How long can you realistically dry camp?
Never having dry camped before, we plan to do so on our trip out west this summer. We'll be gone for 3 months, and we'll be looking for ways to camp a little cheaper for some nights. We have a gener...
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Phil, it's all relative to the pound feet of torque and where the engine makes that torque. The 2001 H.O. Cummins puts out 505 pound feet of torque @ 1600 rpm. That's a pittance compare to the 850 pound feet of pure grunt they put out now, but it's enough. It doesn't end there. It pulls all the way down with no apparent loss of pulling power. The newer, hi torque engines put out gobs of torque but not down low. It drops off rapidly. That's a round about way of saying "the older 2001 H.O. can pull even in lower rpms. My bro has a 1999 Ford 7.3 F250/6 speed manual and I cannot drive it the way i do the Cummins as I invariably stall the engine pulling away from a stop sign. No low end torque, even on the jewel of the Navistar engines. The other aspect is my NV5600, 360 pound, cast iron case, 6 speed manual transmission. There is virtually no hill for which I cannot find an appropriate gear, and you have forward 12 to choose from. Going up hill in the San Juans i was in 3rd & 4th gear, low range a lot, rarely having to go lower except to go slower at some obstacle. The other plus at that altitude is a turbo charged engine. I felt no loss of power even above 13K feet as the turbo keeps ramming air in there, unlike my carb'd Chevy V8 gas powered land cruiser which ran out of steam on a rock pile going up the Black Bear Pass trail out of Telluride.
I feel a slight power loss with larger tires and wheels with the 3.54's, but I can always downshift to another close by gear. I would say I wind up being in 6th gear maybe 10% less than when I had stock tires, especially in mountainous territory. After I get the new heavier wheels and larger tires, I have a friend who has as set of 4.10's he wants to get rid of. I will happily swap RG&P'S as he has a Power Lok also on his D-80/35 spline. This will be the time I swap in a True Trac gear driven limited slip in the front. In the end, traveling with less weight will help the ability of the TC as much as anything if you have appropriate gears one pop down.
For those that want to see how camping at high altitude effected things here are links to our Sept. 2010 trip called "San Juan High":
http://www.rv.net/cforum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24528960.cfm
http://www.rv.net/cforum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24529897.cfm
http://www.rv.net/cforum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24566904.cfm
I feel a slight power loss with larger tires and wheels with the 3.54's, but I can always downshift to another close by gear. I would say I wind up being in 6th gear maybe 10% less than when I had stock tires, especially in mountainous territory. After I get the new heavier wheels and larger tires, I have a friend who has as set of 4.10's he wants to get rid of. I will happily swap RG&P'S as he has a Power Lok also on his D-80/35 spline. This will be the time I swap in a True Trac gear driven limited slip in the front. In the end, traveling with less weight will help the ability of the TC as much as anything if you have appropriate gears one pop down.
For those that want to see how camping at high altitude effected things here are links to our Sept. 2010 trip called "San Juan High":
http://www.rv.net/cforum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24528960.cfm
http://www.rv.net/cforum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24529897.cfm
http://www.rv.net/cforum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/24566904.cfm
