Enjoy the drive across our great Country too.
I always take a cooler along so i can avoid
Expensive and time waisting stops for drinks
or light meals. Stopping at scenic overlooks
Is always a great way to rest AND have a great
view! Be safe and it sounds like you are
Well prepared! I overplan to find good
spots to see trains too!

 

I'm very interested to see how that V10 holds up. I don't own anything really heavy to tow so I'll live vicariously through you

 

Except we live in FL. No scenic overlooks haha. I used to live in Orlando now wife and I live in Gainesville.

 

What a long day, we didn't make it on the road until nearly noon, and we shut down about a half hour ago in South Bend, IN.

This is after loading the dirt I mentioned yesterday as well as some other sundry objects in the trailer with the WD kit installed. Truck had a full tank and luggage, seems like we gained over 1,000 lbs! All of the weight put on the trailer was at the very tail, so it worked to reduce the tongue weight. Here's a picture of my wife and I after we got done:



She's loaded heavy, attached is the weight ticket:



First thought is that I now understand why V10 owners are so devout. This thing is a freaking ANIMAL! I was prepared to be underwhelmed after my previous two diesel trucks, but I was really impressed. Over 95% of the time was spent in overdrive with the torque converter locked, cruising at 2,000 RPMs. Went up some grades like that but of course had to downshift for some of them, but I was really amazed at how I was able to keep it in OD for as much as I was. Lots may say this is impossible, but I'm a former truck driver who's used to lots more weight than this. Performance in overdrive was very similar to an 80,000 lb semi in top gear, and as long as you realize that you're not going to maintain speed over every hill it really does a fine job. Here's what I was staring at most of the day:



Temperatures were in the 30s and 40s all day, and I never saw the engine coolant temp get above 190°. The transmission behaved exactly as I wanted, as it quickly warmed to 180° and stayed between that and 190° for the entire trip. Even when flogging it up a hill in 3rd gear around 3,000 RPMs under full load the transmission never got warm.

Sway is a problem with this setup though. In the past I towed a 24' trailer with an 8,000 lb crew cab diesel Super Duty, and each had the 156" wheelbase. The excursion is a good 600 lbs lighter and has the shorter 137" wheelbase, and both hinder it's ability to keep trailer sway in check. There was some white-knuckle driving when being passed by trucks until I got used to it, but once I got accustomed to it I didn't have a hard time controlling it.

I haven't figured fuel economy yet, but my ScanGauge is telling me I averaged over 8 MPGs today, which is made possible by creeping along at 60-62 MPH.

On the whole I'm really impressed with how this old truck was able to handle over 15,000 lbs of weight. Exceeding towing capacity by over 50% this thing never missed a beat and always impressed me with how much power was available. Of course my previous diesel trucks were far more powerful in situations like this, but they also cost between 6-8 times as much as the Ex did, and the also burn $4.00/gal diesel fuel while I'm paying $3.25.

Here's hoping tomorrow goes as well as today did!

 

Glad everything's working out for you! Sounds like the X is taking the weight in stride.

And don't get accustomed to that $3.25/gal for gas...out here (Springfield, MA area - north of Manchester) we're enjoying a recent drop to $3.55/gal!! yippie!

 

Yeah, same for NY....plus you will have thruway tolls too. I am not far from the thruway in central NY if you need assistance, but you look to be doing well. Be safe.

 

Off topic - is that a generator I see at the rear of the trailer? I hope so...cause unless someone gave you the heads up, CT loses power...a lot. My sister-in-law lives in Somers and they will lose power for a couple hours from a heavy rain storm!
There's a joke that the Buckland Hills Mall in Manchester makes most of it's money during power outages because people tend to flock there because of their backup generators.

 

Oh yeah!!

 

Nice! Ill have to keep an eye out for ya soon, wont be hard to miss that rig!

 

Glad to hear the trip is going well, Tom. So, where's the lawn tractor going to go??

If you had the 3.73's and standard trans cooler in your V10, you'd see the down sides. In order to get into the 2k territory you're in, you have to be doing 70-72. I've done that with my trailer before and the Ex tows SO much better that way. It only drops to 3rd on big hills. But, when towing where I like in the 60-65 range, the 1700 area is just awful. It splits the time pretty equally between 3rd and OD and should really run in 3rd all the time.

 

I'm starting to figure this out. Made it to Binghamton, NY this evening and paid $3.91. NY is always higher than everywhere else though, so I put on 18 gallons and hopefully that'll get me to a better area.

I used to be stationed at Fort Drum and I've learned to avoid the thruway if at all possible. I checked online to be sure, but it would have been $60 to get from the PA line to Albany, where I go to the back roads from there.

Huh...that's not good! Perhaps I'll be investing in a generator in the near future.

The folks who made the offer on the house included it in their offer. Their offer is contingent on their house in KS selling, so the deal isn't complete yet. If something happens and they don't buy it I'll have one of my former coworkers sell it for me. Going to rent the place until that happens.

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have done it in overdrive with 3.73s. For starters it wasn't safe much above 65 MPH due to trailer sway issues. I was driving with the calculated engine load on my scangauge, and that way it was pretty easy to ensure the transmission did what I wanted it to do. Anything above 93% engine load in 4th gear will force a downshift, and so on lots of hills I ended up kicking off cruise and adjusting throttle as necessary to lose some speed and stay in overdrive.

Anyway, my point was that on flat ground I was running 68-75% engine load if there was no headwind. Adjust for the 15% gearing advantage and then subtract a few ft-lbs of torque at lower engine speed and there's no way it could pull it in overdrive at those speeds. Increase to 70 MPH and you negate the engine torque loss through higher engine speeds, but you have increased wind resistance.

Today I had more of a headwind through Ohio and Indiana, and in Pennsylvania and New York there were lots of mountains, so I averaged under 8 MPGs for the day. Still really impressed though, I never dropped to second gear on any of the hills and never went below 52 MPH when pulling a hill. The engine never got above 190° and I saw the transmission peak at 191° at one occasion, and the rest of the time it stayed between 179-190° regardless of engine load or ambient temperature. Ironically that peak of 191° happened when coming down a long steep grade with my foot completely off the throttle. The transmission temperature doesn't fluctuate the way you'd think it would, whenever the truck downshifted and engine speed came up the transmission temp would actually drop a few degrees, and when locked in O/D it would hold mid to upper 180's. I have a pretty good idea of why that is, but at this point I'm just rambling so I better get to bed.

288 miles to go!

 

very glad things are going so well! i knew that truck would treat you right

 

CRAZY (husband of mine)...is it bad that I have to check on the forum to find out where you are, how you are doing, and if your alive?


~Love your wife who misses you lots and wishes you were here when our peanut isn't feeling good~Karri


p.s. - this is what you get when I know your passwords!

 

Crazy Phone home, this is why I hide my password book

 

DOH!

LMAO!

Stewart