High Altitude question???

[Gary C]

What happens?



More smoke?

A little less power?

A lot less power?



Towing 6000 lbs through Denver from California.



thanks in advance

 

[DieselDoghouse]

High Altitude

Your best answers are gonna come from our Rockies members out west, but I believe whats supposed to happen is your turbo wastegate will just need to stay closed more and longer to divert exhaust through the turbine and drive the compressor to achieve 20 lbs out of that thinner mountain air. Viz, your turbo will work a little harder, longer to take the thinner air and compress it up to 20 lbs at the intake. We ain't got good hills back east, but when I trailer in thw White Mts. I haven't noticed much loss of power, I do eat more fuel. You'll still be alot better off than a gasser!

 

[klenger]

I've towed our 4000 lb camper through the mountains at elevations up to 11,000 feet. The truck does great. Much less power loss than my Grand Cherokee. At 6000 lbs you will not have any problems.

Ken

 

[mlockner]

Gary, I live in the Denver area. You may have a little more black smoke driving through here. With your setup you should have no problem pulling the hills. Just be careful coming down those hills and use good judgement in that respect. My 2wd has no problem pulling my 8,000 # around. Takes a few seconds to spool up, a little puff of black smoke and I'm off and going.

 

[R.ebel]

High Altitude

Gary C,

I live in the Rockies and frequently tow at 6000' to 11000'. Your sig indicates you have a good healthy Cummins You should have no problems. Things you might notice at altitude are higher egt's and slightly more smoke due to lower boost levels because of the thin air. Just keep an eye on the old egt gauge on those long hills. I tow a 5000lb travel trailor with my bombed '97 and have yet to find a grade steep enough to take me out of 5th gear, the only time I have to slow down is for slow traffic (Ford's)

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[Archive]

When I go to my property in western Montana, I frequently have good loads. Nothing to worry about, plenty of power. On morning warm-ups, you will see more smoke til you are up to temp, then it pretty much disappears.

The property is at 6400 ft.

 

[Gary C]

Thanks guys for the answers, my main concern was towing an open trailer with a Prowler on the back, when I get back in two weeks I will give you my report. It's Silver with a white trailer so it might be a little sooty, oh well, .



Thanks for the quick responses, Gawd, I love this site.



The Smart Box for going down the hills here in SoCal works great, overdrive off in lockup, sorta kinda an exhaust brake.



I know no one will be passing up the hills, BOMBs away.

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

High altitude and warm temps

Gary, I just went through Nevada and California and was over 5,000 feet several times (up to 7300). I was towing an 1800lb flatbed trailer. My DD2s don't smoke much at home unless the weather is hot (400 feet) but it was easy to make lots of smoke at high elevation if I wanted to. If you roll into the throttle easy there was no smoke, but take off from a light fast and I could make more than double the smoke possible at home. WIth the HX40 expect to make some smoke. Driving at high elevation was one of the main factors in my choosing DD2s over DD3s.



Power wise I didn't notice a lot of drop, just takes longer to come on, due to slower spoolup. My EGTs did run a bit higher, not much though. Stock exhaust minus muffler.







Vaughn

 

[drawson]

I live at 4800 feet and tow regularly up to 6500 feet there is more smoke at 6500 and I lose about 1 pound of maximum boost.