humbled on the hill

I'm glad I got the 5.4L in my F250. The V10 sounds like a real pooch.:p

BurbMan wrote:
You made it sound like you were Captain Kirk taking the enterprise into a black hole with the wife screaming, trans temps rising, and beads of sweat on your forehead....

Oooops...I forgot to mention the dog woke up in a panic. Slobbered on all the windows and jumped into the front seat. That set off the seat belt alarm. And she got caught in the GPS cord pulling that off the dash. All that scared the cat. She jumped up on the arm rest, and sat on the window button. Down comes the window, and the $300 GPS goes out the window. Good thing the cord remained plugged into the power port. But that thing slapping against the side of my truck, created some scary moments. So in an instant, DW pulls herself out from under the panic-ing golden retriever, unplugs the GPS and out it goes. Lucky she was able to grab the cat (who got snagged in the cord) before she goes out the window with it. All that just as we crest the hill. Then I get to watch an 18 wheeler squash my new Fathers day GPS. For a moment all gets quiet. Then the trip down the other side. That's another story.

I really didn't think it was that important to add those details. How much money comes with that Pulitzer prize? Since you are nice enough to nominate me, do I get a nomination prize too? I need to pay for my new GPS. It cost about $65,000. Really expensive. But it came wrapped in a really nice package from Ford. Slobbery windows and all. See sig.

Oh....and Thanks for asking. Have a happy day....

Vulcaneer wrote:

tsetsaf wrote:
The original post is a joke right? Or are you really concerned about being passed by some random rver who happens to care less about burning money than you (money=fuel)? I have never been concerned about passing or being passed by anyone while towing. Who cares?

Your post reminds me...I was passing on a pretty good uphill on I-17 between Flagstaff and Phoenix. Me in my V10, 30V. Passing a diesel of another brand.

I had to get a running head start. So I had momentum to get up the hill. And foot to the floor to keep it at 4000 RPM, and 55 MPH. Third gear. Both of us towing pretty equal weight 5th wheels. I really didn't think about passing his diesel. Until I saw the instant high volume of black smoke from the diesel. I knew he punched it.

But I didn't care. I kept running at 4,000 RPM. Engine screaming in 3rd gear, Couldn't hear the radio, Wife screaming, Trans Temps climbing, watching the speedo to make sure it was holding speed. Finger on the hazard switch in case it dropped under 45 MPH. Pretty hectic in my truck.

I completed the pass alright. Me driving like hell. A little sweat rolling down my brow. Him doing nothing more than calling for a little more power by wiggling his big toe just a little. Course, he probably did need to wash the soot of his nice white trailer.

I pull that grade often. Gross is close to 20/21K and run it comfortably @ 65. My mods help with pulling and it gets better mpg tuned also.

stsmark wrote:
4x4 during your pull if you wanted 3rd all you had to do is tap - and it would downshift even in Drive. You will have to push + 3 times to get 4-6 back. It's in the manual. I use it all the time towing if I don't agree with the computer.
I bet the 150 was not towing twice the trucks EW when he went by.

That is a handy feature on these Fords. I sometimes use it when descending long steep grades to get the truck to downshift into 2nd. (I still need to slow to 45 mph before it will take 2nd) When climbing I am usually not too concerned about getting up the hill as fast as I can so I tend to just let the computer do its thing. In this particular case I could have done like you say: tapped the - (minus) three times to get 3rd or pulled the gearshift selector down one click to get manual 4th and then tapped the - once to get 3rd; then just shifted back to drive when I was done playing. Had I shifted down I might have missed out on the opportunity to make mark5w's day.:)

stsmark wrote:
4x4 during your pull if you wanted 3rd all you had to do is tap - and it would downshift even in Drive. You will have to push + 3 times to get 4-6 back. It's in the manual. I use it all the time towing if I don't agree with the computer.
I bet the 150 was not towing twice the trucks EW when he went by.

You must have a 2011+ model, there is not an electronic shift control on prior models.

4x4 during your pull if you wanted 3rd all you had to do is tap - and it would downshift even in Drive. You will have to push + 3 times to get 4-6 back. It's in the manual. I use it all the time towing if I don't agree with the computer.
I bet the 150 was not towing twice the trucks EW when he went by.

BurbMan wrote:
I'm not sure that any V-10 powered vehicle is rated to tow 13k lbs anyway...

If you want to do do the research on my truck feel free to do that. I am sure you can review through my 5000+ posts to learn the details on my 06 F350. You seem to be worried about all that. Maybe that will help you.

Doesn't make much difference to me. Now that I sold it for a diesel. Now my engine is much quieter. And my wife can talk in a normal voice again on big hills. Seems to me if you don't like my writing style, feel free to block me.

I do appreciate you teaching me how to tow heavy. And even my 14,000 pounds is not really all that heavy. But it was for that ole V10. Even though it was not too heavy for that truck.

blt2ski wrote:
Vantage is not that steep, IIRC going west is in the 4-5% range. Being as it is an interstate, per federal road building guidelines, it can not be steeper than 6 with sort bursts to 8%. If you want as steep a climb on an interstate as you can get, drive the Road from Ellensburg to yakima. HWY 80?!?!? That is as steep as one can make an interstate hwy and get federal funding.

I pulled the west and east vantage grades at 52 mph with a blinken 6.5td at 15K lbs, 2000 over gcwr! and an overheater at that! so it could not be that steep etc! Granted it is long, ie 5-10 miles or so.

Now queen anne ave in parts of seattle.......one block I know of is 24.5%, that is a STEEP HILL! 5% is one of them, there was a hill back there?!?!?!?!?!?

marty

Queen Anne is scary even without a trailer!

Right it just that Vantage is long and seems to cause a bunch of breakdowns.

I generally only travel it in the summer so maybe that is where my dislike come from.

blt2ski wrote:
Vantage is not that steep, IIRC going west is in the 4-5% range. Being as it is an interstate, per federal road building guidelines, it can not be steeper than 6 with sort bursts to 8%. If you want as steep a climb on an interstate as you can get, drive the Road from Ellensburg to yakima. HWY 80?!?!? That is as steep as one can make an interstate hwy and get federal funding.

I pulled the west and east vantage grades at 52 mph with a blinken 6.5td at 15K lbs, 2000 over gcwr! and an overheater at that! so it could not be that steep etc! Granted it is long, ie 5-10 miles or so.

Now queen anne ave in parts of seattle.......one block I know of is 24.5%, that is a STEEP HILL! 5% is one of them, there was a hill back there?!?!?!?!?!?

marty

Marty, drove those hills many a time, worked for a grocery chain, and serviced Washing, Idaho, and Montana, plus oldest did four years at WSU, the drive from Puyallup covered the Vantage.
Never gave much thought to the East bound Vantage as the climb was short compared to the west climb which was 10.9 miles from the Columbia river to the rest area at Rye Grass Flats. Elevation at Vantage is 663' and 2,263' at Rye Grass, so you gain 1,600 feet over 10.9 miles which is only about a 3% grade, it is just constant for almost 11 miles.
Elensburg to Yakama is I82, and the first hill going both west and east are not much fun, sometimes better to take the old highway along the river!!

As for Lookout, it only averages 4.5% from Mullan, ID for the last 6.19 miles.