Diesel Colorado/Canyon

My sister bought a loaded canyon (V-6 gas). She will never tow but it fits in their garage and she is comfortable with the size. Not everyone needs or wants a full size truck and a Diesel Colorado/ Canyon would pull a small RV just fine. I pull a large trailer with a 7.3 Diesel just fine.

GordonThree wrote:
I've only driven the Ike in a sports car (with a measly 260hp, 285ftlb pentastar v6), and wasn't that impressed with the supposedly difficulty of the grade.

The switchback grades you encounter in Jasper-Banff National Park(s), and others along the way to Alaska THOSE are impressive grades. I was glad to have the 5.7L hemi in my grocery getter ram 1500... it tows my puny 3500 lbs trailer like a breeze, regardless of grade.

I've thought about eco diesel (in a jeep no less?) but grocery getter payloads hold me back. my trailer is so light weight, I carry all my cargo in the truck - I've upgraded the rear suspension to help with the squat, but she'll sag pretty good loaded for an extended trip and the trailer full of water. I don't have the extra 20-30g to spend on a 3/4 ton (not gonna buy a 2 seat stripper), wonder what the Japanese 1/2t truck with it's supposed 2000 lbs payload will retail for... I just need to pack lighter and lose some weight :)

Yes the Ike is high, but the gradients are not that dramatic. Try doing 40-45mph at the start of a grade

spoon059 wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
With less than 200 HP on tap and 7K on the tail things are going to get ugly when they take this thing to Co and tow up Ike. Snails are going to be in the passing lane and going past this thing.

I would love to take a poll of people here on RV.net and find out how many of them actually drive up that road. For all the nonsense I hear about that road, I would bet less than 5% of RVer's actually drive that thing. We never did and we went across the country when I was a kid.

Of those 5% that drive up that road, how many tow there with a regularity? Maybe 10% of them? For that miniscule population, perhaps this is a valid concern and something to think about. For the 99% of people that will never drive it or drive it less than once a year... does it really matter if you can drive super fast or if you are cruising along at 45 mph in the right lane with the OTR truck drivers and it takes another 15 minutes to get to the top?

Enough with the freakin Ike Guantlet already...

Similar very steep roads in Australia, without the outright elevation, but you go up as. much elevation. A Diesel Pickup would not slow that much at all, they are pretty amazing in that way

...

Some trivia:
Using diesel, I once made it over Beaver Hill at 0.2 mph in Montana, less than a 2% grade.
I hit the bottom doing 40. It felt like Donner Pass at the end.

I had plenty of rated HP for the load (1 hp per ton was called for). Course it was on a train. But the dummies gave me 2 big locomotives instead of three smaller units. These traction motors aren't significantly physically larger than those in the smaller locomotives, so they get pretty hot. And three units would have given me more weight on more drivers for less slipping to boot. Each axle has it's own motor, six per unit.

This brand locomotives (GE) auto-shut themselves down little-by-little to prevent burnt windings, so my HP disappeared little-by-little as I climbed the hill. Then it started to rain towards the top. Rail is just like asphalt when it first gets wet... slipperier at first vs later. And the sanders were empty as usual.

You see, the traction motors have also had traction control (since 1950's), so even as I started cresting at a less steeper grade, I went slower and slower to the top as the axles slipped, then paused, then slipped. We literally inched our way to the top. The digital speedos actually do read in tenths (for loading etc). Topped at 0.2 mph. It was a miracle.

It took well over an hour to go just a few miles, and other trains waited hoping like H to not have to give me another motor if we stalled. We all worked by the mile, not the hour, so everybody's patience does wear thin. This was maybe closer to a "Donner Pass" deal. A borrowed team of horses might help the other guy get out of the way. Imagine that in terms of today's RVs. :)

The usual speed with no rain would have been about 12 mph with two EMD brand locomotives, thereby manually choosing enough amps to possibly smoke the motors.

Wes
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Bionic Man wrote:
I say it in the EcoDiesel threads, I will say it here.

This truck is very likely going to be a winner. Only a small % of the population care about towing. A smaller, easy to park, truck that go haul things from Home Depot and get good MPG while doing it is going to sell. Especially true right now when diesel is lower priced than petrol.

With gas prices being very low and diesel is still more expensive than gas I seriously doubt I'll see a lot of these trucks here in Texas the truck capital of the world.

I may see 1 or 2 of these trucks/week in the gas powered version and the diesel powered version will be a needle in the haystack similar to the Eco Diesel.

BTW... Went to Lowes at lunch last week and didn't break a sweat parking my crew cab Super Duty. :B

I say it in the EcoDiesel threads, I will say it here.

This truck is very likely going to be a winner. Only a small % of the population care about towing. A smaller, easy to park, truck that go haul things from Home Depot and get good MPG while doing it is going to sell. Especially true right now when diesel is lower priced than petrol.

Minute and a half. 7:33 to 9:03.

I admit I didn't watch all of each video, but every time they showed the speedo for both trucks, they were each going about 50 mph. I didn't see the times. How much difference between the two?

rjstractor wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:
With less than 200 HP on tap and 7K on the tail things are going to get ugly when they take this thing to Co and tow up Ike. Snails are going to be in the passing lane and going past this thing.

I'm not a math major, but I would think that 190 hp and 360 ft/lbs or torque will move 7K up the hill just about as fast as 380/720 will move 14K up that hill. It won't set any speed records, but I imagine it will do just fine towing 7K.

I disagree.

Watch this.

And then watch this.

Take note of the MPH and times for each at the end. Also take note of the comments these guys talk about. And this is with the wimpiest engine HP out there. This was not the HO engine.

As far as doing just fine towing 7K? Sure; my 200 HP 6.5 does just fine towing my 7K TT..................until I get into some mountains.........then the snails and slugs start to pass me in the left lane. :B

If I lived where Spoon lived I wouldn't need my Dmax. 200 HP is more than enough to tow on flat ground and mole hills like they have back east.

If I head east I have to go over Donner Pass. If the Donner party had more HP they would have made it over in plenty of time and not have gotten into a "dog eat dog situation." :W

Ike is not the only mountain out here Spoon. There are lots of them out here and they all need big HP to get over in a timely manner. Or you can be like the Donner Party and go slow and take your time............:B.

GordonThree wrote:
Will the General build enough of them to sell, nicely equipped, for under 50 grand, what about 40 grand?

I created an order for a Crew Cab Long box Colorado LT, with the diesel, all available interior vehicle options, and running boards, tri-fold cover, spray-in bedliner. The MSRP was going to be $44k.

Unfortunately, my wife continues to want to keep the CTS4.