo first. However, you WILL make it, and se won't complain doing it.

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Hey thanks for the encouragment! If only I could get my hands on a y-pipe. Do you think it would work with flex pipe tothe turbo?

Guntherx said:

Why not?!!!

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I'm just ribbing ya a tad. But since the air is so thin here at 5500ft and above, you'll lose about 30hp. It just makes a heavy load seem heavier. but as mel said, she'll do fine, and you'll have a good time doing it.

When my old IDI is loaded with 6000-7000lbs of lumber on its back I'am in 3rd gear climbing the 10% grades doing a whopping 40km/h (25mph) can't go any faster. Its just something you have to live with and you learn how to take a good run at the hill to get the momentum up at the bottom. Most of the time the people that pass me on the hills can't get away from me in the twisty because I know the 53 miles of road really well. I also know where the RCMP like to hide and catch speeders.

Too tell you the truth I don't think I will see much difference in hill climbing power with a loaded truck with the 95 I just bought compared to the 89. The 95 will out run 89 in empty truck acceleration and general highway speed the 95 easily does 100km/h 62mph the 89 struggles to do 100km/h 62mph.

When ever I see someone in a brandnew truck whistle by me in a brandnew truck I always think do I really want to spend 40-60 grand to do that :Sly

F350camper said:

I'm just ribbing ya a tad. But since the air is so thin here at 5500ft and above, you'll lose about 30hp. It just makes a heavy load seem heavier. but as mel said, she'll do fine, and you'll have a good time doing it.

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I was going to say... the Blue Ridge and the Appalachian's are formidable enough. The Rockies are in a whole nother' class. It's not that the grades are steeper, they are just much longer.

Guntherx said:

Well I took the camper out for a road test to Lancaster, PA lastnight to see how great the improvements were going to be. UGH! :bleh: I had a hard time getting it up to 65 with my foot on the floor. It's a 35' 5'er and I had loaded the front entirely up with someone's belongings to move them to CO.

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Well to add my .02 worth, I have been looking at a 35' fiver around this area and dry weight stated was 12,000lbs.
Ya that's a heavy ******.

Man, you had better take a whole bottle of patience pills, that is going to be a good pull for the old truck. A turbo would have made your life a little easier, but just take it easy and enjoy the scenery. Scotty

One truck driver I know used to have a GMC COE 2 ton 150hp 5spd I think it was a 5500 he used to gross 20,000lb plus in that truck all the time. With our 10% grades here he used to start at the bottom of the hill in 2nd gear pull out his lunch and eat it while he climbed the hill.

I don't get in a rush climbing hills with a loaded truck smoother you climb the hill less stress on the truck and less fuel you burn. **** the traffic behind you climb the hill at your own pace if there is a slow lane use it if you need to.

My old 80s F-350 with 351m and 4spd used to be a 2nd gear and some times a first gear truck to climb the hills on the highway packing 6000lbs on its back. Many times I had to double clutch it and try get it into first gear to keep climbing the grade. Had to becareful that I didn't power out in second gear trying to start out on a hill was nearly impossible. There is one hill that the old truck could barely climb in 2nd gear with a empty truck its like a 12% grade. I did dare go down the hill empty either even in 2nd with the engine holding the truck back still had to push on the brake pretty hard.

With a new truck you may beable to climb a hill faster but a new truck doesn't really slow the truck down decending the hill any better than a lower powered truck. I see it all the time the tourasses pulling their RV trailers with their brandnew P/Us speeding up a hill too fast then going down the other side too fast and end up roasting the brakes.

When I pull my horse trailer I am at about 25,000#'s and it seems to pull better. However The 5'er has a whole lot more wind resitance though.

So what do you think? Will my IDI run with them with a turbo or not? If not, I may have to think about some other options.

Like I said I haven't had a load on my PSD but now I'am thinking a turboed IDI would pull just as good

When I get more money I may cut that restrictive exhaust off the PSD and remove that rotten CAT seeing as we don't need them here its not illegal to remove them. The old IDI has a 3" exhaust and no emmisions crap.

Anybody I have talked to that have put a turbo on a 7.3 IDI says its a big improvement. If the Stanadyne pump wasn't maxed out for fuel capacity and you could keep the EGTs down the old IDI would probably have good power.

Guntherx said:

When I pull my horse trailer I am at about 25,000#'s and it seems to pull better. However The 5'er has a whole lot more wind resitance though.

So what do you think? Will my IDI run with them with a turbo or not? If not, I may have to think about some other options.

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My experience is that the IDI will run at 70-75 on the interstate, no problems, till you hit the hills. I've had EGT issues with my truck--I back out of it at 1150 because I'm not sure how high I can get with the Banks sidewinder setup.

Slight hills at 70mph put the EGTs there.

Moderate hills will quickly put the EGTs up higher...

SO... I guess the fair answer to your question, based on my experience, is that you won't hang with a newer truck not necessarily for want of power but for want of EGTs...

I've heard that non-turbo'd engines run hotter than turbo'd... but seems to me if you're running less air and less fuel then that would not be the case.

For another $1000 after adding turbo, you could add an intercooler to keep your EGTs down and keep up with newer trucks fairly well.


Mike