Trip Report

[dorkweed]

Well, we managed to make it there and back!! The duck hunting was REAL slow the first 4 days, but the fifth day was very good. The ducks came in hot and heavy for about 30 minutes and then it was over!! And we had to break ice to set decoys out that AM. It was 18* that morning. Not a great trip huntingwise, but still a lot of fun with all the guys that went along. I'm glad I brought along my .17HMR to pass the time away plinking around. We also jump shot 4 "cacklers"......a small subspecies of the Canada goose. And typical for me I always wind up forgetting something on most every trip I make. This trip I forgot my camera!!! :mad Sure as dog poop, it was right where I left it when I got home.....On the dining room table!!!! LOL However, there really wasn't too much "strange" that happened at all until the ride home!!! :wow After the fine morning of duck hunting we got back, had breakfast, packed up and headed home. We were heading home by 11:00AM Friday.One of the other guys that went towed a 8x28? foot car hauler trailer down with his '03 Duramax. My truck ran great the whole trip. Ran her hard there and back to keep up with Mr Leadfoot in the Duramax. She wasn't under 75mph too much when we were on the interstates. Mileage was good considering the speed and the fact that we were always getting hit with a headwind or a quartering wind of some sort. I didn't reset my overhead, as I wanted to average them all the tanks together. We were about 200 miles from home when the Duramax went into limp mode!!! I should also mention that during the ride home, from about Springfield, MO on, the temperature was taking a nose dive and we were bucking a 25mph wind from the NNW. The highest temp on the trip home was 48* and the coldest was -13* about 15 miles from home!!!! We stopped for fuel just South of Bloomington, IL. Well, just the Duramax did. Granted this was a large trailer that was loaded down pretty good, but it only was gettting about 8mpg towing that trailer. We fuel his truck up get about 5 miles down the road and pull into a rest area because one of the guys didn't pee at the fuel stop!!! On the way out is when his truck goes into limp mode. We pull over and unhitch it and hitch up my truck to it. This trailer is heavy; and going into that head wind, was something I've never experienced with a trailer that large. We try to get his truck going and make it about 2 more miles down the interstate and pull off onto an exit and into a fuel station which is not open. I should mention that right now it's about -3* out!!!! We decide that I should run back South to get some fuel treatment. I was looking for PS Diesel 911 but the station didn't have it so I bought PS in the white bottle. I drive back, he pours in a double dose and drives around a bit to mix it. His truck is still not right.So we then unload the gear in his truck into the trailer and park his truck at the station. So from Bloomington, IL to Burlington, WI I had 5 guys, 4 dogs in my truck along with pulling that big trailer. My mileage up to this point was averaging about 17.8mpg for the trip. When I pulled into the home stop, the overhead had dropped to 16.5mpg after towing that trailer about 200 miles into a head wind in below zero temperatures!!! In order to maintain 60-65 mph, my truck was pushing 20psi of boost on average and the EGT's ranged from 900-1200*. This trailer was like towing a parachute or a wall down the road. I didn't want to try to push it any harder, as I have slipped the stock clutch before. In fact I've got a new SouthBend OFE on my counter waiting to get installed. Once we crossed into WI, we get onto I-43 which heads ENE toward Milwaukee. In this section of road with the wind more or less angling from the rear, I was able to easily maintain 65-70mph at 11-13psi of boost and EGT's dropped to about 800*.It was a fun trip. I'm going to the "bootheel" of Missouri next month and hopefully I'll remember the camera!!! LOL I'll report on this trip also!!

[Guest]

Well Joe, it sounds like you had a good trip!! Male bonding at its best.. lol But I can't believe you forgot your camera!!! :nono :rolleyes Did you ever figure out what was wrong with the duramax? Was it the cold weather or what?Glad you made it back safe and sound!! Kim

[dorkweed]

Got back late Sunday night from a snow goose hunting trip to the "Boot Heel" of Missouri. No pictures, as the hunting was slow on Saturday. Sunday we had many birds work, but not finish enough for us to get good shots. If you've never been to the boot heel area, it's "PanCake" land. It really reminds me of Southern Florida.....delta type country. Even I think it's flat being from Illinois!!!! LOL For 2 days, we shot only 6 birds!! ` Well, there's next year!!Thought y'all might like to here how the truck ran though. I left my house Friday night at 8:00PM and drove through the night down to Sikeston, MO. It's a 450 drive from my house. I had about 125 miles of all suburban, very cold weather, trailer towing miles on this tank of fuel when I left. Made it there to the truck stop just as the DTE overhead read 0!!! STill, that tank of fuel averaged 17.2mpg. I kept the truck running at about 2k rpm's which is about 68mph on my truck. On the way home, I had about 125 miles on the tank of fuel again, as it was a bit a drive both days to where we were hunting. Sunday was really windy. Steady 25mph winds with gusts to 40mph out of the SW. Good day to be traveling NE like I was!!! LOL Starting the trip home, I ran 70mph. My boost gauge was reading about 4psi!!! 8| Normallly with winter fuel and no wind it's around 7psi. The first half of the trip was easy travelling. But as I got further North into Illinois, the wind started to come from a more westerly direction. By the time I got home I was getting hit be a WNW wind at about 20-25mph. That said, the girl (my truck) ran great with great mileage. The overhead read as high as 21 mpg average coming home before it started to drop due to the wind changing around on me. However, I just filled up today and figure mileage for the leg back. The girl got me 19.6mpg on winter fuel running 65-70mph with the Juice turned to 4-2!! Another thing........I'm really loving my new SouthBend clutch. It's been in for about 1700 miles now. The more I drive it the better I like it!!! Its noisier at idle than the stocker by a lot. But this bad boy holds. Makes me think my OEM clutch was slipping ever since I took it in for a rear main seal leak 2 weeks after I bought the truck. The place that did the install said the clutch had oil spray on it and was surprised that it would hold the power I would throw at it at times. I do drive like a Granny though most of the time, so maybe that helped. It also makes me wonder that the OEM clutch wasn't oil contaminated when I had the rear main seal replaced under warranty. Daimler bastards!!! :mad This SB clutch makes the truck so much different, it's hard to explain!! It may also explain my low dyno numbers from last May. No difference form level 2 to level 5 on the Edge Juice even though the level 5 run seems gobs better..........slippage maybe???? Cheers everyone!!!

[Mopar1973Man]

Well appears you doing rather well with the 2 cycle oil mixture... Still holding good MPG's and with the clutch doing even better now... :D I'm wondering how much 2 cycle oil and you adding (ratio???)

[dorkweed]

Mike, I've been running 16oz per fill up for a while now. That's about 1/2oz per gallon. I've always got some bio in my tank at least when I'm around home. On the trips that I make, I don't change dosage because that would just toss in another variable into the equation when it comes to 2 stroke. I probably had no bio remnants in the tank on the way home from Missouri because I ran the tank going down there well past DTE on the overhead!!! I was running on fumes and my butt was puckering up hoping I wouldn't run out of fuel!!! LOL What I have found out is that if I use the 1oz per gallon dose, my fuel pressure gauge is pegged (30+psi) in cold weather. If I run the 1/2oz dose, it's only 30+psi in the coldest of weather. We've seen -18* here a couple times this winter. I the summer time, I've got no problems at all running the full 1oz dosage, even with bio in the tank. I truly wonder how some of these 3rd gen guys drive there trucks with the problems they say are caused by 2 stroke!!!! We may never know!!!! Take care!! :thumbsup