YAHOO! Now that's a truck ! You're going to love it in the high altitudes of the Sierras and Rockies - but you'll love it even better if you take a "normal" vehicle up there first.
Altitude has an almost unbelievable effect on an engine's power and torque output. There is a rule of thumb saying (someone correct me if I've got it wrong) that an engine loses something like 3-4% of its output per thousand feet of altitude. If you stick around the flatlands, this is pretty inconsequential. But if get up to 8-9000 feet in the Sierras (think Yosemite) or 10-11,000 feet in the Rockies, the engine just can't breathe. Now add to that a steep grade, where it needs more than the normal amount of power, and it is just plain sad, and very frustrating.
I consider my Explorer to be a "normal" vehicle. It is rated to tow 7000+ pounds, and on the flats I often forget that the TM is back there. It just hums along all day at 65-70 mph. But it was mighty sluggish getting up to an 8000 foot campground in the Sierras. And on the western approach to the Eisenhower Tunnel in RMR country, that long last grade up to 11,000 feet was a killer. I had trouble maintaining 35 mph at reasonable RPM (yes, I could have cranked it up to red line and done a little better, but that is mighty hard on the engine).
Ray and I have corresponded about adding a bolt-on supercharger like the B-17s used in WWII. The purpose would be to raise the air pressure at the engine inlet back to something like sea level pressure. It would have to be able to do this continuously for hours on end. Unfortunately, although we could find aftermarket turbos and supers that would boost pressure way above sea level, for quick bursts of power at a drag race, we couldn't find anything that would do the job over the long haul. The Turbo on your Duramax will move a long way in that direction.
Let us know how it works out.
Bill
|