New to towing, 2wd 6.2 burb with 3.08, will this work?

[merlot566jka]

well I am new to this burb, and new to towing. I am about to move all of my belongings from a storage in Oklahoma, to Everett, Washington. Thats about 1900 miles, including some mountains. I will be towing a uhaul 6X12 trailer, and it will have about 3000lbs of stuff in it.

I just made this drive at the beginning of this year without a trailer. The burb made it, but I had to floor it in the mountains, and I could only maintain 45mph!! I have the 700R4, and 3.08 rear gears and 265/75/15 tires.

The good part was I was getting roughly 24mpg untill the mountains. Once in the mountains it was nothing but black smoke and slow going.

The engine has new timing set, new water pump and thermo, injectors, hummer intake manifold, fresh fuel filter and new glow plugs. It runs great, uses about 2qts of oil every 2000 miles. (going thru the cdr valve, I suspect)
And the truck has new shocks and decent tread on the tires. 167,000 on the clock...

So here the questions:
1. Should I change the rear gears?
2. Am I going to make it in the mountains with this trailer?!?
3. Is there anything I can do (short of a banks kit) to make this a little easier on the truck?

Thanks folks for any advice/help you can provide!

[6.5 Detroit Diesel]

buddy runs an 83 6.2 2wd four speed. The truck is okay for hauling itself around with the 3.08's in the back, but not much good for heavy hauling of any sort. Your truck should have the 8.5" rearend. I don't know where you live, but around here getting a new set is as simple as a trip to the junkyard and $50.

Being a 'burb, I don't know what your wind resistance will be like, but the trailer is going to add weight onto that 3,000 lbs, plus any wind pushing against it.

If you can get gears cheap enough, it might be worth it to run them, even for the trip to your new place.

#3-Turn up the IP a little

[merlot566jka]

IP has been turned up about 1/16th of a turn, it has plenty of fuel...

yeah, I have the 8.5 rear, and I didn't even thing about getting used gears, Thanks! Ill scope the area and see what kind of yards we have around and see if i can snag something with a little better ratio.

besides gears, what else would help?

[6.5 Detroit Diesel]

Take a look around and see what you have. If you have time and can't find what you need let me know, I might be able to scoop you a set. ;)
3.42's even would make a difference. (Times difference X torque and gear ratio)

What is your air intake like? If you have some 4" flex hose, there should be a plate you can pop out behind your grill to move air to the engine faster. Will make some difference in engine noise though.

If you have the chance, doing a turbo setup would really liven it up.;) Almost have my buddy convinced to bolt up my extra turbo.

[merlot566jka]

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c134/merlot566jka/IMG00227.jpg
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c134/merlot566jka/IMG00230.jpg

tell me about noise!!

I tried the 4 inch flex drain to the filter housing, didnt do a damn thing for me, even with the old air-box/water separator thing removed from the grill area. So I removed the filter housing and hacked it up. Works great, till you hit 1800ish rpms and up. My ears ring after an hour of driving.

using this http://www.4lo.com/calc/gearratio.htm I found that at 70mph with 30.7inch tires, 3.08 gears I am turning 1651rpm. No wonder it downshifts so much!!
With 3.73 gears I am looking at 2000 rpm at 70. That puts me into a better power area, but I fear it will kill my golden mpg figures...

[JohnC]

Well, compared to a 6.5 TD your tires are slightly oversized, you OD ratio is slightly longer and your axle ratio is 3 steps longer. I'd say you're lucky you made it up those hills at all!

Personally I'd go to 3.73. They're readily available and it'll put you on an even footing with a TD, except for the power...

We had a 5.3 gas truck with the big tires, that trans and 3.73 gears and it did pretty well on mileage.

[merlot566jka]

3.73 gears sound good for me too.

if i get new ones, do I re-use my old shims?

[Edahall]

I’ve got nearly the same setup as you. A 1982 Suburban 6.2 diesel, 30X9.50 tires, 3.08 gears and a 4 speed 700R4 transmission. I tow a 26 Airstream trailer weighing about 5500 lbs. The engine pulls fine even up the mountain passes with this setup. One thing that really helped was to install a switch to manually lock the torque converter. This allows me to tow up hills in 2nd gear with the torque converter locked up. It also keeps the transmission cooler and keeps the engine in the power band. Another thing that helped was to ditch the restrictive exhaust system in favor of dual 2.5” pipes with thrush glasspacks.

Also, I only tow in 3rd gear (direct drive) with the torque converter manually locked up as well. The RPMs are around 1900 at 55 mph which is right in the power band.

[Chief919]

3.73 gears sound good for me too.

if i get new ones, do I re-use my old shims?

Others may disagree, but I have always foudn it faster and easier to swap a whole junkyard rearend than to swap a gear set. That eliminates worries about proper setup and the need to buy the tools to do it right as well.

The pull a part junkyards here just charge about $75 for a complete rear end with brakes.

[Edahall]

well I am new to this burb, and new to towing. I am about to move all of my belongings from a storage in Oklahoma, to Everett, Washington. Thats about 1900 miles, including some mountains. I will be towing a uhaul 6X12 trailer, and it will have about 3000lbs of stuff in it.

I just made this drive at the beginning of this year without a trailer. The burb made it, but I had to floor it in the mountains, and I could only maintain 45mph!! I have the 700R4, and 3.08 rear gears and 265/75/15 tires.



I just completed a moving trip using my 82 Suburban which is configured the same as yours and the same size U-Haul trailer. It pulled it fine even in overdrive. Some hills I had to drop it down to 3rd gear to maintain speed and the Conejo grade (6%) that I have to drive over put me down into 2nd gear (locked TC) while maintaining 50 mph. I could have maintained the 65 mph speed limit in 2nd gear but did not want to waste fuel with the engine RPM's maxed out. For the 400 mile trip, I maintained the speed of roughly 65 mph and the vehicle delivered right around 20 mpg.

Like mentioned, the best thing you can do for this truck is install a low restriction type of exhaust system.