Well, since I got the truck about 95% done, I bought an 18 ft, 10k equipment trailer I'd been wanting, and loaded up to help move my grandparents from Ohio to Oklahoma with my dad. We left last Thursday and I got back in Sunday morning. Truck pulled great, no major problems on the road other than my newly rebuilt alternator is dying a slow death already. The trailer weighed 2600 lbs. empty, and I had a custom extended utility bed golf cart my grandad built on it, along with a old version of a **** STHM 72" three wheel mower, the mower is just shy of 1000 lbs and the golf cart, its about the same size as a 6 passenger cart, and those seem to come in around 1k as well. I put about 500 lbs of tools and scaffolding in the bed. I guess it is what you would call a light load, ballpark gross was 11,600 lbs with lower wind drag than an RV.
I took the southern route down and across I-40 with the load, and came back unloaded on I-44 and I-70. We kept a good pace and moved at 65 to 75 mph averaging around 70. There was no need to downshift out of 5th or back off up any hill we hit in the midwest with the small load, I only touched 1000 degrees EGT a couple times. The main annoyance was the play in the steering, I should have ordered the Borgeson steering shaft before the trip! Keeping 102" inside your lane is a huge PITA with sloppy steering, and I didn't always manage to
. I was following dad in a 26 ft. U Haul and car hauler, and was surprised at the power the newer U Hauls have, it pulled fine at those speeds. The Moose will lay down a smoke screen in a hurry if you don't watch it!
I burned about 3/4 qt of 5W-40 per 1000 miles, not bad in my estimation. Never had a temperature, tire, or any other problems you might expect towing. We stopped regularly since the grandparents were with us, and it gave me a chance to check the rig thoroughly every couple hours. It was a good trip, but a lot of mileage for 3 days of travel and unloading trucks. I'm impressed with the old beast. I was able to put on 1000 miles local before the trip, to make sure no bugs would come up after all the work I did on it this year after mostly sitting for a few years.
Most important I know now what to expect from the truck and what else it needs...
I took the southern route down and across I-40 with the load, and came back unloaded on I-44 and I-70. We kept a good pace and moved at 65 to 75 mph averaging around 70. There was no need to downshift out of 5th or back off up any hill we hit in the midwest with the small load, I only touched 1000 degrees EGT a couple times. The main annoyance was the play in the steering, I should have ordered the Borgeson steering shaft before the trip! Keeping 102" inside your lane is a huge PITA with sloppy steering, and I didn't always manage to
. I was following dad in a 26 ft. U Haul and car hauler, and was surprised at the power the newer U Hauls have, it pulled fine at those speeds. The Moose will lay down a smoke screen in a hurry if you don't watch it!I burned about 3/4 qt of 5W-40 per 1000 miles, not bad in my estimation. Never had a temperature, tire, or any other problems you might expect towing. We stopped regularly since the grandparents were with us, and it gave me a chance to check the rig thoroughly every couple hours. It was a good trip, but a lot of mileage for 3 days of travel and unloading trucks. I'm impressed with the old beast. I was able to put on 1000 miles local before the trip, to make sure no bugs would come up after all the work I did on it this year after mostly sitting for a few years.
Most important I know now what to expect from the truck and what else it needs...
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At least you know what the rig can do in a moments notice... These engines will run well with simple maintance too. nothing really expensive other than the injecters or injection pump. And those will live well past 100,000 miles. 125,000 to 150,000 is usually the break even mileage for those.
