thumbs up duramax

[stevebeilgard]

we left for seattle last wednesday afternoon, towing my back hoe trailer loaded with the house and roof panels for our place in alaska. i set the cruise in I-90 at 65mph and all was well. we had some rough grades going up the continental divides a few times. we also had the looooong, tough grade going up to cour'delane idaho. a few times i droped below 60, once hitting 57 mph. when i got to seattle, we weighed in and dropped off the trailer for the barge to alaska. then we weighed out and i discovered i'd been pulling 19,640 lbs.

6.7 mpg for a bit over 1100 miles. all in all, i say the old truck did just fine. our camper is only 13,000 lbs and i never hit a hill i lost speed on. i towed it at 65 also, and got 9.78 mpg. i'll take it.

[The_Kat]

I bet with a good tune up you could increase that mileage a few more mpg's as well. I love duramax engines. You can't go wrong with a diesel really. Cummins, Powerstroke, or Duramax. I'd love to own one.

[92xj]

Where are you now Steve?

[dbHunterNY]

yea i'd say that'll do. good to see you made the trip without any problems.

[dbHunterNY]

i remember back a while this tornado thing you could put in the intake that increased performance a little but mostly fuel economy. it helped big motors more too. i don't know how well they worked first hand though.

[The_Kat]

Yup, I remember em too. They're all over ebay for about 20 bucks. SCAM!!!!

[92xj]

i remember back a while this tornado thing you could put in the intake that increased performance a little but mostly fuel economy. it helped big motors more too. i don't know how well they worked first hand though.

DO NOT DO THIS!!!!

While working at the shop, I had three vehicles over a 4 year span get towed in because the intake sucked that stupid thing into throttle body and elsewhere in the engine.

Now one of those was a homemade one out of a beer can, so we will say two actual tornados.

[TBow]

I've been reading a lot about fuel reprogrammers for the Duramax. Not sure if it's a "chip" installation or a plug in reprogammer/fuel tuner.

They typically are advertised for about $500, but claim to add anywhere from 2 to 4 mpg on the big diesel, plus increased power.

Scam? True? Is the 2 to 4 mpg increase realistic?

TBow

[dbHunterNY]

that's kind of what i figured. they were plastered all over the tv back then and yet nobody i knew of had one. my uncle lives by making diesel motors breathe fire and spin tires (pulling tractor or trucks) never said anything about them so i kind of forgot about them until just now for some reason.

...yea i know of a lot of the diesel duallies the tractor pullers used to get to the pulls often had chips in them. don't know much about them though.

Edited March 17, 2010 by dbHunterNY

[The_Kat]

We seriously need an automotive forum. Everytime someone posts about a vehicle or part the thread gets hijacked.

Superchips and Diablo make awesome programmers for increased HP, torque, and fuel econ. Diesels can gain like 30 HP and 5-6 mpgs.

[coles]

My brother has a 5 stage chip in his 01 cummins with a 5 inch straight pipe. it flat hauls! last time he went back to my parents house he had it on stage 5 which is the race stage, his motorcycle in the back and was doing 75 the whole way plus going over the divide and got 23mpg! By the way Steve, was that Lookout pass you went over going to Cour'dalane? If it was, you drove right by my house in Missoula!

Edited March 17, 2010 by coles

[Tominator]

Dang.

Can I borrow that thing?

[texastrophies]

And it goes up & down mountains pretty good, too.;)

Glad it all went ok.

[wtnhunt]

Glad it went well Steve. No experience with the duramax diesels, but hear good things about them. Going to have to upgrade from our old 98 3/4 ton chevy one of these days, the duramax may be a consideration.

[Texan_Til_I_Die]

I'm getting 18 - 20 no load highway from my 4x4 Duramax and 16 highway towing a 20.5 foot Ranger bass boat. In town mileage drops way off though - usually around 12 - 13 mpg.

[buckee]

WOW, that's awesome Steve. Pulling a ton of weight along behind and not feeling it too much is great.

It reminds me of our last moose trip, coming back home with a large moose and a couple of deer in an old U-haul trailer. We had a tire blow up on us on the way into Vancouver..LOL

Have fun in Alaska Steve. Too bad you couldn't stop in for a meal and a coffee or two.

[Shaun_300]

Yup the Duramax is one heck of an engine! Don't see too many problems with the newer ones, other than customers that owned older Duramaxes that get a new one complaining about the fuel mileage. GM really upped the horsepower and torque in the new 2007+ LMM engines. Only way you add horsepower to a diesel is add more fuel and a little more boost. So you have to sacrifice MPG for power. That and the older duramaxes had injector issues, but GM is nice enough to cover them up to 300,000km.

[stevebeilgard]

it was a great trip. i'm afraid to add a chip as it often voids any warranty. i think the standard powertrain warranty is 200,000 on these things, and i'm only 1/2 of that.

i'm back in gillette, leaving on saturday for arizona. we're a bit behind but it's tough cramming a 3000 foot home into a 300 foot camper. lol

[redkneck]

I can send my wife Steve. She's had 5,000 sqft of crap in my 2,000sqft home for years!

[RTPROFamily]

Safe travels Steve and tell Rilda hello from our family.

[Goinghuntin]

I can send my wife Steve. She's had 5,000 sqft of crap in my 2,000sqft home for years!

:clap::clap::clap: