Heavy Weight Champ

I don't always tow heavy, sometimes it's just 375 lbs. Had to run my motorcycle into the dealer for some scheduled maintenance. A couple things I dont have tools for or I'd do them myself, so i figired i cough up the cash. Cost me $2600 for fork seals, valve check/belts replaced, and new rubber! Gawd damned bike is probably only worth $5k nowadays. I guess its worth it for one of my favorite all time bikes. This Ducati mechanic has always been really good. He pointed out a couple other things I should adjust and they are easy enough to do, so worth having him give it a good once over.
 

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I did my first heavy tow in some pretty steep and winding mountain terrain. Elevation staring was about 1000 and ending about 7500 msl. I had my toyhauler loaded up pretty good, probably 13,000+ lbs. Went up and down some 6-7% grades with some tight corners. Was running 55-70 mph.

I got horrible fuel economy at under 6.5 mpg on some stretches. I got back close to 8 mpg on the way home. Worst I've ever seen towing this same trailer.

I was very disappointed in the power management and there were times when I had to slow for traffic and when I got back on the throttle it was maxed out and would not accelerate back to speed. On some of the downhill sections the exhaust brake/transmission was very abrupt and it would kick on hard and shed 5-6 mph, way under what the cruise was set at. Sometimes it seemed to work a little better, but the computer seemed very confused.

I towed this trailer unloaded weighing probably 10,000 lbs in some terrain last fall and it seemed much better all the way around. I guess if you get north of 12k lbs you should not expect great performance in steeper terrain.
 

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Today’s run, I’m probably heaviest ~10k. 7 MPG running quick to Daytona on the gasser.
Same group (plus 3) leaves tonight for the long haul. Charlotte to Tahoe to run the Rubicon and Fordyce. Not looking forward to the mileage with the gasser on this one, lol.

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Final results from the long haul with the Gasser, guessing I'm right around 10k lbs for the load.
 

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Final results from the long haul with the Gasser, guessing I'm right around 10k lbs for the load.
Wow that's a long haul 792 gallons by my math which at current price here of 2.76 for 87, thats 2,185 in fuel. A diesel getting 10mpg would have been 546 gallons, But at a cost of 3.43 that would have been 1,889 not counting DEF a few hundred bucks difference. Around 2k in fuel either way. That's a hell of a road trip, lol
 
Wow that's a long haul 792 gallons by my math which at current price here of 2.76 for 87, thats 2,185 in fuel. A diesel getting 10mpg would have been 546 gallons, But at a cost of 3.43 that would have been 1,889 not counting DEF a few hundred bucks difference. Around 2k in fuel either way. That's a hell of a road trip, lol
Yep, and that's on the low end, some of the remote and Cali adjacent locations were getting up towards $5/gal for regular.

This is actually the first time I think I've seen the vapor recovery systems (on pumps in Nevada and California).
 
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