Horsepower is horsepower?

transamz9 wrote:

No I don't need full power in third but if I wanted it then I could put it there because I chose the have an engine with enough power to do the task that I ask to do.

I think you're missing our point, which is that the only way you can put full power there is to 1) downshift or 2) speed up. Simply put, if the engine is not spinning at peak HP RPM, it's not putting out peak HP. I don't care if your engine can produce 8000 HP, if you're not turning peak HP RPM, you're not getting peak HP.

What I think you're saying is that your engine has enough power so that even when you're not developing peak HP, it's still enough. And that's perfectly fine. But enough is very different than peak.

transamz9 wrote:

It don't matter what you drive, gas diesel, big or small, it takes X amount of power to pull Y up a certain grade at a certain speed.

Of course. But you also need to be actually developing X amount of power, not simply have an engine that peaks at X power.

transamz9 wrote:

Will 240 hp do it? Certainly it will. It's just going to be slower.

Will it do it faster than 240 hp with a 4 speed? Probably a little but that will depend on a thing or two.

No it won't do it faster. 240HP is 240HP. But you're missing the point about peak HP vs. developed HP. An engine with a peak of 400HP but only developing 240HP at the moment is no better than an engine with a peak of 240HP that's actually developing 240HP at moment.

transamz9 wrote:

Will it keep up with a 300 hp engine with a six speed? I'm going to say no way, especially if in fact it keeps the TC locked because then at some point it won't be able to make full power.

It depends on what you mean by "keep up." Can the 300HP achieve a higher top speed? Absolutely. But at any given road speed, can it develop more power? The answer to that depends on the speed and the gearing.


-- Rob