high altitude, larger tires, cruise control?

[doctorJ]

Took my new 285 Revos on the road over the weekend and went form Abilene,Tx (elevation 700 ft. ) to San Juan Dam, N.M. (elev. ~5800ft) and crossed the continetal divide (elev. 7480 ft ) on Wednesday evening in snow flurries. It seemed that as we got higher and higher moving towards Albuqurque and then even higher moving towards Farmington that the cruiser was downshifting more and more frequently on seemingly less demanding up-slopes? Is this more related to oversize tires, altitude, cold or a combination of all three. I had the cruise set on 71 (gps speed 74.9) in the 70mph zones and 75 (gps speed 79.0) in the 75 mph zones. Me and one passenger and camping equipment. Thanks
Jay

ps - also noted the keyfob unlock wouldn't work Thursday morning when it was 27 degrees outside. That afternoon, 68 degrees, worked fine?

 

[Hltoppr]

My 3FE has much more pep at sea level to 3000 feet than it does here at home. Cold air will have the opposite effect of altitude, as it is more dense than hot air.

-H-

 

[Rookie2]

Altitude does affect power output in combustion engines at higher altitudes unless you're one of the turbo or supercharged guys . Air is less dense, affecting serveral things... fuel/air ratios (although I would imagine the computers will adjust to a point), amount of combustible air for a given volume etc.. So if you had your cruise set at a constant speed, your going to need more throttle and hence more downshifting will occur.


Rookie2

 

[Beowulf]

>> keyfob unlock wouldn't work Thursday morning when it was 27 degrees outside <<

Warm up the battery.

Normal. Some of us live at 6,000+ ft and have to deal with the engine's performance decrease every day.

-B-

 

[cruiserdan]

Normal. Some of us live at 6,000+ ft and have to deal with the engine's performance decrease every day.

-B-

Not all of us who live a 6000 ft have to deal with it

 

[doctorJ]

Thanks for the reminder Dan, I forgot what the return address was on all the parts from American Toyota. Sure is nice to have Pappaduexs right on the way to/from trout fishing!
Bye the way - the new antenna assembly fixed all my old antenea problems. But with the SIRIUS I only have it extended 2 inches most of time.
Jay