> I did my figuring on my trip to the River (Colorado).
>Here's the results:
>
> Mpg eastbound: 11.78 mpg
> Mph westbound 11.50 mpg
>
> That doesn't tell the whole story. On the eastbound
>leg of the trip, we experienced little wind, and did a fair amount
>of hill climbing through San Diego county into the desert. There's
>three grades to climb from San Diego... 1st near Alpine, and I
>slowed to 65 mph in 4th.... 2nd near Mount Laguna and I slowed
>to 65 mph in 4th... Then we hit Cameron Grade... In my old
>Mitsubishi, with 2 jetskis in tow, I would slow to 55 in 3rd gear...
>Friday night we climbed 3/4 towards the summit at 80 mph...
>Hit the summit at 76 mph...(towing a 4500# jetboat, verified by
>a weigh station @ moving company)...in 4th gear... It was a
>little noisy with exhaust/headers/FIPK, but it sounded real
>healthy... That bettered my speed a year ago by 10 mph....
>Plus on the flat towards Yuma, AZ. I had the cruise set @
>72 mph (2500-2550 rpm) in 5TH GEAR, with no problems,
>lugging, etc.
>
> On the westbound trip we had a bit of a headwind,
>so I kept the speed around 67 mph...below 62 mph makes
>5th gear a bit too tall, and 4th is only good for about
>55 mph (2800-3000 rpm!), so go slow in 4th, or fly in 5th...
>The grade up the hill is a 6% grade, 13 mile, winding climb.
>I actually slowed for the corners up I-8 because we were running
>75 mph in 4th.... We got slowed by a motorhome (it's only
>2 lanes up), and dropped to 60 mph in 4th....and left it at that
>Outside air temp was about 100-105 F., and the truck only
>heated up slightly about 1/2...*may it was 5/8ths??* We did
>pass quite a few CARS on our way up, and once on top, we
>kept a good 70-75 the rest of the way home... The exhaust/
>headers make a BIG difference in towing for me!!!
>(I ran on the stock SBEC)...
>
> **I did experience something weird, when I
>flashed my brights to let a trucker over, my BRAKE
>and ABS lights came on in the dash, and the tach jumped
>up 1000 rpm or so, then dropped back to normal (and
>the lights when out)... I kept doing to try to fiqure
>out what was going on, and then the radio would
>shut off momentarily, then turn back on... WEIRD...
>Then while stopped at an Immigration Inspection point
>the truck DIED.... (The tach stayed at IDLE), but all
>power was gone (luckily we were stopped in traffic).
>I proceeded to turn the key/on/off/on/off...NOTHING,
>10 seconds past, I tried it again, VROOMMM...it
>started, the radio/ac came back on, and off we went..
>(Horns blaring behind us....) The radio lost all
>presets.... So a total loss of power had occurred.
>I had this happen 5 months ago, and took it to the
>dealer... They said a bad battery terminal, or a bad
>battery... And when I say a total loss of power, I
>mean it (no lights, horn, dome light, key buzzer,
>NADA!). All is ok, the hi-beams don't make the
>dash lights come on anymore...etc.etc... I
>suspect the stock SBEC is flaky, as the last
>time it happened I had the stock SBEC in....
>I plan on getting the battery checked out too...
>ANY SUGGESTIONS???
>
> ..Sam '95 SLT
>
> BTW: I will post the pictures of my truck pulling
>my friend's boat... It looks funny to me, as the
>boat is about 3-4' longer than my truck, plus
>weighs about 400# more!!
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You can check your switch codes by turning the key switch 3 times then look
at the miles on a '97. Checked mine to double check it and see if it
worked.
'97 Dakota CC 4X4
V-8 Flowmaster Split Exhaust
K&N FIPK Clone
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:37 EDT