It only takes a second....

adamis wrote:

SidecarFlip wrote:

adamis wrote:
When driving the truck and camper up to lake Tahoe on highway 50 a few weeks ago I encountered a few stretches of road where passing lanes were far between and the turnouts came up to fast to safely use. When possible I pull to the side and let faster cars go by because it's just safer to not have someone stuck on your tail trying to get around you but this road proved challenging to allow that.

There were a few climbs that if I was maintaining a good 60mph but if I pulled over I lost all my momentum and the old 7.3 just couldn't get back up to speed. I ended up on a few sections barely being able to make it back up to 45mph after using a pullout and consequently, the cars that came up after the guy I let around earlier had to deal with a truck doing 45mph instead of 60mph.

To be fair to the 7.3, was loaded down really heavy with a full camper with a week's worth of gear plus a 12ft cargo trailer also loaded. I also realized later that I had managed to carry up full holding tanks (unplanned) plus a full fresh water tank (planned).

The lesson from this is that it's time to look for some more ways to add some power to the 7.3. Having the power to maintain speed with the flow of traffic seems like one of the best ways to avoid risky situations.

Banks Engineering.... Ford SVO did my 7.3 in 1998 and I've never had an issue with it.

45 mph is the legal minimum speed on any highway in the Continental USA anyway..

The previous owner actually installed many Banks performance mods as well as a Predator Chip. Unfortunately I didn't write a list of everything when I bought it so I don't remember exactly what I have. The issue isn't lack of power so much as working to keep the EGT down. I usually have about a 1/3 of pedal left but holding back to keep under 1200F EGT. In the future I want to take my truck to a performance shop so they can tell me what I have and give me some options on where I can go.