Mark Rinker
07-20-2008, 08:08
Ran the high mile 2002 in the local county fair pull yesterday. Had good results and placed in the top 1/3 of 20+ local trucks, mostly contractors and smart alecks from around town. The fairgrounds is 3 blocks away, I basically put on my shoes and drove up there with the truck that was sitting in the driveway.
We got rain in buckets early in the afternoon, so they scraped off the top 2" with the grader but things were still greasy. Put on a new set of Michelin M/S last week, so lots of good bite for the conditions - tall, skinny and lots of tread to find dry dirt.
Winners were in the 270 foot range - I think a heavily modded Duramax ended up on top. The 'Cummins boys' sure like their trucks, most have a single center 6" or 8" stack in the bed and sound pretty mean. Newer 6.0L Ferds don't even compete - a few old 7.3s did much better. Most of the Duramaxes were quiet but effective at getting the sled down the track. Not much for grandstand appeal - compared to the smoke, noise and hop of a properly crude Dodge shakin its way to the end...leaving parts all the way. :)
Threw it into 4LO, left it in 3rd gear, tow/haul ON, Kennedy switch on 'performance'. Got the chain tight, mashed the brakes and did a full throttle brake stand for 2-3 seconds to get the hot exhaust rolling and turbo boost maxed out...then let off the brake and and let 'er buck, wheels spinning at full throttle letting the Allision take care of two quick upshifts. To me, thats the most fun part - when your holeshot and wheel spin is translating to mid-track speed and you can feel the tires finding traction and getting ahead of the sled. Its a rush!!!
Went 252 feet - about 40 feet further down the track than I have ever seen before. It was a good, long ride with no wheel hop and just a little drift, looking for traction. The old LB7/Allison had no problem making and holding ~3 grand rpms from shortly after launch until I let up at the other end. I assume there was constant wheel slip from launch to landing, but mid-track it felt hooked up and 1:1 with the ground for awhile - like a Sunday drive with impending doom chasing you.
I didn't add any weights out front and could have been 1000# heavier and still legal in the class. Hook was a clevis through my receiver tube pintle hitch, a full 4" lower than legal max. Did top off the 80 gallon transfer tank 'mid-ships' for ~600# of 'ballast'. This year I went for a 5 mile warm-up romp before my class started and had the engine and transmission up to full operating temperature, left the truck idling with A/C on max to help maintain underhood heat and I think this translated to a much harder launch and better speed.
Someday I am going to combine all the lessons learned, plan ahead and assemble a truck that will pull that damn sled out the other end.
Most likely candidate: K3500 SRW long box crew cab with 100+hp custom tune, weight maxed out to class limit, new skinny rubber with 1/2 inch of flexible block tread...and maybe a sneaky shot of nitrous mid-track to get ground speed up over 20mph ... :eek:
Pushing 300K miles and pulling with the new trucks. Like a rock.
http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/photopost/data/500/IMG_3031_WEB.jpg
We got rain in buckets early in the afternoon, so they scraped off the top 2" with the grader but things were still greasy. Put on a new set of Michelin M/S last week, so lots of good bite for the conditions - tall, skinny and lots of tread to find dry dirt.
Winners were in the 270 foot range - I think a heavily modded Duramax ended up on top. The 'Cummins boys' sure like their trucks, most have a single center 6" or 8" stack in the bed and sound pretty mean. Newer 6.0L Ferds don't even compete - a few old 7.3s did much better. Most of the Duramaxes were quiet but effective at getting the sled down the track. Not much for grandstand appeal - compared to the smoke, noise and hop of a properly crude Dodge shakin its way to the end...leaving parts all the way. :)
Threw it into 4LO, left it in 3rd gear, tow/haul ON, Kennedy switch on 'performance'. Got the chain tight, mashed the brakes and did a full throttle brake stand for 2-3 seconds to get the hot exhaust rolling and turbo boost maxed out...then let off the brake and and let 'er buck, wheels spinning at full throttle letting the Allision take care of two quick upshifts. To me, thats the most fun part - when your holeshot and wheel spin is translating to mid-track speed and you can feel the tires finding traction and getting ahead of the sled. Its a rush!!!
Went 252 feet - about 40 feet further down the track than I have ever seen before. It was a good, long ride with no wheel hop and just a little drift, looking for traction. The old LB7/Allison had no problem making and holding ~3 grand rpms from shortly after launch until I let up at the other end. I assume there was constant wheel slip from launch to landing, but mid-track it felt hooked up and 1:1 with the ground for awhile - like a Sunday drive with impending doom chasing you.
I didn't add any weights out front and could have been 1000# heavier and still legal in the class. Hook was a clevis through my receiver tube pintle hitch, a full 4" lower than legal max. Did top off the 80 gallon transfer tank 'mid-ships' for ~600# of 'ballast'. This year I went for a 5 mile warm-up romp before my class started and had the engine and transmission up to full operating temperature, left the truck idling with A/C on max to help maintain underhood heat and I think this translated to a much harder launch and better speed.
Someday I am going to combine all the lessons learned, plan ahead and assemble a truck that will pull that damn sled out the other end.
Most likely candidate: K3500 SRW long box crew cab with 100+hp custom tune, weight maxed out to class limit, new skinny rubber with 1/2 inch of flexible block tread...and maybe a sneaky shot of nitrous mid-track to get ground speed up over 20mph ... :eek:
Pushing 300K miles and pulling with the new trucks. Like a rock.
http://www.thedieselpageforums.com/photopost/data/500/IMG_3031_WEB.jpg