Well last friday I figured I'd take a half a day off work and get some yard work done. The night before I hauled out 7 yards of topsoil and spread it around but it need to be tilled and my tree rows looked a little dungy so I figured they could use some cultivating. Unfortuanatly my W6 doesn't have powersteering and the cultivator I have for it is a bit wide for my tree rows (and I putt off rebuilding it all winter) so I have nothing to to do my tree with. on the fortuanate side my father inlaw has a little john deer 2020 or 4020, I cann't remember, with a three point, powersteering and nice little cultivator that I can barrow most anytime, the only thing is I have to haul it out to my house, no bigggy just hook the ol 10er up to a good heavy 15k lb "Redi Haul" flat bed and go to town!

The truck towed it flawlessly out to the house and figued it was fairly heavy but really had no Ideaer ow much it weighed so on the return trip I had to run out to work first which goes by the DOT scale, scaled it for a total wieght of 17,300lb truck, tractor trailor, rototiller, my ugly mug and my wife! I was admireing the fact that I towed it in OD with out any problem other than a down shift on a couple hills a thought to myslef that a 10k l;oad is nothin for this thing and why people alway complain about it not having enough power, I figured the hills I had to drop a gear for were in that 5-7% range and although they weren't very long (maybe a 1/2 mile) it towed up them without a problem. Well, I was thinking this untill I was just about out to my inlaws and had to go up the tressel valley hill, now I have driven this hill hundered of times, just not owing anything, it is steep but I guess I never realized how steep it was. as I started out at the bottem I was doing about 45-50mph and figured I had better get the ol girl into 2nd as I knew it wouldn't do it in third. well the last 1/3 of the hill is the steepest and to make a long story shorter 2nd couldn't get the job done either!! I thought holy crap, I punched the ol girl to the floor, found first gear at 4800-5000rpms, and managed to crest the hill at a respectable 45mph. mind you when it dropped into first I was at 40mph!

That moment right there made me think just why everybody that tows in the mountains wants deep gear sets and forced induction. I cann't imagine losing say 15%-20% of my power, although a 4.30 gearset would offset that so it would be about even to the way mine performed! This morning I decided I needed to know what grade that hill was so I went to our digitized contour maps, traced out the road off of our aerial to get a distance and found that the average grade on that hill is 8%, this doesn't sound like much but the hill gets progessivly steeper as you get closer to the crest, just happens that it starts out at 4% with the last 1/4 miles nearing 14%, actually 13.8% to be exact. After finding this out I was once again impressed that I was able to tow 10k up a 14% grade hill and actually gain 5mph up the last section, now that my friends takes power and torque and theres no dening the fact that even my lowly old 2V V10 3.73 geared truck with a GCW of over 17k did a he!! of a job!

10 burnin, four turnin, and a BSEG from ear to ear!!!

 

Great story, SLE - thanks for sharing. BTW, the 4020 JD is a huge tractor - about 110 horses or there about, so it must have been the 2020. Anyway, 10K is a good load for any "3/4 ton" truck.

Congrats and keep the braggin' to a maximum!!!

 

SLE

What the hell have I been yacking about for almost 2 years now with the power of the mighty gas powered V10 SuperDuty?

Now you know.... and BTW there are hundreds of mountain passes, mostly on secondary roads, that get into the 14% 15% grade steepness. Some I follow in Washington, Oregon, Northern and eastern California and quite a few in obscure parts of Colorado would force very long high rpm on my PSD (7.3L version). These high altitude steep passes/mountain trails were no easier in the diesel. Had to be way down in the low gears and motor bouncing off the rev limiter for 15 to 45 minutes at a time... many many times I had to back her off and ease way up, cuz the EGT gage was dangerously high.... Since I been using the 2v and 3v V10s in these same trails, and back road track, the much wider power band and more then effecient cooling systems, (Ok ok, yes I had to add and aux cooler and fans for the 4R100 auto gear box) I am totaly amazed at how easy some of the very steepest sections are.

The high altitude loss of power in a Normaly Aspirated motor used to be becuase the CARBURATOR was jetted for low altitude. With the modern variable effeciencies of the computer contol where barometric pressure, heat, cool, humidity and several other factors are computed...the loss is not very dramatic any more. And the other best thing we got was new torque converters that multiply like crazy when the gearing is low and rpms are up...

We have spent a little time in over 9000 foot turn outs and over looks playing with our digital camera. Then we load back up to finish the climb to the top at 11,456 feet. Pointed up a 12% hill with a rig grossing out at 22,875 pounds is a real test of the power train... the fact that this beast will actually accelerate under these conditions to 45-55 mph is a extreem example of how damned good they are!

 

good one steve . now you also have felt the mighty gas motor earning it's keep. i don't think i have come close to that weight but the 9k total boat was no problem. neither was a complete 8v92 ta boat motor on a support skid in the bed.

 

I had a problem towing a 6*12 trailer loaded with stuff from my old garage this weekend (everthing was heavy!).

The problem was not going too fast. If I did not pay attention I would be up to 70-75 MPH chatting with my wife.

 

Like I said in the flat I could tow in OD with a downshift to 3rd on the hills but when I started up that hill I knew I had a full 5tons behind me and even though it took 1st gear and 5000 Rpms it got it to the top at a respectable 45mph, I cann't even begin to imagine what would happen if I had tryed that with a lesser truck, or even a 5.4L!

The other thing I noticed was I was asking a while back about how many Rpms the 2Vers will pull before shifting with the auto and was saying how I could only get 4800Rpms out of mine, well with 10k hooked to the back and pegged in 1st gear I watched that tach sit right a a full 5100 for about 15-20 seconds so I guess its just a matter of actually putting the thing to work!

Big Orn, thanks for the correction I think your right with the 2020, its about a mid 60s or so 4 cyl gasser (about 35-40 horses), say just a little larger than a utility tractor. Actually I have some pictures so I'll have to take a look and see. Heck I might as well throw them in my "SD @ Work" gallery so every one can see what I'm talking about. I'll try and post them by tomarrow in my gallery.

Just a thought, but I would've liked to have had an instant economy gauge just out of curiosity, I can just imagine seening that thing down at 2-3mpg, lol!

 

you made that 03 work but it still earned it's keep.
i saw at the local rental shop a nice 06-450 with his tri ax.flat bed and a kabuta 4? series back hoe on it. when i asked he said it works like his old sicko and hasn't let him down yet. he comes up into me area of town .only 2 of the roads for that rig a 16% for 2 miles and a 19% for 2.5, pulls them both. law states 4 tons on the 25% one.
so steve just think what you could do with a 3 valve na or maybe one with about 7 or 8 pounds of whipple . helping that hot rod truck.

 

Great report!

 

Geeze, guess my post got "moderated" because of the link to the stinky oily site.

Anyway, that's a great V10 towing report!

I was reading that "other" site (FTE forbids any link or mention of it) and there is a post by someone who was towing their RV with cruise control set. The tranny down-shifted a couple of times and the PSD hit the rev limiter and made some strange noises. It also disengaged cruise control! Bet that was a scary thing. I don't think we'll have that problem.

 

Yea, the 4020 is a 6 cylinder and weighs about 13K depending on the setup.

BUT --- the 2020 weighs about 7K naked (nothing included at all!!) and add to that the trailer, well...yea...you got yourself a load at any rate.
Whatcha waiting on!!!

 

Just another busy day in the office, finished two meetings this morning and have one to go to this afternoon, hopefully tonight, if not for sure tomarow since the wife works nights and I'll be able to do as I please instead of tending to the roll of Charmen my wife calls the honeydo list, lol.

By the way Big Orn the link has a pic of exactly what the tractor I was towing looks like except it has no sun top and had a 3 point field cultivator hooked to the back of it. http://www.tractorshed.com/contents/adpic188.htm definatly a John Deere 2020

 

SLE --- GREAT post! Glad to hear your SD with V10 and 3.73s was up for the task. Makes me feel better...as we both have the same SD configuration.

I was pulling a 6k+ load a few weeks ago...and could definately feel the weight back there. When keeping those rpm's in the 3000+ range...my V10 had no problem. Definately had the BSEG.

biz
_______________________________
2003 F250 SD SC 142" XLT FX4 V10 Auto 4x4 3.73s

 

Yep - that's it. Ain't no little tractor for sure.

And here's a pic of my Super Duty Tractor...uh...truck that I use as a tractor...

 

I guess I still consider it a utility tractor, I don't consider it a big tractor untill you get into the 8600 series like the 8630s and 8650s, now those are begining to be big tractors!! I guess I figure if you can tow it with a pickup, even if its an F550, its not a "BIG" tractor, lol. But in retrospect, yes, it was a big tractor when your towing it with a pickup ecspecially when you add the cultivator on back, and a welder and garden tiller in the bed.

On a side note I also towed my old W6 tractor out to the house last fall and found that to be quite a load but I didn't have to climb any 14% grades either. I've never scaled that tractor but do you have any idea what one of those would weigh? We welded a WD9 front end on it and extended it out the front so it would be stable when loading round bails with the front end loader which was/is also on it. That seems a bit larger than the 2020 but actually has about the same HP.

By the way thats quite the tractor you have there, didn't know V10s made into the tractor line too, lol!!

 

For tractor specs, check out www.tractordata.com

They don't have a complete listing for every model of every year, but the sure have a lot of info!