Diesel Colorado/Canyon

jus2shy 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.

180 HP is fine for only 7,600 lbs towing, and it's a turbocharged motor to boot, so altitude will have little effect on the motor.. It's not like the EcoDiesel that's rated at 9,000 lbs. It will probably have similar performance to the Ecodiesel RAM at its GCVWR as GM does meet J2807 on their rigs. So you should be guaranteed a minimum speed of 45 mph at full GCVWR going up. The big advantage though is that it has an exhaust brake for going down the hill. Something I think even the Ecodiesel is lacking at this point in time, though Chevy activates it with Tow/Haul mode. I personally like having the EB separated as I can have the gentler shifting and exhaust braking when driving the passes empty.

I towed my 7000 LB TT over Ike with my 200 HP/ 425 ft/lbs of torque 6.5 turbo diesel (turned up fuel and boost, most likely around 225 HP) and it was pretty ugly as far as speed goes. I was below 30 MPH.

These guys were towing 7,200 LBS with a 240 HP TD. They got down to around 42 MPH. And that is not a TT but a flat bed with a Bronco on it. BIG difference!

The only advantage the mini max has over my 6.5 is 2 more gears so it will be a bit better at keeping the rev's close to peak HP. That's not much because my 6.5 was pretty much maxed out at keeping the HP at it's peak with 4 gears and a 4.10 rear.

Doing the math, with this thing being down over 50 HP this truck should be around 35 to 40 MPH on the IKE. We will see how close I am when the test comes out.