Hank85713 wrote:
Olddud, we crossed Wolf Creek today. Dont know which way you are going to be going (E or W), we were headed west. There is a long pull from walsenberg to alamosa to 9400 feet we dropped to around 45 mph on it and I used 3 direct not tow haul. At wolf creek its 10300 and we dropped to 25 mph prior to the crest. I went up with 1/2 tank fuel and again used 3 and 2d direct mainly 3. TH does nothing in D for these climbs. I also added 2 bottles of oriellys octane booster in colorado springs dont know if it helped or not. We calculated out to 7.3 mpg when we fueled in Pagosa. Water temp got up to about 210 a couple of times but all else was normal my usual is 202 deg.
Going up wolf creek there were many others struggling to keep going. We got up to 36 mph and passed a newer dodge dually pulling a 30-32 5r who was having problems getting up the hill. Dont know why but he did. A couple of TT's passed us up out of walsenberg but we caught and eventually passed them in alamosa so again dont know what their problems may have been. BTW the head and crosswinds were a hand full and seemed the harshest on all curves!
Once we got to level ground we had no issues with performance. maintained 65 pretty easy with an 8 mpg avg readout on the scan gauge.
I'm going both ways, in and out. I've been up the grade from Walsenburg a couple times, once pulling our Wrangler with a Cambria. I got behind a trucker going about 15mph, made the mistake of passing, but could only manage about 10' per minute -- lots of people not happy behind, I would guess. I think I could climb that at 40mph, if not slowed down.
Wolf Creek Pass, from your description, sounds even worse. I will probably unhook the Jeep before trying that one.
Thanks for the reply!
