Gingersnap155
Tremor Fiend
Well at 540 miles we took the 7.3 Tremor for its first tow this last weekend from Fresno up to Shaver lake/Camp Edison up highway 168/Huntington Lake Rd. The road there is mostly 2 lane country road winding through the hills until you hit Prather. Then you turn up “the 4 lane” this is a grade that is marked as 7% for 8 miles (though downhill it’s marked as a 11% grade) We tow a 2006 Carson 24ft Fun Runner TH it’s 6100lbs dry but we had 60 gallons of fresh water loaded up (in off-season sometimes the camp has its water off) plus our usual packings. We end up roughly 7000-7500 lbs with our load up. (Weighed it once with the old truck but we changed a few things)
For some history I’ll tell you about my last 2 trips up this grade in my 2010 5.3 6speed Avalanche with factory tow package/trans cooler. It was in the mid to high 80’s had a hard time going over 45/50 mph without it screaming and half way up the grade the coolant and trans temp spiked. I had to pull over and let the truck rest for 45 minutes (the wife and the dogs weren’t stoked). We made it the rest of the way up but wasn’t fun.
After That trip I added an oversized trans cooler and did a fluid change all around. The next trip was later in the fall with slightly lower temps. We made it up without stopping and maintain the same 45/50mph. Downhill I’d have to apply the brake despite the truck tying to maintain its speed. Honestly it did fairly well at grade shifting downhill and was by far not the worst experience I’ve ever had. Uphill I had 1MPG the whole way up.
So now onto the 7.3 it does have a 1.5” reverse level. Used our husky WDH (properly adjusted) I did a test tow without the WDH the truck was nose high and handling sucked along with the boat feeling over bumps in the road. So even though the truck can handle the 850lb tongue weight it’s better with a WDH. The truck steers and rides better with one. Truck was more stable than my Avalanche in handling during the entire process. Up the grade we maintained 60MPH no problem with the truck rarely revving above 3500RPM and that was for a short bit. Trans and engine temps stayed very stable with minimal increase during the climb.
Down hill back home I used tow haul/cruise with locking out 7/8/9/10 the truck easily maintained 55mph downhill without ever going faster. This was by far the best downhill experience I’ve ever had towing.
We had 5.9 MPG on the trip hand calculated though the lie o meter said 7.6. This could of not been 100% accurate as I was actually 1-2 gallons short in my last fill up messing up my calculation a little bit.
In short this was worth every penny and the 7.3 more than meets the needs of myself and my family for camping. The wife said it was the best ride she’s ever had towing and that was even sitting in the back seat with our baby. Happy wife happy life!
For some history I’ll tell you about my last 2 trips up this grade in my 2010 5.3 6speed Avalanche with factory tow package/trans cooler. It was in the mid to high 80’s had a hard time going over 45/50 mph without it screaming and half way up the grade the coolant and trans temp spiked. I had to pull over and let the truck rest for 45 minutes (the wife and the dogs weren’t stoked). We made it the rest of the way up but wasn’t fun.
After That trip I added an oversized trans cooler and did a fluid change all around. The next trip was later in the fall with slightly lower temps. We made it up without stopping and maintain the same 45/50mph. Downhill I’d have to apply the brake despite the truck tying to maintain its speed. Honestly it did fairly well at grade shifting downhill and was by far not the worst experience I’ve ever had. Uphill I had 1MPG the whole way up.
So now onto the 7.3 it does have a 1.5” reverse level. Used our husky WDH (properly adjusted) I did a test tow without the WDH the truck was nose high and handling sucked along with the boat feeling over bumps in the road. So even though the truck can handle the 850lb tongue weight it’s better with a WDH. The truck steers and rides better with one. Truck was more stable than my Avalanche in handling during the entire process. Up the grade we maintained 60MPH no problem with the truck rarely revving above 3500RPM and that was for a short bit. Trans and engine temps stayed very stable with minimal increase during the climb.
Down hill back home I used tow haul/cruise with locking out 7/8/9/10 the truck easily maintained 55mph downhill without ever going faster. This was by far the best downhill experience I’ve ever had towing.
We had 5.9 MPG on the trip hand calculated though the lie o meter said 7.6. This could of not been 100% accurate as I was actually 1-2 gallons short in my last fill up messing up my calculation a little bit.
In short this was worth every penny and the 7.3 more than meets the needs of myself and my family for camping. The wife said it was the best ride she’s ever had towing and that was even sitting in the back seat with our baby. Happy wife happy life!
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