Heaviest load to date

[markrinker]

Thursday I had lots of time to get home, so I loaded up 17 large square hay bales for the trek back ~350 miles from Yankton, SD to Elk River, MN. My loaded scale ticket read 23,620 lbs - thats 6.98 tons of hay, folks!!!

I averaged 60mph in OD, manually shifting down to drive for pulling hills, also using 2nd gear to decelerate before stops to save on brake pads. (I have good trailer brakes and a digital controller as well.)

JK's fan clutch works great with loads like this. Its reassuring to hear it kick in, and watch the water temps drop back to numbers starting with a "1"...

8mph for the trip, at $1.98/gallon. OUCH!

[Marty Lau]

Mark! :eek:
Your aerodynamic drag with those hay bales must of been teriffic. It takes a lot of power to move those things through the air at 60 mph no wonder you burned so much fuel. But......your 6.5TD pulls through again! :D

[markrinker]

Strangely, my boat (6,500lbs) pulls MUCH harder. Can't explain why, but I suspect a big difference is 14" rubber and too much tongue weight on the boat, 15" on the cargo trailer, with a much better balanced load.

[whatnot]

Originally posted by Mark Rinker:
Strangely, my boat (6,500lbs) pulls MUCH harder. Can't explain why, but I suspect a big difference is 14" rubber and too much tongue weight on the boat, 15" on the cargo trailer, with a much better balanced load. I notice the same thing. I don't think my boat is anywhere near 6500 Lbs (19.5' larson) but it pulls just as hard as a trailer with 10 or 12 round bales on it.

[markelectric]

A couple of years back I was making regular 1000 mile round trips with a 94 cc 6.5 4x4 auto. I have a tri axle 32 ft enclosed trailer that stands 11 ft 6 in tall, is bumper pull and a real pain to get my GCW under 26,000#. I think I got about 8 or 9 mpg on those trips. Ended up eating a torque converter. I really hated being left behind by everyone on the road including the JB Hunt trucks. I now use a Cummins/Dodge on those same runs. I have shaved a full hour off a one way run and using 25 less gallons fuel on the round trip. Now I get to be the leader of the pack.....

[turboGMC]

any pics?