Long trip, Bad Bearing...
04-01-2014, 10:54 AM
#1
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Long trip, Bad Bearing...
Drove from Columbus, OH to Pasadena, MD Sunday morning in a 2006 Chevy Silverado 2500HD with the 6.6 Duramax, 6 speed allison transmission to water test and buy a 2000 Donzi 38ZX. With a Fuel economy tune from crankitupdiesel.com I averaged over 26 mpg. The terrain was flat, had some good crawlers in it but nothing major. Left the house around 7am and got to Pasadena, MD around 3pm. Left the house with sunny skies to hit snow in West Virginia and rain in MD. Water test was a no go due to the poor weather conditions, rains and 20-30mph winds. We stayed at Dover Downs that night and woke up to clear skies the following morning. As we got back to Pasadena, MD we had learned that high tide was around 7am and with the strong winds from the previous day a lot of the water got pushed away making it risky to launch. So with checking everything out mechanically on the trailer I decided to go ahead and wire the money and haul it home. For a 2000 this boat looks brand new, and I don't doubt from the way this thing looks both outside and inside there is one thing wrong with it.
Got on the road about 1pm and was nervous as heck pulling something this big. Around down is one thing but across I70 through the hills I was nervous. We made plenty of stops to fuel up and take a break and averaged just over 12 mpg with a tow tune. The truck did surprisingly well up and down hills with minimal downshifting. The only thing it lacked was the comfort that a dually would give with less sway while towing downhill. Hopefully my 420s will help correct some of that keeping the truck in line. There was one hill in Wheeling, WV on I470 that was the toughest and then the truck had to down shift into 4 and I left it there as it wouldn't maintain a speed in 5th or 6th, it was a big arse hill. The only other issues with towing was when going down hill the truck would downshift into 4th gear to help slow the truck down, there were times it would slow me down to 55mph and even after giving it gas it wouldn't upshift, at least not until we leveled out. 5th gear worked the best for doing around 55-60mpg, it held on the hills going up and down.
We got to Pickerington, OH and dropped off my GF's step dad, around 9pm hung out for awhile left around 10pm to head up to Delaware, OH and while on I270 a wheel bearing decides to take a dump. Pulled over and with the help of forum member I took the tire off strapped up the torsion arm and towed the remainder 30 miles at 45mph. Got home around midnight, boat is sitting about 1500 feet away from my house in a school parking lot, thank god there on spring break, gonna fix the wheel bearing and then take her across the street and get her ready for the summer. It was a long 2 days and I can't wait to get out on the water. This boat definitely turns heads as we had 4 separate occasions where somebody said something to us on the drive home, I'm sure it will be a lot to come on the water.
Here are some pics, sorry they are blurry not sure what is up with my phone.[ATTACH=CONFIG]521253[/ATTACH]
Got on the road about 1pm and was nervous as heck pulling something this big. Around down is one thing but across I70 through the hills I was nervous. We made plenty of stops to fuel up and take a break and averaged just over 12 mpg with a tow tune. The truck did surprisingly well up and down hills with minimal downshifting. The only thing it lacked was the comfort that a dually would give with less sway while towing downhill. Hopefully my 420s will help correct some of that keeping the truck in line. There was one hill in Wheeling, WV on I470 that was the toughest and then the truck had to down shift into 4 and I left it there as it wouldn't maintain a speed in 5th or 6th, it was a big arse hill. The only other issues with towing was when going down hill the truck would downshift into 4th gear to help slow the truck down, there were times it would slow me down to 55mph and even after giving it gas it wouldn't upshift, at least not until we leveled out. 5th gear worked the best for doing around 55-60mpg, it held on the hills going up and down.
We got to Pickerington, OH and dropped off my GF's step dad, around 9pm hung out for awhile left around 10pm to head up to Delaware, OH and while on I270 a wheel bearing decides to take a dump. Pulled over and with the help of forum member I took the tire off strapped up the torsion arm and towed the remainder 30 miles at 45mph. Got home around midnight, boat is sitting about 1500 feet away from my house in a school parking lot, thank god there on spring break, gonna fix the wheel bearing and then take her across the street and get her ready for the summer. It was a long 2 days and I can't wait to get out on the water. This boat definitely turns heads as we had 4 separate occasions where somebody said something to us on the drive home, I'm sure it will be a lot to come on the water.
Here are some pics, sorry they are blurry not sure what is up with my phone.[ATTACH=CONFIG]521253[/ATTACH]
04-01-2014, 10:58 AM
#3
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Looks like a nice ride get that sucker in the water and do a sea trial asap. 26mpg is amazing for a truck, and 12 towing is pretty good too. I think the lens on your phone is dirty. Do you have and EGT gauge? wonder how it was up the hills?
04-01-2014, 11:11 AM
#5
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Great looking boat! Congrats!
Are you planning to keep the boat on that trailer?
Are you planning to keep the boat on that trailer?
04-01-2014, 11:20 AM
#6
Sorry to hear about the wheel bearing but that is a great looking boat!
Now about the 26 MPG...
....trip on mapquest is about 430 miles so you got there is just over 1/2 tank of diesel and then got home on just over one tank? Round trip 860 miles and you bought less than 53 gallons total? I am only curious because I drove the same truck for over 170K miles and got no where near that kind of mileage even empty!
Now about the 26 MPG...
....trip on mapquest is about 430 miles so you got there is just over 1/2 tank of diesel and then got home on just over one tank? Round trip 860 miles and you bought less than 53 gallons total? I am only curious because I drove the same truck for over 170K miles and got no where near that kind of mileage even empty!
04-01-2014, 12:09 PM
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Congrats on getting home in one piece (mostly) Artie and I had about as much fun in the snow. Got my rig back at a decent time on sunday, and plopped it in for a sea trial yesterday evening. We went up to Detroit in my 5.9 cummins 5 speed averaging 19 mpg, and then returned loaded averaging 12.9. Any idea what your combined weight was? We stopped at the Cat scales and were 19,700 combined. I would say you should have joined us at Dillon last night, but there were so many logs, stumps, boards, trees, tires etc floating that it was less fun than it could have been. Had it not been essentially my sea trial I would have probably held off for the day.
