Steep Grades Stories - Page 3 - Montana Owners Club

NCFischers · 03-12-2009, 10:54 PM

In the late 70's when I was doing line work for Ma Bell, my partner and I were driving a small, single axle gas powered dump truck with a standard tranny and hydraulic brakes. We were pulling a cable trailer weighing over 10K. He was driving as we went down a steep (I think it was 9%), curvy downgrade. We lost the brakes and he tried to downshift to slow us down. We blew the tranny and the engine up. The sound was incredible. We coasted to a stop at the bottom of the hill with all manner of fluid pouring out from under the truck (and I think a little from us). It was truely an E ticket ride I never want to repeat. Years later, when I was driving much a better line truck(Cat diesel and Allison tranny), the company put fluid retarders on the trucks because of the steep grades we traveled all the time(we worked in the Sierra's near Lake Tahoe). I could take my 28,000 pound truck pulling a pole trailer loaded with 40 foot poles and go down 11%,6 mile grades without touching the brake or downshifting. Those things are amazing.

richfaa · 03-13-2009, 02:57 AM

Well we knew what PA 30 Breezewood to Gettysburg was like, been on it many times, In a car, Not to mention there are signs everywhere cautioning trucks to not go there. We just wanted to see what the shinny new Ford 6.4L was made of. 22k Plus was a good test. The thing made some noise, pulled some high boost and some serious RPM's, We did have to pull over at the top of one of the 9% grades because I did not like the Trans temps.Would never have known what they were if we had not had a external guage. The Ford done good but we will not do it again..

sreigle · 03-13-2009, 06:10 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by padredw

This interesting topic brings back memories of my very first towing experience. We had just bought a used Prowler Regal fifth-wheel (the model with the living room in the front, bedroom in the rear), and had a new Chevrolet 2500 gasoline engine. Our first trip was up to Queen Wilhelmina State Park near Mena, Arkansas. Our best route is up the very eastern side of Oklahoma to the intersection of the "Talamena Drive" which leads eastward to the state park in Arkansas. All seemed to be going well, but I had no experience of "anticipating" the steep grades and was driving along slowly as we started up one of those inclines. I have no idea of the percentage of grade, but I can tell you that for a moment or two I was not sure we were going to make it to the top. My speed dropped and the engine was in labor.

We did make it and settled into the very nice camping area at the park. Later on we got acquainted with some of our more experienced neighbors in the campground. I mentioned our experience with "that hill" and admitted that I was a bit concerned about our plans to drive the same rig to Colorado in the Summer. One of the fellow asked me, "Which way did you come in here? From Arkansas or from Oklahoma?" When I told him that it was from Oklahoma, he assured me, "If you came in here from Oklahoma, you won't have no trouble pullin' anything in Colorado!" [He also told me that he knew of several instances when rigs had pulled down and had to be towed up the hill with a tractor.]

Well, he proved to be right, though my learning through that first experience probably had something to do with it.

Padre, was that US 259 in eastern Oklahoma? We took that route all the way into Texas on our way south and west in early December 2007. It was a very pleasant and beautiful drive mostly devoid of traffic. We thouroughly enjoy the route. And were pleasantly surprised that Oklahoma has such pretty scenery.

Bill-N-Donna · 03-13-2009, 06:37 AM

This has been an interesting thread reading back through this. I’m looking forward to the experiences and travels with the Ford diesel after switching from the gasser V-10 last fall. Haven’t had a chance to go anywhere with the ford other than two quick trips to a flying–J and back (while towing that is). Just had to hook up and make a couple of trips while waiting on good weather. Camping fever I guess! However, I really liked how it performed so far.

Rich, you stated you have an external gage for the transmission temperature; is that one you added yourself or are you using the ones that come with the Ford?

The Ford I have has got two temp gages, one for the transmission and the regular gage. I’m just curious as to whether or not I will need any additional gages.

richfaa · 03-13-2009, 07:36 AM

Bill..We have this one http://www.aeroforcetech.com/index.html They are local folks. Developed by a couple of NASA Engineers whose specialty is telemetry. It is a single , easy to read guage that plugs into the PC port under the dash and reads all of the trucks PC parameters. iT also has a EGT pick up that requires a sensor to be installed...Mine pre turbo... Very handy device.. There are other brands and devices///This one is simple and I am simple.

sreigle · 03-13-2009, 11:21 AM

Quote:

quote:Originally posted by Bill-N-Donna

This has been an interesting thread reading back through this. I’m looking forward to the experiences and travels with the Ford diesel after switching from the gasser V-10 last fall. Haven’t had a chance to go anywhere with the ford other than two quick trips to a flying–J and back (while towing that is). Just had to hook up and make a couple of trips while waiting on good weather. Camping fever I guess! However, I really liked how it performed so far.

Rich, you stated you have an external gage for the transmission temperature; is that one you added yourself or are you using the ones that come with the Ford?

The Ford I have has got two temp gages, one for the transmission and the regular gage. I’m just curious as to whether or not I will need any additional gages.

Bill, if I may offer some advice... I towed fifthwheels with Fords, exclusively, from 1995 until mid-2007. I noticed the Ford temperature gauges, both transmission and engine, seemed to stay in the same position on the gauge 99% of the time. Then, under heavy load uphill they might "suddenly" move to 3/4 of the gauge or higher. I did some research and found out the Ford gauges are built to always show the same position on the gauge so long as the temperature is within the range Ford thinks is "normal." In other words, let's say that normal is 160 degrees to 220 degrees. The gauge works like a normal gauge when below 160. On start, it shows cold and slowly moves to normal. Then it stays in that one position so long as the temperature is between 160 and 220. If it exceeds 220 the needle moves up to 3/4 (or wherever) and acts like a normal gauge again above 220. Keep an eye on the gauge and you'll see when it gets hot it will suddenly move to 3/4. It will take maybe two seconds to make that climb on the gauge. That is the reason I added external gauges to my Fords, like others did.

I had EGT for exhaust gas temperature (that's an important one), transmission temp and engine temp. If you go EGT you have to decide to have the probe installed before the turbo or after.

If before the turbo, you get instant gauge reaction to temperature changes. That's my preference so that you can react to the temperature climb before there is damage. The negative side of pre-turbo is the remote chance if the probe breaks it goes into and destroys the turbo. It's probably happened to someone but I don't know of anyone.

If after the turbo, the temperatures will read lower and the gauge will change significantly more slowly. It still gives you an idea and probably clues you in time to avoid damage but I didn't like the way it worked when I had one installed that way. I took the truck back and had them move the probe to the pre-turbo position. But post turbo is far preferable to no EGT at all.

That said, I've not yet installed external gauges on this Dodge. The engine temp gauge works well on this truck but there is no egt nor tranny gauge. So I need to install gauges one of these days.

padredw · 03-13-2009, 02:18 PM

TO: Steve Reigle

Yes, Steve that was US 259. I have the very same impressions of that route as you have expressed. It is especially a beautiful drive in the Autumn when the leaves have put on color.

You should know that US 259 comes right through our little town (we are between I-20 (Longview) and I-30 (north of Daingerfield). We are still hoping that you folks will stop in sometime. Remember, we have had Carol and Al, and John (OntMont) and Donna to stay overnight with us. Wish we had known you were in San Antonio back a month or so ago. We might have worked something out.

Back to the route and to my story. That hill was NOT on US 259 but on the drive from there up to Queen Wilhelmina State Park. Since that first towing experience we have been back to QW State Park a number of times with "no sweat". We regularly drive up US 259 and US 59 on the way to Northwestern Arkansas or to Branson. It is a great drive.

sreigle · 03-16-2009, 11:27 AM

Dave, at one point while in San Antonio I measured mileage to your town from the Blazing Star (where we stayed) and found it too far for a day trip. So I put it out of my mind. In retrospect I should have contacted you to see if you planned to be within reasonable distance during our stay there, just in case. Sorry. If we come back down that way again I'll be sure to remedy that situation.

2 for Him · 03-21-2009, 03:02 PM

Last summer DW kept telling me that the road the GPS said to take into Allegheny Nat Forest didn't look good on the map. Should have listened especially when I saw it was named Gregs Hill, was crushed rock, and disappeared at about a 10% grade under trees. Yep, it got steeper, the rear started jumping and losing traction, had to put it in 4 wheel, way to steep to stop or back down. Now the GPS is named Loleta for the campground we were headed to, just to remind me to double check the map.

sreigle · 04-26-2009, 10:49 AM

Tom, if that road looks rather squiggly on the map, then that's probably the one I'd take. I love the scenery on roads like that! Vicki loves the scenery but usually has her eyes closed on some of those turns!

richfaa · 04-26-2009, 12:06 PM

Bill..The OEM gages are not much good. The RPM, Boost and speedometer are close, The rest are useless My Transmission temp can be reading 200 on the external gage and the OEM gage has not budged. As I recall the parameters on Trans temp are 150---170. We monitor Pre turbo EGT and tranny temps at all times. I also like to monitor Boost and coolent temps on hard pulls. Alarms are set at EGT 1200, Boost 35, tranny temp 170. We have never seen this thing get hot..
We hit all those numbers pulling Fancy Gap in Va (6% 8 miles.) we backed off to 55MPH to stay within parameters. e highl recommend the gage(your choice, for towing.

Sinterior · 04-26-2009, 03:59 PM

Several years ago I did the locally known "The Hill" (both ways) on hwy 20 from Williams Lake to Bella Coola on BC's west coast. It's 20 miles long with one part being a well maintained 6 mile long gravel section of 18% with several sharp switchbacks. A road the Provincial Government of the early 1950's said was impossible to build, so the locals did it with two bulldozers. It's now Provincially funded and looked after, and buses and 18 wheelers are on it every day. Some of the more adventurous RV'ers can do a a tour from Port Hardy on Vancouver Islands north coast and go by ferry to Bella Coola and continue to Williams Lake and join hwy 97, which if you go north, takes you to Dawson Creek, mile 0 of the Alaska Hwy, or south to Cache Creek and join the Trans Canada Hwy south to Vancouver or points east clear across the county.
http://www.landwithoutlimits.com/Thi...reedom_Highway

Peter

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