GA deisel wannabe

[Sawbones]

Been reading a while, first time post, what a great site. Planning to order a 3500 to tow approx 10K boat 150 miles round trip to the Gulf of Mexico as often as possible. No grades, but the afternoon trip home sees temps in the high 90's routinely in the summer.



Have spoken with the local sales and service managers who have never seen nor installed an ebrake or pyro/boost guages. Was told the new return lines prevent cylinder washdown, and that egt's were not a problem since all the local farmers tow much heavier loads all summer with no problems.



Wouldn't need the brake for braking per se, but we do have some occasional cold morning's in the low 20's where warm up could be an issue. Am more concerned about shutting down prematurely after a long hot tow.



Thanks in advance, hope to be able to contribute to the discussions once I'm better educated about diesels.

 

[dpuckett]

James Wilson,



It is good you are thinking about guages. I consider them a necessity, not an option, as many do. I would have them install the thermocouple in the manifold, not behind the turbo. I realize I run the risk of starting a riot here, but preturbo is more accurate, and I have had no trouble in combined 75K driving. Just make sure you put some grease on your drill bit and tap to catch shavings. As for the local farmers towing more weight and being fine, they may or may not be. At sea level it isnt as big an issue, but I hit 1300* going up Vail Pass in Colorado in a stock 93, EMPTY. The engines are designed to have a rather large margin of safety, but if your injectors get crudded up, an intercooler hose clamp comes loose, etc, you will be clueless without the guages. Those farmers, et al, may be closer to danger than they realize. Make sure you let it get below 300 degrees before shutting it off. I leave mine idling when I refuel. Lets everything keep lubricated, and I am never there more than 5 minutes. www.dieselinjection.net has a good article about boost, EGT, and driving with guages.



I wouldnt buy a Pac Brake just for winter warm up. You can buy a lot of electricity for the block heater for the price of a Pac Brake. I would still recommend one, though. You would be surprised how much you use it. I dont have one on my 93 yet, but I have driven pickups with exhaust brakes, and trucks with Jakes, and they really reduce you reliance on service brakes. You can almost not use your brakes when empty.



From what I have read about electronis fuel pumps and related failures, I would also put a fuel pressure guage on a 24 valve. My fiancee's dad has had an 01 ETH about 4 months, and has yet to put guages in it, but I have been on him about it.



Hope this has been helpful.



Daniel

 

[Sawbones]

Thanks for the reply, Daniel. I've been accused of being an obsessive compulsive, however, wanting to know my engine temp while hauling a load in the 100 degree heat doesn't make me one... . I don't think. Perhaps my dealer will play along and indulge me. I have a hard time believing I'm the only one in the whole county with an interest in this.



I see your point concerning the block heater vs the brake. There's one redlight and two hills an my towing route, so installing a brake for braking's sake is probably not worth the effort.



Another question, I'll need to upgrade to at least a class 5 hitch. Are load bearing and load leveling two different hitches, or two components of the same hitch?

 

[dpuckett]

hitches

James,



For 10K lbs, I would get a 5'er, or some airbags to go above the springs. I have never pulled a load levelling hitch, and have been told they are nice. But I also live by the KISS principle. I would rather add the air bags or load leveller spriings. I towed 10K with my 93 4x4 I had a few years ago, and had no problems. A Class 5 hitch would be hard to come by, but I also dont know how hard the safety Nazis are on safety violators. My current 93 has a class 4, and tows 10K just fins, along with 3-4K on the turck.



Daniel

 

[Sawbones]

This is what I've been able to figure out thus far, Dodge offers a 12,000# tow rating, 1,200# tongue weight LOAD EQUALIZING hitch option. I assume load equalizing = weight distributing, which means this is a class 4 hitch with the weight distributing hardware attached.



Reese offers a class 5 hitch (which they also call the class 4 Titan ??) that has 12,000# GTW alone, and 14,000# when configured as weight distributing.



This would seem to be the way to go for me, I could safely (and legally) tow 10,000# without the hassel of the distributing attachments.

 

[dpuckett]

Originally posted by JamesWilson





Reese offers a class 5 hitch (which they also call the class 4 Titan ??) that has 12,000# GTW alone, and 14,000# when configured as weight distributing.



This would seem to be the way to go for me, I could safely (and legally) tow 10,000# without the hassel of the distributing attachments.

Sounds like the way for you to go, James. Good luck in your endeavors.



Daniel

 

[Sawbones]

Update: the Reese class 5 Titan hitch (erroneously also labled class "4" Titan hitch on the Reese Hitch web site- www.reeseprod.com) is not yet availabe for the '03 3500. Will keep you posted.

 

[Silver]

There is a lot of info on guages in the 3rd gen forum.



Hitches: The 2003 uses a new hydroformed frame. They say you cannot drill into it without voiding warranty. I would talk to the dealer about this before buying an aftermarket hitch. There is more on this on the 3rd gen forum also.



Hope this helps.

 

[Sawbones]

Silver, this has become a rather frustrating issue for me. The stock hitch on the 3500 has no sticker listing it's class type or tow rating. The dealer's spec book states it will tow 10,000 lbs, but it does not say if this is Gross Tow Weight or if weight distributing hardware is required.



Casey Balvert was kind enough to forward me a copy of the addendum sent to him from DC which ammended the weight rating to 12,000 lbs. However, this document also did not differentiate between GTW and WD specifications.



It did state that a frame hitch "of up to a class IV" could be mounted on the 2500 or the 3500. To me this implies that a class V hitch should not be used.



This is disappointing. Because of all the confusion over the stock hitch, I had intended to get a Reese class V hitch (when they became available) and be done with it.



I know that any given hitch has a set GTW, and that adding weight distributing hardware will increase the hitch's capacity between 20% - 50%, depending on the class of hitch.



I am still trying to find out if the 12,00 lb rating is GTW or WD. When / if I do find out (and see it in writing) I'll let everyone know.

 

[Silver]

They are rated at 5000 LBS without the weight distribution hardware. 10,000 (or 12,000 lbs?) WITH the weight distribution hardware.