Any one going from the midwest?

[seanR]

we are planning to leave 10/03 from Rockford area, any one want to join us?

[IntrepidXJ]

i am thinking about going.....already took the time off from work, but gotta see if my XJ is ready for the trip by then.

[IntrepidXJ]

what time were you planning on leaving on 10/3...out of curiousity?

[ChiXJeff]

Deb & I are planning on rolling out of Bloomingdale at oh-dark-nothing 10/4/2003.

[seanR]

We dont have anything "etched in stone" yet. Our reservations at Slick Rock are from 10/05 through 10/12 probably leave early friday am. I realy dont know how long it will take to drive. 2 or three days perhaps.

[Fore Wheeler]

Ang and I are meeting Scott Mac and Steph in Lansing Friday morn and headin west.

[IntrepidXJ]

well, seeing as i will probably be working that friday, i was planning on leaving sometime that night, if i go.

[4ward]

We'll be rolling out that evening. Should be at slickrock on Sun. evening. Watch out for 45,000 lbs. of rolling mass doin' 80-85 across I70.

Sean

[Bones]

The Mrs. and I will be pulling out of mid MO Fri eve. I hope that we won't be anywhere near OneTon's hunk-o-flying-steel.

Bones

[Fore Wheeler]

Sean, what route are you taking?? The bus with 2 XJ's weigh out at bout 30K lbs and we're thinking about still trying the Vail pass, worse case sitituation is that we drive the Jeeps up if the ol' diesel doesn't want to do all the work.

just curious.

[seanR]

We have decided we only need 2 days. We plan on taking I-80,
I-76, I-70 Streets and Trips say it will only be a 2 day drive, easy. Perhaps we could meet up in several spots along the way, Quad Cities, Des Moines, Devner, Etc. With a little planning It could be fun.

[4ward]

Straight across 70, stoppin' every 1000 miles to fill up the tank. Vail is slow going, but doable. I pretty much always expect to be doing 20 mph for 70% of the pass. It's the downside that's fun. Make sure your brakes are up to snuff. Makes me glad we have an engine brake. I'm pretty much on it the whole way down and pumping the brakes about every 45-60 seconds. Are you pullin' with a trailer or stackin' 'em both on the bus?

Sean

[Scott Mac.]

Where putting mine on a tailer behind the bus, I didn't even think to ask Dan if that monster had a Jake brake.

[Mark WNC]

I dont mean to change the subject but I thought I could get
advice from the experienced group.
We'll be leaving Western North Carolina on the Fri. the 3rd
We'll be traveling I-40 to 24 to 64 to I-70 .
How well will a 99 ford diesel do up the mountain
in Vail pulling the XJ on a trailer I know the air gets pretty thin
up there and how about going down the other side.
Trailer has brakes by the way.
Thanks.

[Fore Wheeler]

Jake was a good dog, but the bus has no Jake.

However I think that a low gear the motor can still do alot of compression breakin, we can always strap Scotts XJ to the back and he can break for me :D

It does have monster four wheel disc tho.

[Bones]

Mark WNC, "How well will a 99 ford diesel do up the mountainin in Vail pulling the XJ on a trailer I know the air gets pretty thin up there and how about going down the other side.
Trailer has brakes by the way."


The powerstroke of Ford's should do very well. The thin air isn't as much of an issue with forced induction.

As for down, Go easy and you should be OK.

Hit Dan Riggs back channel for the low down first hand. He runs the same sort of rig you do.

Bones

[Grant]

Originally posted by Mark WNC
I dont mean to change the subject but I thought I could get
advice from the experienced group.
We'll be leaving Western North Carolina on the Fri. the 3rd
We'll be traveling I-40 to 24 to 64 to I-70 .
How well will a 99 ford diesel do up the mountain
in Vail pulling the XJ on a trailer I know the air gets pretty thin
up there and how about going down the other side.
Trailer has brakes by the way.
Thanks.

The limit for a F-series with PSD is the twisties not the power. The first major climb is just out of Denver but starts with a sharp turn that limits your speed. Hit the turn at 75mph and you can maintain that the whole way, hit the turn at 65mph and you are lucky to see 60mph at the top.

Same deal with Vail pass.

I drive a 99 F350 4x4, towing a 4400lb XJ on a 2400lb trailer, it will climb Loveland and Vail passes at the speed limit. No problem.

If you have "chipped" the powerstroke, I hope you are running guages so you don't smoke your tranny. Even stock the tranny gets pretty warm over the passes with your foot buried. Of course you should unlock the t/c when climbing.

[Danno]

I just got back from Moab. Drove out my 2001 Powerstroke from Tenn. and was towing a 32 foot bed gooseneck with two XJs on it. I figure that the weight was about 5000 for trailer and 7000 for the two XJs. The Powerstroke did really well. When the wife was driving we'd get about 10 mpg and when I would drive it would get about 9 mpg. From my house it is 29.5 hours which is only 1.5 hours longer than usual. The Vail Pass is no trouble except for the down hill section. Got pulled over for no registration. The State of TN doesn't register privately owned trailers! Anyway, I have three trailer axles with brakes. If you go slow down hill in a lower gear (auto: 2nd and 3rd with overdrive turned off) it's no problem. Just don't be in a hurry! With a stock fuel tank (27 gallons) I was stopping a lot!

[Mark WNC]

That sounds good guys,I thought it might be an extreme climb
and down hill and I didnt want to be going 20 mph.
As far as the chip goes I dont have one so i shouldn't
have to worry about the six speed.
Just wanted to get an idea of the steepness of the mountains
I know they will be long though
The steepest mountain around here is about 8% grade but not too long.
Thanks
MA

[Goatman]

Originally posted by Mark WNC
I dont mean to change the subject but I thought I could get
advice from the experienced group.
We'll be leaving Western North Carolina on the Fri. the 3rd
We'll be traveling I-40 to 24 to 64 to I-70 .
How well will a 99 ford diesel do up the mountain
in Vail pulling the XJ on a trailer I know the air gets pretty thin
up there and how about going down the other side.
Trailer has brakes by the way.
Thanks.

A '99 Ford diesel will pull as good as anything can. Turbos also compensate for thin air, which is why higher altitude piston engine private plans run them. You'll do better than most pulling that or any other grade.

Powerstrokes rule!! ;)

[Kejtar]

Originally posted by Dan Riggs
Got pulled over for no registration. The State of TN doesn't register privately owned trailers!

So did they pull you over on the downhill part or did they wait till you got to the bottom :D?

[Danno]

smoking brakes as an excuse for stopping to check registration. Duh! Brakes weren't smoking until I had to do a hard stop AFTER he turned on his lights.

[IntrepidXJ]

Originally posted by ChiXJeff
Deb & I are planning on rolling out of Bloomingdale at oh-dark-nothing 10/4/2003.

I was planning on leaving Bensenville around that time on that date. Mind if we meet up and drive together?

Let me know!

Thanks

[seanR]

No not at all, that is why I started this thread in the first place. Even though the turn it took was interesting. Our e-mail is larstr@mchsi.com. get a hold of us we plan on leaving Saturday A.M and geting out there on Sunday P.M.

[IntrepidXJ]

Originally posted by seanR
No not at all, that is why I started this thread in the first place. Even though the turn it took was interesting. Our e-mail is larstr@mchsi.com. get a hold of us we plan on leaving Saturday A.M and geting out there on Sunday P.M.

Cool, my plans exactly :)

[What Rd]

I'm planning on heading out from Springfield saturday morning too. Maybe we'll meet up along the way. Of course I don't expect any PSDs to keep up with my DURAMAX in the mountains - up OR down, with my Allison tranny and its computer-controlled grade-braking.
= )

What CB channel is going to be the official "Midwesterners' Moab or Bust" channel?

[seanR]

Well I hope Y'all can keep up with my Plush 1989 chevy motor home with the Huge 350 cid powerplant under the hood. pulling the lightweight steel car hauler that weighs mor than my xj. I might even fix the breaks on the trailer again befor I go. Actualy I was thinking about pulling the carhauler over the mountains with the jeep and letting the SuperSlug go it alone over the pass. The old grey mare, she ain't what she used to be.

[ChiXJeff]

Originally posted by IntrepidXJ
I was planning on leaving Bensenville around that time on that date. Mind if we meet up and drive together?

Let me know!

Thanks

I'm going to play this by ear. Deb thought it may be a good idea to get on the horse and ride a couple of hours west on Friday night.

BTW, SeanR...... my XJ pulling a 1 ton pop-up runs around 3000 RPMs in 3rd gear (5spd stick) going up the mountains. Any faster, and she overheats FAST.

ChiXJeff

[4ward]

SeanR, I'd definately go with your plan of unhooking and splitting the duties up. We used to run with a 36' bounder with a vortec 454 and even it didn't like Vail pass with anything behind it.

We are definately leaving sometime Fri. I'm shooting for morning hopefully. It's about 27 hours for me to get to Rd. 21 from here and I don't really feel like pulling in to Junction at 2 a.m.

Oh, I monitor CB 19 so that I know what's going on with traffic and cops. I shudder to think of the cost of the speeding ticket for doing 20 over in some of these states :eek:

[IntrepidXJ]

i'm not opposed to leaving on friday night. it was a thought i had as well.

anyways, let me know whatm you decide, and maybe we can work things out.

[seanR]

We will also have a cb, don't know what channel we will be on. But by Nextel beep beep # is 111*18*6913, if anyone else has Nextel also this would be a good way to keep in touch since they are coast to coast now.

[XJRubicon]

Be runnin down from Minnesota here.

Plannin on takin 35 down to I 70

Anyone else runnin that way?

Leavin early oct, donno when yet

[Beezil]

rubi, run 35 down to 80.

west on 80 to 76 into denver...THEN hook up with 70.....

[XJRubicon]

Yes thankyou for that correction!