There was a thread recently discussing overheat issues with passes, etc and I added my data points heavy towing on the 93 - which shows no overheating pulling the boat on passes. As noted, it's been overmaintained by me as is likely very close to as new.
We just returned this evening from Lake Roosevelt, towing the boat for the first time with the new to us 97. Leaving the lake, you have to go up a very long and steep hill (6.5% I think). The truck was already hot from pulling the boat out, climbing the lower portion before it gets full on steep, and running the A/C on an 85 degree day. When we got to this part, I hit the 2nd gear start button (to prevent a WOT downshift weighing 11,500lbs), floored it and noted the timer. Left the A/C at full blast. Kinda nervous because this truck is still new to me despite having gone through it quite thoroughly. No pinging whatsoever.
At 1 minute into it, the truck had slowed from 32mph to 27 and was holding steady. At about 1 minute 30 seconds the truck had regained to 30mph. Still no ping and no temp needle movement, A/C still cranking at full blast. Finally, at 2 minutes, I think the needle moved but it was so little it was barely discernable. We hit the crest of the steep part 15 seconds later and the speed slowly climbed to 45 mph before the tranny shifted into 3rd (I'd turned off the 3nd start button). About a minute later, the oil pressure dropped a needle width for a minute or so and then returned to normal. That was it.
Informationally, this 97 truck has 138k on it, fresh everything, Mobil 1 in the engine, and I've done two tranny drain/fills on what already appeared clean fluid since buying it 6000 miles ago. It's got a new Toyota 93/94 brass/copper radiator in it from Cdan as PM, and Toyota red. My wife filled it with Costco Premium.
I'd have to say that this is about the harshest thing you can do to your drive train. Very few vehicles ever have their throttles floored for a full minute, but these things appear capable of handling it for several minutes as I've done longer WOT runs on the other many times.
DougM
We just returned this evening from Lake Roosevelt, towing the boat for the first time with the new to us 97. Leaving the lake, you have to go up a very long and steep hill (6.5% I think). The truck was already hot from pulling the boat out, climbing the lower portion before it gets full on steep, and running the A/C on an 85 degree day. When we got to this part, I hit the 2nd gear start button (to prevent a WOT downshift weighing 11,500lbs), floored it and noted the timer. Left the A/C at full blast. Kinda nervous because this truck is still new to me despite having gone through it quite thoroughly. No pinging whatsoever.
At 1 minute into it, the truck had slowed from 32mph to 27 and was holding steady. At about 1 minute 30 seconds the truck had regained to 30mph. Still no ping and no temp needle movement, A/C still cranking at full blast. Finally, at 2 minutes, I think the needle moved but it was so little it was barely discernable. We hit the crest of the steep part 15 seconds later and the speed slowly climbed to 45 mph before the tranny shifted into 3rd (I'd turned off the 3nd start button). About a minute later, the oil pressure dropped a needle width for a minute or so and then returned to normal. That was it.
Informationally, this 97 truck has 138k on it, fresh everything, Mobil 1 in the engine, and I've done two tranny drain/fills on what already appeared clean fluid since buying it 6000 miles ago. It's got a new Toyota 93/94 brass/copper radiator in it from Cdan as PM, and Toyota red. My wife filled it with Costco Premium.
I'd have to say that this is about the harshest thing you can do to your drive train. Very few vehicles ever have their throttles floored for a full minute, but these things appear capable of handling it for several minutes as I've done longer WOT runs on the other many times.
DougM
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