Ohio truck meet results WITH VIDEO!
 

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:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...t/IMG_7006.jpg

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:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...t/IMG_7007.jpg

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:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...t/IMG_6969.jpg

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:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...t/IMG_6972.jpg

YouTube - M2U00084

IT BROKE! :eek:

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.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...t/IMG_6974.jpg

Here's a video of him pulling away after it broke, along with some assorted commentary! :-X02

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:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...t/IMG_6996.jpg

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! :-D

Great job to all!

great write up! I still get a kick outta the cummins that broke down at the top of the hill lmaooo. That pict with my truck on the scale turned out great

Nice review! Thanks for sharing. :)

Too bad about the trucks breaking down. Well... at least the Ford. :-D

Lmao that made me laugh. That was cool looks like you guys had fun

Miles, its great.. He called "us"FTE'rs out to play and he couldnt back it up! All joking aside, we all know that his truck MOST likely wouldnt have broken down if he didnt run up the hill tuned. He tryed to prove whos "balls" were bigger and lost lmao hahahaha

I have to say a few things about Chad's Dodge.

First of all, Chad was great about the whole thing. It was all just a friendly pull, he never once said his truck would out pull ours. We were grateful he was willing to put his truck through that, and I really do feel bad that he broke it.

After it broke he didn't get angry or upset, nor did he make excuses for his truck. It broke because it was tuned, not because it was a Dodge. A tuned 6.0/6.4/6.7 without supporting mods would have likely suffered the same fate.

I'd bet that he gets a Ford after this though...

Well if you can't pull with a tune, I really don't see the point of getting one in the first place. Seems like a waste of money if you can't utilize it.

And I'm sure that warning doesn't come on the box.

Great job guys!

Nice work! Subscribing :-X0A6

You can, and it's been done. But you have to be smart about it. Remember that we were yanking 11,500 lbs up the most brutal hill we could find as fast as possible. We intentionally pushed these trucks far harder than most ever will.

Chad tows his Bobcat with his tune frequently, but this is both lighter than my trailer was and not up the same hill at the same speed.

This is why I have to state my disclaimer before we even start. I told everyone as soon as we met that we are all here at our own risk, and that if anyone was concerned about breaking something to NOT DO IT.

best part of this thread was the dodge breaking down...

LOOL...

that is karma right there...

thx for teh vid links btw.

Fantastic Job! Nice to see the real world pulls again. Too bad about the neighbors Dodge, even though it's fun to give each other grief it's tough that something went wrong when joined the challenge.

Agreed. Now the event has a reputation. I don't say that to freak anyone else out, but it will make people more careful with under what circumstances they choose to participate. IE - has the vehicle been well maintained? is the tune, if any, putting on undue stress above and beyond what the engine was designed for? is the transmission working under normal conditions or is the gear shifting turned up to a "harder" shift?... Lots to consider.

Maybe as planning for the next one we can put out the announcement earlier to allow people to plan better. Those vehicles that participate that aren't known well (duramax, cummins) by any of us, or different from any of ours, should be researched as to the safe operational limits. That combined with the use of Rick's AE, an IQ, or similar system could be used to the benefit of all that participate in holding their vehicles within those safe operating limits.

Without knowing the cause specifically of the failures all we can do is speculate. However, if there was a way we could know what the limitations are and a tool to read what those measurements are we will be able to warn and prevent failures which would be caused by surpassing those limitations. Without seeing the numbers and knowing what they mean its a crap shoot.

You can easily tow with a tune, but as tom said with the steep incline, the trailer weight and the speed + tuner = broken cummins.. People tow all the time with tunes, but they have to be tow tunes, not race or soot tunes. But the way his truck was sootin up the hill, you could easily tell that he wasnt running a tow tune. It seemed like a smoke tune or a race tune, which you arent sapose to tow with at ALL.