You may have misread my review. I specifically said "I don't think the Ike gauntlet test is a test that should be reasonably consider by any person that does not tow at elevation". You on the other hand sir do tow at elevation often so that test would certainly be more important to you.
My reasons for writing this are not to praise the 6.4 or degrade it. I'm simply writing my experiences with it. My background, and how I came to these options.
Too often 1 test is used as as a source of information to encourage or discourage someone from an informed decision when the conditions for that test will not apply to a owner. That test has been used many times to try to discourage potential buyers from this vehicle, even though many owners will never encounter those conditions. It is up to the potential buyer to decide if those conditions are possible to be encountered often.
I still believe the Ike gauntlet test to be a poor reason to discourage someone from this vehicle because the manufacturer admitted to limiting the performance of the vehicle to ensure longevity of the components. In my option what that tells me is this vehicle is very capable in all conditions. But it is limited by manufacturer when conditions are the most severe. Those conditions are something that do not apply to ME and many potential buyers because we are unlikely to ever encounter them. But if I do it will be very very seldom. I am fully aware that a turbo charged engine will perform better at high elevations and I did note that I'm my report as well. My point is not to compare the 6.4 to a diesel, there is no reason to. You are not comparing equal vehicles. My point is not to compare it to anything because I have not owned other makes or engines. I simply reported on my experiences and touched briefly on my reasons for not wanting diesel. For those that tow often at high elevations most of my review will not matter to them because my experiences occurred under much different conditions.
There is no way I was trying to be argumentative. I am just on the other side of the country and fence on this issue. I have the Cummins and it works very well towing. The Cumming now puts out just about twice the torque of the 6.4 and that can only translate into better power for towing and where I live that is important. We have grades that equal the Ike Guantlet in length and even some in altitude. So, what might work for you probably will not work for others. Maybe that is why there are choices in engines for towing. Nobody said in this thread that the 6.4 can't acheive it's towing ratings. Hopefully that is a given. But, when the Cummins can tow around 30,000 pounds and the 6.4 around 15,000 there is a difference and many like to have a margin when towing in the mountains not to mention the exhaust brake for going back down. Your narrative comes across more as a sales brochure for the 6.4 in deference to a non biased discussion of engines that work well for towing.
