I got on the road Friday at 11AM after a meeting at work. Straight shot up to I-80 and then clear sailing all the way on 80 to Reno and beyond. I filled up from my transfer tank which had 10% WMO mixed with diesel at a rest area near Battle Mountain and also dumped 2 extra gallons of WMO in at that time.

Started noticing a lot of black smoke on the various grades I had to go over between there and Wells, NV. I started thinking back about where those 2 gallons of WMO came from and I'm pretty sure they're from my BMW, which runs synthetic. The smoke is pretty bad under load and even at cruise it's hazing pretty good. Also, EGT is getting pretty high (hit 1200 a few times) when climbing the grades.

I make it into Wells, NV and since the diesel price was pretty cheap, I took on 18 gallons there and dumped a full bottle of Diesel Kleen in the tank, too. Headed north to Twin Falls. Lots of ups and down, but nothing too severe. EGT still heading up there when climbing. The smoke doesn't seem as bad, but it's still there and I'm hazing under load.

Make it to Pocatello, ID and put in 12 more gallons of fresh diesel and turn north towards Montana and keep an eye on it. Made a stop in Blackfoot, ID for beer and gas for the quads. The sun is down now and it's cooling off, so EGTs are better, but still getting hot when climbing (it hit 1250 for just a second climbing the grade out of Ashton, ID into the Targhee National Forest).

Got to Hebgen Lake, MT around 12:30AM (13.5 hours for 875 miles). The guys are up and already have a JD poured for me. What a bunch! We BS for a couple hours and hit the hay.

I haven't driven the truck since I got here, but I did back off the smoke screw 2 turns to see if that takes care of the hazing and black clouds. I'm thinking it's that I had the pump set up for 200 ft above sea level and now I'm at 6500 ft, and most of the trip where I was seeing the smoke and haze was between 4000 and 7500 ft, so I'm just putting too much fuel in there for the amount of air it's getting.

The ride was much better than last years. The new Bilsteins, the new tires and the new seat really made the ride enjoyable. Last year, I about needed traction after 14 hours in there. This time, no problems at all.

Mileage is off, but I was really humping it on I-80 and I-84/86/15, plus since last year I added the big winch bumper and 12K winch, double tube rollbar with 6 KC's on top (big wind resistance), and the 50 gallon aux tank. On top of that I had a cooler, my suitcare and a 650lb quad in the bed and 20 gallons of gas. I was getting 22 - 23 last year. This year is closer to 20MPG, but keep in mind a lot of that was climbing the Sierras (7200 ft) and the ups and downs of Nevada and Idaho. I'll get better mileage on the way back, since it's all downhill.

 

Quick followup - I didn't get out on the lake yesterday, but a few of the gang did. One guy got 7 trout, and another got 3 (that's just the keepers). They threw back about 15 that were too small.

The trout are definitely biting. I'll be on the lake by 9 to get mine, then probably taking the quad out for a few hours before the big BBQ tonight at the campground across the lake with the rest of the gang.

 

Considering the load, * of grade, and altitude I would say your mileage wasn't half bad. Compared to what I've heard of newer trucks it seems darn good! Sounds like a fun trip!

 

Sounds like an awesome road trip. Wish I was in a cool climate fishing today

 

Maybe the synthetic WMO had something to do with the smoke.

 

Sounds like elevation sickness, my truck is basically stock and I live and work from 4500' up to 10,000' and have to watch EGT's when towing and have a lot more black smoke than I'd like and thats with stock IC injectors and a stock pump.

 

That's it. I guess I need the GDS 60mm compressor upgrade, a bigger crossover tube and water-meth injection since I'll be making this trip a couple times each year