I always wanted to know just what it would feel like to drive my diesel-powered brick at a high speed for an extended period of time.
And I got the chance to find out.
Last week I had just gone through my front end and had rebuilt it replacing the ball joints although I only needed the lowers I replaced all of them, I replaced the roller bearings, calipers, and pads and finished it off with 6 new 10-ply tires.

Anyhow last Sunday we went to the Air Show at MCAS Miramar down it San Diego, now I live 30 miles East of Los Angeles so I am a long way from San Diego.
We loaded up the truck and headed out.
The route we took was I-10 to I-57 to I-5 so Mapquest puts it at 112 miles.
The traffic was moderate but the speeds were good, 55- 65 on the I-10 & I-57 till we got to the crush at the 57/5 in OC then the speeds picked up, I was now driving 75.. 80.. 85 MPH the traffic was heavy but flying, we were in the carpool lane and I had cars on my bumper trying to pass me, it was crazy.

The truck handled perfect it was rock solid stable, harsh but a good feel.
I kept it between 80 to 85 MPH for about 1 HOUR from around Tustin to La Jolla where traffic slowed back down to 75.
The turbo had plenty of time to cool down though when I got off to go into the base, it took about 30 minuets to go a couple of miles.
At those speeds the boost was at 15 PSI and the Pyro was between 900* and 1000*
But I think I might have hurt my mileage.

The air show was great, they had the Blue Angles and a lot of static displays, my son’s work had a booth there.
After the show we went into San Diego and went through the Gaslamp Quarter everyone said be sure and go there. man what a letdown, it looks just like driving through Los Angeles skid row, it was full of homeless people pushing shopping carts and begging for money at the red lights. There were some nice restraints there but it was in the middle of a looney pit.

I don’t drink but if I did I guess it would be a nice place to get drunk.

It also reminded me of San Francisco, not a place you would want to park your truck if you valued it.
So we found a place to eat dinner and headed back home at a much reduced speed.

This now puts the cost of my truck up another $1300.00

Has anyone else had the opportunity to try this? how did yours handle.

Did anyone else out here make it to the show?

Jim

 

I did a run from my house down by RT80 on the PA/NJ border to Horseheads, NY to pick my brothers 96 up in just over 2.5 hours. For those who know the road, I went up the 80/380 hill at over 85mph with the empty trailer on. Anywhere else I was going anywhere from 75 to 80mph. Considering there was about 250,000 miles on the truck at that time it handled those speeds very well. The trucks rides/sounds better at 80 than it does at 65, who would have thought.

 

I have said this many time but, after i put my Gear Vender in(couldn't have went that fast before!) the truck seam to run smoother and quiter at 80 to 90 MPH then it ever did at 65!
My front end was compleatly (suspention wise) rebult w a new gear box so mine has all way steered pritty good.

 

I thought you meant high speed. That is daily freeway driving here in Michigan. No seriously my truck does great on the freeway at 80+. I have driven it on a few trips in the 350 mile range. It is not a comfortable as my other vehicles, but tracks well and is quite stable at the higher speeds.

-Steve

 

My work truck is 4WD with 304K miles on it. It has 4:10 gears. After pump tweaks, gov.spring, straight pipe and a 16CM housing it cruizes nice at 80 MPH. The truck has a service bed and weighs close to 11K all the time. Speed limit is 75 here.
Elevation is 4600. If I keep it at 70 it gets about 14MPGs, if I run 85 constant it drops to 11MPGs.
My other truck is 2WD with 291K miles. It has 3:73 gears. It has major mods. It is much smoother riding than the 4WD truck. Last year I made a 2000 mile trip with an eleven foot cabover camper, trailer, total weight around 13-14K.
At 75 it was smooth. It would pull any hill at 75 with cruize on and got about 11 MPGs.
This truck without the camper will do about 110MPH. The 4:10 truck will do about 97 with the service bed on.

 

I was disappointed, too. I drove 80-85 all the time on interstate when I lived in Colorado with no issues. Tried to follow a bullwagon one time- I was closing in on 100 for 20mi or so, and he kept pulling away from me.... I dropped back down to 75-80 for the rest of the trip.

Daniel

 

I took a trip out to Kalmazoo MI from Chicago over the weekend. I think map quest was 140 miles. Once on the I94 I held 82mph on cruise. RPMs were at 2000, boost 7-8psi on level ground and EGT 450-500. The ride was sweet, Like frieght train. My MPG dropped to 19.08. Normally I run about 21-22mpg. 72mph gets me the best mpg it seems.

 

middle tn to east tn and back a few weeks back we stuck cruise on about 80-81 and showed 20.48 mpg 2wd auto cc with 3.54s the drive is very smooth. i have the little chrome rain gaurds on the top of the windows, if they weren't there the wind noise would go down a ton. but they've been there so long o don't know what the weather stripping would do if i pulled them.

 

Humm... Wish my truck would run 100 mph

 

By a Gear Vender (overdrive) then it will, with 4:10 gears in the rearend!

 

i believe i would do some checking. even with 4.10 a 5 speed should run that fast. my 90 with 3.08 and od will do 118 when i got feather legged and backed out of it. i do have 3200 gov. spring. ps that was with a gps not the speedo.

 

yeha I have had my 3.08 gears with getrag over around 110 but just for a moment, although it had more to go, I can hit almost 100 in 4th

 

Ya my truck defuels at about 2300 RPM......I have full throttle but haven't moved the high idle screw yet!

 

It is not the 85 MPH I was amazed with, it was the fact I was able to run at this speed for a bit over an HOUR constantly and not backing off the throttle.
The truck ran so much better than it does at 55 MPH, no front-end wander it just went where I pointed it to go.

There is no way I could have driven it that speed while I was on the I-10 or the I-57 because they are so messed up and rough. We have some of the worst washboard roads in this area both the freeways and surface roads. I don't know what their problems are, they can resurface the road and you can see the dips and valleys about every 30 feet.

They patch the potholes and then by the first good rain the patch falls out of the hole, then you hit the hole and the patch.

They blame it on the big rigs for an excuse but I have not seen too many big rigs in the #1 & #2 lanes.
At least if we had lots of snow they could blame it on that.

Cal-Trans and the private contractors just do lousy jobs.


I usually never go over 65-70 MPH in my truck because I try to get the best mileage I can and I am usually too busy trying to watch out for all of the other drivers not paying attention to where they are going and I have a lot of money invested it to have it wrecked.

I had small cars getting within 1 car length of me at that speed trying to pass me in the carpool lane; or when I signal to change lanes they purposely pull into my blind side and won’t let me over. They never expect the long blast of my air horn to let them know I cannot see them.

I always kept my distance from the car in front, when I drive at any speed I am always looking ahead for a way to get out of any situation if one arises. I can only imagine what my truck would do to a subcompact car ahead of me that suddenly spun out and hit the wall like I see at least once a week in my driving on these freeways. It would be like a freight train hitting a cow on the tracks.

Jim

 

I went down to Tuscarora Nevada to do some prospecting and with 3.53 gears and 33x12.50x16.5 last fall with about 310,000 miles on it, 75mph was top speed and it had no more power. The truck ran fine, and it did not sound like it was revving too high (I do not have a tach so I am doing it by ear right now) it just had nothing left. Handling wise, it always has been awesome considering what it is (I would not put it up against my Benz, but I would put it up against almost any older [and even some newer] 4x4s). Since then, however, I have rebuilt the turbo, replaced the exhaust hosing put the 35" tires on it, and fixed a lot of things that the previous owner did not take care off. Now it does 80mph just fine and still has power to pull small hills when empty.

I really thought the bigger tires would drastically reduce my acceleration and torque but if I am hot-rodding it, it will still break the rear tires loose when it shifts into second.