First Ecodiesel roadtrip, 370mi, 7600lb 24' enclosed trailer.

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RangerGress

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Heading out this afternoon for a race weekend at Carolina MotorSports Park, a track near Columbia, SC.

Trailer is loaded a little heavier than usual, because I'm taking the kid's kart, and a set of tires that are going to a buddy. Call it 7600lbs.

TruckTrailerMay14_zps5507720b.jpg


Truck is a Laramie 2WD with 3.55 rear end. I chose 3.55 because the SE is pretty flat. Tow capacity 7900lbs, cargo capacity ~1250lbs. My tongue weight is ~850lbs and I've 200lbs of tires and aux fuel tank in the bed.

Towing info. Background here http://www.ramforum.com/f119/ecodiesel_towing_test_suspension_sag_mpg_power_cooling-48504/
-Airlift 1000 air bags @ 45psi.
-I drilled another hole in the hitch shank in order to put the ball 2" closer to the truck's rear wheels. This reduces lever arm the trailer has to move the truck around. Drilling a hole thru 2" of solid steel was non-trivial.
-Weight distribution hitch is nice and tight.
 

Diller

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Looking great. I was actually planning on being out at CMP this weekend but the engine in my Mustang decided it didn't like it's pistons anymore...

Good luck with the tow and race weekend. Hope to see you out at the track in June at Road Atlanta.
 
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RangerGress

RangerGress

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Looking great. I was actually planning on being out at CMP this weekend but the engine in my Mustang decided it didn't like it's pistons anymore...

Good luck with the tow and race weekend. Hope to see you out at the track in June at Road Atlanta.
Small world <g>. Road Atlanta in June is only a maybe for me. Wife is out of town that weekend. I've been talking to the boys, 9, 9 & 11, as to what kind of bribery it would take for them to spend the weekend with me at RA.
 
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RangerGress

RangerGress

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Am back from the race weekend.
Friday, 220mi.
MPG 14.1 @ 64mph. 2/3rds pretty flat, 1/3rd rolling hills. One stop.
Ambient temp mid 80's. Coolant temp peak 221deg. Oil temp peak 240deg.

Sunday coming home. 220mi.
Mpg 14.6 @64mph. Total mpg for trip 14.4. One stop.
Ambient temp 72deg. Coolant temp 209-219. Oil temp 229-239.

I was careful to not do any drafting on semi's so it would be a good mpg test.

The truck really did well. My history of buying and selling cars is not a history of great success. This truck may be a break from that tradition tho. The way it rides like a sedan, and it's quiet, luxurious and sophisticated interior just kick's ass.

My previous tow vehicle was an 2000 F-250 so that's my measuring stick. I'm not sure if I could sense that the 1500 was moved around more by big trucks passing me because it's lighter than my F-250. I figure that when I made the hitch shank 2" shorter, that probably made up significantly for the weight delta. That is to say, sure, the 1500 is lighter but the lever arm to move the truck is now shorter. So lower weight is somewhat compensated for by shorter hitch shank. What I can say is that the handling, the feeling of "sureness" is so vastly superior in the 1500 that it kind of dominates the question of "did that passing truck move me around more than the F-250?"

For mpg context, that F-250 would have gotten 13mpg, 13.5 at best. The engine in the 2000 F-250 was one of the last of the greats, the 7.3l "Powerstroke." I've lots of buddies with various 3/4 ton diesel trucks that tow the same size/weight trailers on the same route at the same speed. None of them get better mileage than that "pre-emissions controls" 7.3l Powerstroke. Therefore it is reasonable to assume that the Ecodiesel got better mpg then I'd have gotten in a 2014 Ram 2500 diesel.

I'd guess, however, that if my load was 50% more, a bigger diesel would start getting better mpg than a little Ecodiesel trying to provide 3/4 of it's rated power for a sustained pull. I need about 140ftlbs to cruise at 64mph on flat terrain.

Power. The Ecodiesel truck was fabulous.

Transmission. No erratic shifting, no problems finding the right gear, all good.

Tow mode. I played around with it a bit. It seems to change shifting behavior, but since there wasn' t much shifting, it didn't seem to play much of a role.
 
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Diller

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That sounds like a successful trip. I got 14mpg with my Hemi towing to CMP from Atlanta but I have an open trailer so your numbers are impressive. I also came from an F250 (with the famed 6.0 powerjoke) and have been blown away with how sophisticated the Ram is. Won me over after about a mile on the test drive.
 

Arctic-Rodz

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Thanks for this write up! Im seriously considering an Ecodiesel but since I just purchased my HEMI, it wouldn't be a good move for me to trade it in so soon.

Im going to be towing some hay bales in the near future and im not sure if my 1500 w/3.55's will handle towing it.

Not sure on total weight but its up there.

Wondering if the Ecodiesel with the OEM air suspension can handle it.
 

Diller

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Nice driving. CMP can be a tough track to race on. It's rare that I feel like I have the "rhythm" there. I'm looking forward to RA in a little less than a month.
 

tjfdesmo

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Ever run VIR? I did motorcycle track days there. Nice elevation changes and mix of corners, that place was a blast.
 
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RangerGress

RangerGress

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Re. CMP. I suck at CMP. I've a bezillion laps there and I'm not very fast. This past weekend I was running PR times tho. Really quite surprising. I was doing PR times at Roebling Road last month too. Is hard to understand why I'm suddenly running times like "the old days." I had 3 crashes in 2011 and the last one was pretty bad....87mph into a cement wall. https://vimeo.com/33128427

With low hp cars like ours in order to be fast you have to pretty much have to cheat death at every turn. You have to go into the turn so fast that your hair is standing straight up in terror. After the bad crash in 2011 I developed a sense of "reasonable caution" that was putting me near the back of the pack in the years that followed. I seem now more willing to drive right on the edge of disaster, then I've been in a while tho, so maybe I'm finally over 2011. I will never forget hitting the damned wall so hard. My last thought was "omigod I'm going fast." You don't really appreciate just how fast you are going until suddenly you're heading into cement wall.

Re. Road Atlanta in a couple weeks. I'm hoping to be there, it's one of my favorite tracks. I do not normally suck there. Wife is out of town so I have the boys that weekend tho. I'm going to try to bribe them to spend the weekend with me at the track, something that they've never done before.

Re. VIR. My other favorite track. Lots of really fun and tricky turns, and lots of run-off. I suck at VIR, but I've prob only had 6 weekends there so I'm still trying to figure out how to do the impossible on several of it's turns. I'll be there next in early Oct.
 

smurfs_of_war

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Re. Road Atlanta in a couple weeks. I'm hoping to be there, it's one of my favorite tracks. I do not normally suck there. Wife is out of town so I have the boys that weekend tho. I'm going to try to bribe them to spend the weekend with me at the track, something that they've never done before.

Weekend at the track with Dad? Sounds kinda like a PERFECT weekend!

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
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RangerGress

RangerGress

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Weekend at the track with Dad? Sounds kinda like a PERFECT weekend!

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
Video games are very limited in our house. Therefore with the carrot of video games, the kids will do anything. The racer paddock at RA is in a big hole tho. Not sure if I can get an Internet connection down there.
 

Diller

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Re. CMP. I suck at CMP. I've a bezillion laps there and I'm not very fast. This past weekend I was running PR times tho. Really quite surprising. I was doing PR times at Roebling Road last month too. Is hard to understand why I'm suddenly running times like "the old days." I had 3 crashes in 2011 and the last one was pretty bad....87mph into a cement wall. https://vimeo.com/33128427

With low hp cars like ours in order to be fast you have to pretty much have to cheat death at every turn. You have to go into the turn so fast that your hair is standing straight up in terror. After the bad crash in 2011 I developed a sense of "reasonable caution" that was putting me near the back of the pack in the years that followed. I seem now more willing to drive right on the edge of disaster, then I've been in a while tho, so maybe I'm finally over 2011. I will never forget hitting the damned wall so hard. My last thought was "omigod I'm going fast." You don't really appreciate just how fast you are going until suddenly you're heading into cement wall.

Re. Road Atlanta in a couple weeks. I'm hoping to be there, it's one of my favorite tracks. I do not normally suck there. Wife is out of town so I have the boys that weekend tho. I'm going to try to bribe them to spend the weekend with me at the track, something that they've never done before.

Re. VIR. My other favorite track. Lots of really fun and tricky turns, and lots of run-off. I suck at VIR, but I've prob only had 6 weekends there so I'm still trying to figure out how to do the impossible on several of it's turns. I'll be there next in early Oct.

I can't believe that was you. I remember that wreck and it's good to see you are back at it. I wrecked at a similar speed the year before at T5 and missed the tire wall by about 10 feet. My car suffered similar damage. I'll be racing in a blue PTE miata in June so if you see a truck that looks just like yours but with silver fender flairs, come say hi. I would love to check out the Eco Diesel.
 
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RangerGress

RangerGress

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I can't believe that was you. I remember that wreck and it's good to see you are back at it. I wrecked at a similar speed the year before at T5 and missed the tire wall by about 10 feet. My car suffered similar damage. I'll be racing in a blue PTE miata in June so if you see a truck that looks just like yours but with silver fender flairs, come say hi. I would love to check out the Eco Diesel.
Road Atlanta Turn 5 is hellishly tricky. It's my worse turn at RA. God knows there's a lot of ways for that turn to go really badly in a hurry. It can look fine, then all the sudden the car gets upset by the exit rumblestrip and in an eye-blink you're backwards heading for a wall.

Re. tire wall. After my big crash at RA they put tires at the bottom of the S-curves to provide a softer impact zone. One of these days I'm going to put a big sign on those tires..."The RangerGress (not) Memorial Tire Wall."

I'll look for your truck. I like the contrasting color. I'll be in the racer paddock in the middle of SpecE30 country. I'll be feeding the SpecE30 types lunch on Saturday and for the evening, the beer cooler is always well stocked. You're certainly welcome to hang out.
 
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