My eyes have been opened and I now have BIG respect for those of you living/driving/towing in the mountains and at high altitude.

I was hauling (8700-9000 lbs) not towing. I went from Colorado Springs to Denver to Grand Junction and back. Altitude varied from 5000' to 14,110" (Pikes Peak).
Never did quit get the hang of controling smoke. Driving like I was used to (trying not to bother those behind me too much) became a real challange. I'm sure it can be learned...but was much harder than I expected.
Turbo performance was suprising! Have flown turbo charged planes in the past and we just kept adding a little throttle to maintain sea level air (manifold pressure) until we ran out of throttle at 13,000 to 15,000 feet. In my CTD at 6000 feet, could only pull 41 psi boost-was used to 50 psi at sea level. Still haven't figured that one out yet. Do all you mountain men loose boost up high?
Still had plenty of power but it was very different! Can't imagine what towing heavy in that part of the country is like.
Climbing Pikes Peak at gross wt was very interesting. I thought this would be my biggest test; up, and especially down! Not at all what I expected...actually was very positive! And amazingly beautiful. Was too busy looking at scenary and driving to worry about the smoke...just made sure no one was close behind. Had some trouble going from no boost to too much boost. Slowed down and climbed steep parts in 1st - solved problem. DTT tranny amazed me by never getting above 190*(at the cooler line)-and it was warm outside - 85* at the base and 60* at 11,400' (3/4 of the way up).
Coming down was nothing. 1st gear on the DTT held it at 2200 rpm and 25 mph through the steepest parts! With no traffic I believe I could have made the entire downhill trip with no brakes. Anyone made this trip with a factory automatic?? Wonder how they compare.
Did just enough business to write off the trip and had nice time away from work while answering most of my curiosity about driving CTD's at altitude.
Only problem was boring trip home across the plains after seeing the mountains.
RJ

 

You weren't pulling much boost because the air is so much thinner (less dense) up in the mountains. When I was like 11 or 12 we took a trip across the rockies, don't remember a whole lot but I do remember it was fun! I also remember that dad's 1/2 ton 97 Ram with the 318 was pegged the whole way up some of the passes and we were only doing about 45! We had the slide in camper in, and were loaded down pretty heavy, though. I want to make it out there and look around sometime soon again.

 

When I first moved to Colorado (then to Wyoming) I had a 69 427 vette that I built from the ground up. In Iowa it would roast the tires at will and was hard to get on it to much without slidding around When I drove out here, what a change, big power loss. I had to fix it by going supercharged on future toys.
The main reason I went with the Cummins was due to the power loss when towing with a gas truck at 6000ft and above. Got to love that turbo!

 

As someone who lives at 6500 feet and very frequently drive above 9000+ feet there is a definite difference in the way the truck runs. It runs good up here in fact great but even better at sea level. Smoke is certainly less down low. My truck has only been to sea level once and that was this summer on a trip to British Columbia. Wow what a difference it made having air. Anyone who says the turbo makes up for the less dense air may be right to a certain degree but there is still worlds of difference. If you live here you get used to it, it is just the way it is.

I remember in the late 70's early 80's I had a gas chevy 4x4 with a pretty decent built engine, lived in KC and I came out to Colorado quite a bit couldnt take the power loss so I bought a spare set of jets and power valve for my Holly carb I had on it and got to where I could change them out in 5 minutes and would do it as soon as I got here and then switch theem back on the way back out of town.

 

Those mountains can be a pain. I hauled a cargo trailer with my Tundra V8 from OH to AZ and in wanted to downshift all the time to go up some of those steep grades. Off the topic a little, that was a great truck, I just wanted some CTD and 6 speed goodness. haven't had a chance to test the new truck out west, but it did a great job in the WV mountains(not the same I know)

Nick

 

nirion,

You are going to love it. as long as your not to heavy, 6th gear in cruse control and no issues at over 6000 ft. Now the passes are a diffrent game, you gotta come out of OD for them (bummer). Enjoy the new truck.

 

I did Pikes peak a last fall when I had my old 98.5 auto. It did it fine but I dident have any load in it just the empty truck. drop it into low gear and forget abought the breaks. It liked to smoke a lot when it was up high in the swich backs. It would quit once the turbo spooled up. It definatly was way short on power in the high altitude but I wouldent have wanted to be in a non turboed truck.

 

I live in Colorado Springs at 7200 ft.
(the base of Pikes Peak)
and haul a truck camper towing a 7000 lb trailer.

With only an EZ on my HO 6 speed, it smokes like a locomotive around town.
Really have to wind it out between gears to get some smoke abatement.

Going westbound on I-70 up to the tunnel even downshifting 5th gear and trying to hold 2400 RPM's, gotta back out of the throttle to stay below 1250 on the pyro.

Just maintaining 75 MPH on the highways around here, I'm seeing 17-20 lbs. boost and 1000* pyros.

High altitude sucks!

--------------------------------------------

 

You have to develop the "throttle roll on" to control the smoke, I know I've inadvertently smoked some folks out