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.

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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.

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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!

 

the youtube vid link of the dodge breaking down requires a login..

 

Seems to work ok for me.

Wish some of you 3V guys could have made it. Oh well I think my old gal did pretty well against the new diesel trucks.

BTW A big thanks to Mike at 5 Star for sending me a custom tune that tweaked the torque converter lock-up. Mike made that changes based upon our last meet. It worked like a charm and the TC stayed unlocked the entire time in 1st.

 

That V-10 is music to my ears at 5200 RPM's

 

I know a lot of guys don't like the V10 sound but I like it and love to hear it sing at 5200rpm.

 

All who participated deserve reps! Hopefully, one of these get togethers I'll be able to make it up!

 

Very cool! thanks guys !

I hope the cummins isn't a big ticket item

 

Thanks guys! I'll update the threads once I hear from my neighbor on what broke.

 

Great videos, I really thing that V10 did great in the pull once it built steam.
thanks again guys for the meet and reports.

Mike

 

Now you need a 6.2 in there with Mike's tune. I'm really on the fence on our next truck. 2010 6.8, 2011 6.2 or 2011 6.7 ($$$$$)

Nice work and thanks to all that took the time to do this.

 

i think teh ultimate test would be a 2012 SD with the 6.8L 3V engine mated to the 6-speed auto with tall gears..

i bet that vehicle would make easy work of that hill/trailer..

id sure like to see it thats for sure.

 

I wish I would have seen this sooner, would have liked to see how mine would have measured up, great job guys. How about a spring meet? I dont drive mine in the winter unless I absolutely have to anymore.

 

Would have loved to see a supercharged V10 run...of course the diesel boyz may cry foul!

 

Thanks guys! Would love to have some more V10 guys out there. I'm sure we'll have another meet (hopefully when it's warm) but we try to arrange the meets around Tom's (Crazy001) trips back to Ohio. He use to live in Columbus but moved to Wisconsin so it's a bit harder to arrange a meet.

 

Not at all, that would have been SWEET! Remember this was a friendly comparison rather than a competition. I keep hoping to see a good showing from the tuned diesel crowd, but most are VERY cautious about doing so. Chad and his Cummins found out why.

If someone wants to bring out a blown V10 they are more than welcome. I'm not one of the "diesel is ALWAYS better" crowd, so I'd love to see a properly set up put a hurtin' on my 6.7L.

Yeah, looks like sometime this summer I'll be coming out again. I'll be switching my two newest vehicles' registrations over to OH, as that's my home of record. Ohio requires an inspection when titling a car from out of state.

I liked the way the trailer was set up this time, so I plan on doing the same configuration in the future. I just need to adjust the height of the hitch, mount some bogey wheels, and work on the brakes!