So, as many of you have read in THIS THREAD, a bunch of us got together yesterday in Millersburg, OH to conduct a repeat of our previous meets.

Here's who came out and towed the hill:

Crazy001(Tom) - 2011 F350 XLT 6.7L PSD, 3.55 axles
Monster-4(Mike) - 2000 F250 Lariat 6.8L V10, 3.73 axles
i eat hybrids(Matt) - 2006 F350 XLT 6.0L PSD, 3.73 axles
rickatic(Rick) - 2011 F350 Lariat 6.7L PSD, 3.73 axles
Senix (Scott) - 2008 F250 Lariat 6.4L PSD, 3.73 axles
KC8QVO(Steve) - 2010 F250 Lariat, 6.4L PSD, 3.55 axles

And who came out and did not tow -

Maxium4x4(John) - 2003 F250 XLT 6.0L PSD, 3.55 axles
HarleyScooter(Scott) - 2011 F250 Lariat 6.2L gas, 3.73 axles

We took my trailer, which weighs 3,500 lbs empty, and loaded my Dad's 2010 F150 into it. We then threw in another 2,300 lbs of bagged sand and wood pellets. I estimated the weight to be 11,200 lbs. We weighed it at the end of the day:



Note that this weight is including tongue weight, we unhooked from Matt's truck and put the axles and trailer jack on the scale. Here's a pic with the entire truck on the scale:



All runs were done in 4WD due to traction concerns with all the rain. We started out with my truck, as I was hooked up when we got there. We did several runs, but I'm going to only post the fastest one:

YouTube - M2U00083

Top speed was 56 MPH at the crest of the hill.

I'm sorry we didn't catch the very beginning of that one, we took a LOT of video and had to keep moving due to how many trucks we had to run. We also took a video of going down the hill with my truck, hoping to catch the exhaust brake in action:

YouTube - M2U00082

A little disappointing to be honest, I was expecting a bit more. I guess nothing is perfect!

During all of this, Mike's neighbor Chad with a tuned Dodge/Cummins truck sent him a text message asking "Do you really need all those Fords to tow that one trailer?" So we invited him out, suggesting he either put up or shut up. He took the challenge, so we went back and hooked up his Dodge:



He was tuned with what he thinks is a 100 HP tune, and he did not have gauges. Mike and I hopped in and rode over to the hill, everyone else piled in another two trucks and followed us over.

He started the hill blowing LOTS of smoke:



YouTube - M2U00084

IT BROKE!

We aren't sure what happened yet, but we made it to the top of the hill and something gave out. After we stopped recording we came to a stop and checked it out, thinking maybe it just reduced power after getting too hot. Unfortunately this wasn't he case, after cooling off he was throwing lots of smoke and had no power. Rick brought his truck up to pick up the trailer at the top of the hill and Mike and Chad nursed the broken truck home.



Here's a video of him pulling away after it broke, along with some assorted commentary!

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edi...ext=/my_videos


We think it may have been a turbo, but the engine was making a knocking noise on the way back. We hope to find out this week what went wrong.

So the rest of us in Rick's truck headed down the hill and tried again. Rick was anxious to see how his truck would do in 2WD with his e-locker engaged. I was skeptical, thinking it may not make it with the wet roads, but it did an amazing job:

YouTube - MVI 6976

After running one more time in 4WD we headed back to Mike's house for some lunch. After lunch we started with Mike's truck.

YouTube - M2U00086

This run was slower than the previous times we've done it, but we had more weight this time. Remember that with all of us in the truck we were overloaded by over 2,000 lbs! One thing to consider here is how well his cooling system did. His ScanGauge showed that his cooling system peaked at 197° and the transmission peaked at 202°.

We then ran the two 6.4L trucks, both with similar results. First was Scott's truck:

YouTube - MVI 6994

And here were his max values after completing the run. We think the max speed of 53 was attained after the crest of the hill, 50 MPH was our best guess for peak speed going up the hill:



And then was Steve's truck:

YouTube - M2U00087

Both did a great job and were very close even though Scott had 3.73s and Steve had 3.55s, yet their speeds were almost identical.

Next up was Matt's 2006 6.0L PSD truck:

YouTube - M2U00089

This truck did a great job, and actually did just as well as the 6.4l trucks. We're not sure why this is, maybe because at 103,000 miles it's a bit more broken in.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

During Scott's 6.4L run John and Matt took off in his tuned 6.0L truck to have some fun while unloaded. During this run it looks like John's turbo bearings gave out. Matt jumped in with us and John nursed the truck over 100 miles back home to Findlay. The truck wouldn't do over 45 MPH the whole way, it must have been a long ride back.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

All in all, we had a great time. With any luck Chad and John's trucks will be back on the road soon. All the other trucks ran pretty much as expected.

Mike and Steve shot all the video. Steve, Matt, and Scott's wife Debbie took all the pictures.

I want to thank everyone for coming out. Most of us came from several hours away for this, and having this much participation really made it great.

I'm real busy today, but as I have time I'm going to clean up the pictures and video as well as post more as I get them in.

We're hoping to do this again soon!

 

Tom

Great job on the video's!!!! Let me know when you may do this again. To those that have not read the other pre event thread, this hill is a lot steeper than the pictures portray. It is a 11% to 15+% uphill pull. I was eager to try my 3.55 elocker in 2 wheel drive. I was impressed by the performance.

Thanks again for the invitation to participate.

Regards

 

Is that a seat belt chime I hear in the background? LOL.

Nice job guys. I'm curious tho, did anyone conduct a downhill with the tow/haul on and the tranny in D and let the tranny and engine brake work together. If I heard you right you locked your tranny in 2nd on your downhill.

 

Looked like a lot of fun. Too bad you didn't have some snow to play with.

 

Yup, it's up there. Here it is again:

YouTube - M2U00082

That was Matt driving in tow/haul. No gear locking was done, but the display was on telling us what gear it was in. I was disappointed.

 

Wow... very interesting! I also thank everyone who participated and I enjoyed watching the video's. I'm sure ya'll had alot of fun!

Once again... A first class test with a first class group of guys and trucks (Excluding the dodge truck of course).

 

My bad . I musta misunderlistened. I thot it was locked in 2nd. Thanks for clarifying.

 

Great results guys. Looks like a pile of fun especially with a trash talking Dodge owner in the mix. Maybe it you ever do this again somebody has a G-tech or similar device that could be used in each vehicle to accurately log acceleration and such. Actually AutoEnginuity would be awesome for this (too bad they don't have the 6.7 update yet!).

 

Yeah, I asked AE about a 6.7 upgrade. They said it will be after all the 2011's are released.

 

Right, something like October 2011 as I recall. I'm just curious if maybe the performance calculator program with AE will actually work on the 6.7. I know some guys that have been using a 6.4 DashDaq on their 6.7s for quite a while now and it seems that many of the 6.7 parameters read the same as the 6.4.

Now that my curiosity is peaked, I may just have to go out this afternoon and try it on my truck. That may prove absolutely nothing because I am running an older version of AE.

 

The way this was all set up was we camped out at Mike's place for switching trucks. Theres about 5 or so miles between the hill and where we set up. Approaching the hill first is a down-grade. At the bottom we turn around and set back up for the ascent - coming to a complete stop first.

I wasn't all that impressed with the engine breaking on my truck, or any of them for that matter. Something to keep in mind any time you're pulling heavy and going down hill is to keep your speed down. It was a bit scary going down that hill with a stop sign at the bottom. We did have one run skid through it. I can't remember whos run it was, but it was early on in the day. Thats definitely not a good place for brakes to fail, either.

 

It was actually one of the last times, it was with Matt's truck which was the last one we ran.

For some reason we can't figure out his transmission dropped out of gear coming down the hill. That's normal without tow/haul, but with tow/haul on it should stay in gear and provide engine braking.

Matt got nervous and rode the brakes the whole way down, trying to keep the speed under control. The brakes got too hot and there was no stopping, so we slid through the road at the bottom of the hill. Could have been UGLY, as it was a 55 MPH road we slid through...

 

Ah thanks for the correction.

You mean something like this?

YouTube - Airbus A380-800 Brake test

 

That was a bunch of fun. Great job to everyone who participated. Did someone put together a spreadsheet of the data?

 

I would like to do this again and take my AE with me. It would provide accurate data to support the video information we collected. The problem is the distances some of the participants traveled to make this happen. Tom drove from Wisconsin, Scott(Senix) drove from Maryland and I came 210 miles from Michigan. It would be a great time if some more guy's with different truck configurations would participate. In warmer weather, I would pull my fiver down there for a few days to help with the project. I have to add that I was very impressed by this group of young guy's and their event. It went very smoothly despite the travel logistics between truck changes. It was a great time.

Regards