Mountain Towing Advice

[mighty7sd]

I live in Kansas and am dreaming of taking our 5er out to Colorado.

The 5er is 35' and I drive a 3/4 ton, 6.0L Gasser. I just scaled the rig (~17K lbs) and I'm almost exactly at my truck GVWR fully loaded, though I'm still 500 lb under my GCWR and Rear GAWR. Basically, I can't get any heavier...though I may as my little kids get bigger.

Even on rolling hills in KS I feel like I'm struggling to accelerate, and I know I can only dream of a 3500 Diesel with exhaust brake!

What is everyone's experience towing in the mountains at your weight limits with a gasser? Is it not worth it? Can it be done if you can stomach dirty looks from passersby (or those that pile up behind you)? Is it no big deal? Should I just plan on camping at the base of mountains and not traversing them? Thanks everyone!

[time2roll]

blt2ski wrote:
Imagine back in the day, with 3 at best trans gears, 200hp, maybe 350 lb ft of torque.......we got up and down them mountains......

Back in the day? More like last week for me 😉

[blt2ski]

Imagine back in the day, with 3 at best trans gears, 200hp, maybe 350 lb ft of torque.......we got up and down them mountains......
At elevation, one loses 2-3% of the base HP your motor has if running a non turbo super charged motor. So if in Yellowstone at its highet point of 10,000', you are down some 20-30%. So you WILL go slower. The interstate grades are legally speaking, no more than 6 to a max for short stretches of 8%. Local roads on the other hand, Forest service roads are worst yet. These can get into the 20+% relm. Most new tow ratings only test to 12% max. so potentially, at max gcwr, you could stall out. probably not.....but then again.
I personally would not trade in your truck on a diesel because you will go a bit slower. You will and can get to the higher elevations, ie above 6000' just fine with what you have. Safely and sanely no less. Many have done it before, at or over gcwr. As I was with my 88 K3500 ext cab, about 500 lbs over, and 2500 lbs over with my 96 K3500 with a TD. It outperformed the 454 BB in the 88, pulling the same trailer, 10 years later, kids were not adult in size......Same truck with a vortec 454 would have been under its ratings, same if it would have had an auto, the emanual was deducted 2000 lbs or so.....but I out performed everyone I knew with the POS 4L80E! With that in mind, enjoy the trip!

Marty

[DinTulsa]

You will be fine, you won't win any races up the mountain, just keep the rpms up and stay in the right lane. Going down, get your truck in 3rd gear a quickly as possible to maximize engine braking and let the engine/trans do most of the work. Like it was stated earlier, DO NOT ride your brakes or they will fade out. Towing in the mountains isn't a huge issue, just use common sense and enjoy the view.

[time2roll]

Let the transmission do the shifting. If it starts to hunt pull the lever and hold the gear to the top. 3500 to 4500 rpm is normal climbing a hill. Do not make it a race. Go a little slower is OK too.

Go a little slower on the decent. Down shift to get about 3500 rpm of engine braking when needed. Do not ride the brakes to maintain a steady speed. If you need to slow up use the brakes moderately firm to drop 10 to 25 mph then let it coast back up. Brake before the curves then coast through them. Don't be tempted to touch the throttle as you exit a curve... let it coast up to speed again.

[EstorilM]

I have experience with other larger rigs, but a recent trip with my first TT is fresh in my head still..

I think the biggest thing is knowing your gears. Others have said this, but I mean know where your power band is for your engine, and pick a speed / gear accordingly based on your grade.

I got too slow hitting a ~5-6% grade and instead of doing 35-40 in 3rd, I immediately got out of the engines power band and had to downshift to 2nd. That bumped up my revs from 3k to about 4500, which was NOT what I wanted. At that point my only option was slowing down to about 25mph and staying in second at 3300rpm or so (truck lane, hazards on, night time with hardly any traffic). I had a TON of excess power / gear as I climbed, but wasn't even remotely close to being able to get into 3rd haha. (ZF 6HP26, can select any gear ya want, lock-up in all too which is nice).

Still, if I kept another 10mph I would have been fine all the way up in 3rd.

Another thing to consider is cooling - at 25mph and 3300-3500rpm, your clutch fan is going to kick in eventually. At 35-40mph and same rpm in 4th, it probably won't need to. I've never heard my fan kick in except in traffic at slow speeds, but on that one grade I could hear it just start to engage slightly all the way up.

Same deal in an 03 F350, clutch fan COMPLETELY locked up (absolutely the loudest noise I've ever heard a vehicle make) and that was a major power hit as well. Literally lurched the truck slower. Totally locked up fan the temp still steadily increased as I got slower finally down to about 15mph as we crested and about 75% near the "hot" mark on temp gauge. That ticked me off a bit at Ford since I was within the tow limits for that thing, but we all know how 6.0s can be.

You probably know the rest and everyone else covered the other stuff. As naturist said - your NA engine is going to feel that altitude big time. It's a gasser so don't worry about the revs. I had to tell myself "it's designed and tested to do this" and just tried to relax. Return trip was much less stressful.

[naturist]

As others have pointed out, you'll need to use your gears, all of them. No matter what TV you have, being at the upper limits of towing capacity means you are going to be one of the slowest vehicles on the road. Make no attempt to keep up with everyone else. And do not be surprised that your non-turbo motor is especially slow climbing at altitude. At 10,000 feet, your engine will produce 20% less power than it does at sea level, so expect it to struggle more than usual. Go as slow as you need to. Stay in the right lane, you will have plenty of company.

[1320Fastback]

Let the trans do its job in TH mode and let the motor rev as needed.
MPG does not matter, your on vacation.

Do not ride the brakes under any circumstances. In the moutnains they will fade until they stop working. Downshift beforehand and enjoy a slow controlled decent.

[Dennis_M_M]

Good advice above. Best investment is to get the Mountain Directory app. Gives you info on all the mountain grades throughs the west. Then you know exactly what to expect and it will help choosing routes.

[Mmwtdh]

I just pulled southern Colorado last week with my 2500HD with 6.0 liter gas engine. I'm pulling considerably lighter than you but I did learn a few things.

Going out I just left it in tow / haul and tapped the brakes to downshift and as mentioned above, if speed picked up too much, I'd step on the brakes pretty hard and get below my comfort speed and start all over.

Coming back, I put my transmission in manual shift and used the toggle to shift up and down and it worked a lot better. It was easier to control speed down and my trans temp was 20 - 30 degrees cooler going up compared to using the automatic setting.

I got up to ~4800 rpm going both up and down. It sounded too high but I figured they make 'em to do it.

I kept my foot in it when needed.....

[Lwiddis]

Gkinz, just left your state. Found CO drivers very courteous. It's the out of staters...

[theoldwizard1]

Maybe a waste of money, but I always used premium fuel when towing through the Smokie Mountain. Watch you temp gauge. If it starts climbing fast, pull off the road. Learn how to properly manually downshift the transmission for long/steep uphill grades. Don't be afraid to put your right foot flat on the floor to maintain the minimum speed.

[larry_barnhart]

hornet28 wrote:
Depending on the grade down you may want to drop to an even lower gear than it took for going up. If you use the gears it will save even more on your brakes. Can't tell you how many times I've been behind someone who didn't know enough not to ride the brakes. I'll tell you the sight and smell of brakes smoking isn't good. One place I've seen that more than once is 89A from Prescott to Cottonwood through Jerome

I totally agree with this statement and have said so many times. Truck has changed since the old truck driver said that but he probably was correct.

chevman

[gkainz]

all the above, and what's really going to hose you heading west from my house is the line of traffic with the fast lane trying to do 90, the slow lane packed with semis and RVs trying to do 45 and the middle lane a blender-fast mix of fast cars trying to pass on the right, and semis that can do 2 mph more than the semi they're passing on the left.

In other words, you're not going anywhere fast out here.

[Lwiddis]

KD, a good tip about using the TV passenger heater to lower radiator temperature.