I don't disagree that an extra gear wouldn't hurt, but you're talking about
a 'Vette and a Luxo-Cruiser vs. a Truck. The aerodynamics on those vehicles
are much better than our trucks. Not to forget that our trucks weren't
designed for high speeds anyway.
When I had moved from CA to TX (1730 miles), my Dak had shown an average of
22mpg at an average of 80-85mph (factory 3.55:1 gears). The differential
gears play a big part on fuel efficiency just as a 6th gear would. Now,
with 4.10 gears, she gets an average of 17.5. (Haven't done the TX to CA
trip yet to see how much it changed over an extended highway drive yet.)
$0.02
- Bernd
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dakota-truck@buffnet.net
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: DML: Re:why a six-speed
Hi List
I'm getting caught up on the list and noticed the 6-speed discussion.
This last weekend we were able to do some high speed cruising on
I-40 between Flagstaff and Holbrook.
We had a vette and a lexus out front as the rabbits and were running 90
most of the way.
My Dak is a 92 V8 Auto and it was running at 3000rpm and still loafing.
Another gear to bring the rpms down to 2500 or so would have been great.
Our block to block milage for the trip Phx-Flag-Holbrook-Flag-Phx was
16mpg even with the higher speeds.
As a side note: we just did a spreadsheet and the last 22,000 miles the
Dak got 14mpg, 21,989 miles on 1571.2 gallons of gas.
rob from phx
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 11:50:48 EDT