Hey, I just got home Saturday from my week-long adventure in Moab too! I was really happy with the way my old NA truck handled its towing duties.
I never got the chance to hit the scales with it, but the way I figure it I was hauling between 6000 and 6500 pounds. Here's the breakdown on that load estimate
Camper .......................................................1500
Camping gear, food, & water ............................350
Jeep (curb weight) ........................................3500
HD bumpers & roof rack ...................................250
2 Spare tires, tools, recovery gear & winch..........350
Tow dolly with spare & winch ...........................500
----------------------------------------------------
Grand total .................................................. 6450
I averaged 10.3 mpg and, all stops included, averaged right at 50 mph for the whole trip (covered 1150 miles in 23.5 hours).
The IDI handled the hills much better than the old Chevy half ton gasser I used for the trip last year. There were only a couple of places where it lugged down to below 40 mph, and it was able to top most of the big hills (2000 ft and under) and mountain passes (2000-4500 ft) at 50 - 55 mph in 2nd gear. No signs of overheating issues or anything of that sort either.
The biggest problem I had was keeping the EGTs at or below 1200 degrees. Especially at the higher the altitudes. The higher we got and the thinner the air, the less throttle it took to make black smoke and raise the EGTs. Up in the 4000 foot + elevations, anything more than 1/2 throttle while pulling a hill would raise the EGTs into the 1200 degree range in just a matter of seconds.
Down here at normal elevations it is much more manageable and it takes 3/4 or more throttle when pulling that load uphill to raise the EGTs, but it can still be done. Same with the black smoke - a lot harder to produce, but it can be done, if I put my foot in it. Unloaded, I can just barely produce visible smoke pulling a hill with my foot on the floor and in that case the EGTs seem to top out at right around 1200.
One interesting thing I noticed when I got back to Western WA on Saturday evening. It was misting rain (normal Seattle weather) and the EGTs were much more manageable - it took a lot more throttle up the hills to get the EGTs up to 1200. I'm wondering if maybe I might need to turn my IP down just a bit or maybe add a water misting system that I can turn on only when needed in those heavy towing/hill pulling situations.
What do you guys think?
I was wondering about that....I thought you dropped a driveshaft or something! What's going on with the back? Do you cut it out to make a sort of truck bed back there? That is very cool!
