- 3,657
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- Location
- Dallas, Texas
Went to Sermis' place to browse and buy a few goodies.. Nice 240 mile round trip, plus a few miles to stop at haney Electronics in Cleburne (Home for all of your Military Electronics Needs).
Truck went very well, just purred along at 55 with the 1100x20's. Coolant stayed at 160-180, oil at about 70, boost and after-pyro showed 3psi/600 to 7psi/850 depending on grade.
As always, making a stop or two along the way.. caused a stir at Cracker Barrel.. Instead of parking it in the back with the lowly RV's.. parked up front and got it some looks.
Getting to Sermas' place was no issue, but sort of cut the driveway short and let the front wheel go about 8-10" down in the little tranch beside the drive. (Sermis, you gotta widen that driveway!). With 3 tons of S280 in the bed, the thing was more tippy than I cared for but slow and steady did right. Or maybe it just seemed tippy to me. Rolling is my biggest fear in the top heavy beast. I'd like some day to find a big crane and see at what degrees point it wants to actually roll..
Sermis let me drive his M35 with the huge tires. Definitely need armstrong steering with the big tires! His truck runs real strong and the ride was smooth. I like the way his IP governor seems to work. Once a certain RPM is reached, it just stops feeding like hitting a brick wall, unlike mine which much more gradually cuts off the fuel. I'd like to know which adjustment controls that so I could set up mine to 'hit the wall' instead of allowing overspeed. For the first time I sat in a spring ride seat. Under my considerable mass it was too low, but the ride was cushy and the seat back was more comfy than my stock 'hard seat'. I'll keep my seat however since it has good storage (you know, jumper cables, flares, air chuck, ammo, etc.. ) in the box under the cushion. The experience of the muffler he has installed was very gratifying. The low frequency hum of the engine was there but the high frequencies were diminished; none of the usual buzzing and It was easy to have a conversation without yelling. You could actually hear the non-whistler turbo spooling up and down and that was a pleasant effect.
Driving from Sermis' place, had to refuel. I dumped the rest of the PS "Diesel clean + cetane boost" in the tank.
http://www.powerservice.com/dieselkleen_cetane.asp
The jug says it raises the cetane by 6 points. I've been using this product alot (as well as Lucas injector lube) One thing I have noticed is that using alot of Diesel kleen (2x) seems to noticeably raise the EGT so maybe I should lay off it.
First time to drive at night with the flourescent guage lamp. Once it got dark, the tubular flourescent trouble light I had mounted under the pyro/boost guage shelf did a real good job illuminating the dash guages. Maybe too good, so I will have to experiment with addng a dimmer. I tried before to take the lamp housing apart, but the ends are either too tight or glued on. The shelf I am talking about is this:
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/index....opic&t=6574&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=40
but the light is not shown. It was fixed right under the shelf and the reflector aimed so that the driver is shielded from the lamp itself which just shines downward on the truck's panel.
Truck went very well, just purred along at 55 with the 1100x20's. Coolant stayed at 160-180, oil at about 70, boost and after-pyro showed 3psi/600 to 7psi/850 depending on grade.
As always, making a stop or two along the way.. caused a stir at Cracker Barrel.. Instead of parking it in the back with the lowly RV's.. parked up front and got it some looks.
Getting to Sermas' place was no issue, but sort of cut the driveway short and let the front wheel go about 8-10" down in the little tranch beside the drive. (Sermis, you gotta widen that driveway!). With 3 tons of S280 in the bed, the thing was more tippy than I cared for but slow and steady did right. Or maybe it just seemed tippy to me. Rolling is my biggest fear in the top heavy beast. I'd like some day to find a big crane and see at what degrees point it wants to actually roll..
Sermis let me drive his M35 with the huge tires. Definitely need armstrong steering with the big tires! His truck runs real strong and the ride was smooth. I like the way his IP governor seems to work. Once a certain RPM is reached, it just stops feeding like hitting a brick wall, unlike mine which much more gradually cuts off the fuel. I'd like to know which adjustment controls that so I could set up mine to 'hit the wall' instead of allowing overspeed. For the first time I sat in a spring ride seat. Under my considerable mass it was too low, but the ride was cushy and the seat back was more comfy than my stock 'hard seat'. I'll keep my seat however since it has good storage (you know, jumper cables, flares, air chuck, ammo, etc.. ) in the box under the cushion. The experience of the muffler he has installed was very gratifying. The low frequency hum of the engine was there but the high frequencies were diminished; none of the usual buzzing and It was easy to have a conversation without yelling. You could actually hear the non-whistler turbo spooling up and down and that was a pleasant effect.
Driving from Sermis' place, had to refuel. I dumped the rest of the PS "Diesel clean + cetane boost" in the tank.
http://www.powerservice.com/dieselkleen_cetane.asp
The jug says it raises the cetane by 6 points. I've been using this product alot (as well as Lucas injector lube) One thing I have noticed is that using alot of Diesel kleen (2x) seems to noticeably raise the EGT so maybe I should lay off it.
First time to drive at night with the flourescent guage lamp. Once it got dark, the tubular flourescent trouble light I had mounted under the pyro/boost guage shelf did a real good job illuminating the dash guages. Maybe too good, so I will have to experiment with addng a dimmer. I tried before to take the lamp housing apart, but the ends are either too tight or glued on. The shelf I am talking about is this:
http://www.steelsoldiers.com/index....opic&t=6574&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=40
but the light is not shown. It was fixed right under the shelf and the reflector aimed so that the driver is shielded from the lamp itself which just shines downward on the truck's panel.
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I love a good road trip in a MV!
