I just recently took the truck and baby blue Hilux on it's first adventure (Surf N Turf, Pismo Beach) All and all the rig did ok pulling the trailer... As far as fuel mileage went... I got about 8.5 mpg's pulling baby blue. Yikes! I did get tons of smiles per miles and a bout 100 thumbs up while making the voyage to the beach though. I definitely want to put a new straight trailer axle with brakes on the Hilux. Fully loaded, with all of our camping gear and two coolers, I could feel the 60 brakes begging for mercy coming down some of the grades. Once you hit an up hill you are in the slow lane with the 53 footers in 3rd gear at 35-45 MPH. Thank god the speed limit is 55 in CA for any vehicle pulling a trailer cause that's about all she had in her sometimes. On the flats she's fine, can hold her own at 65 but the minute you hit grade, forget about it... The ol 2F does just keep pulling, albeit slowly... she chugs along at 65 in the flats.
I will say this.... It made me think long and hard about dragging the trailer to Tahoe in the summer. Donner Pass would surely cause the 2F to overheat if I was pulling the trailer in the summer months in 80 degree heat with the AC on (wife kid dog, all need AC)
On the way home from the beach there is one sorta big mtn range to get over. It's long and steep and by the time I got to the top the temp gauge was almost touching the red. Had the pass been any longer I would have had to pull over and let it cool down. This was after sun down and the ambient temp was probably about 65 degrees F.
@Hojack now has me really reconsidering a cummins 4bt. I was dead set on an LS swap before but his build has me really re considering this. The sure brute force of the UPS motor is really appealing. I love the idea of the race truck with an LS but the Cummins seams to be more suited for the trucks actual function.
Here's a couple pics of the trip (yea yea... same as the ones in by build thread)
This thing was just the coolest.
I will say this.... It made me think long and hard about dragging the trailer to Tahoe in the summer. Donner Pass would surely cause the 2F to overheat if I was pulling the trailer in the summer months in 80 degree heat with the AC on (wife kid dog, all need AC)
On the way home from the beach there is one sorta big mtn range to get over. It's long and steep and by the time I got to the top the temp gauge was almost touching the red. Had the pass been any longer I would have had to pull over and let it cool down. This was after sun down and the ambient temp was probably about 65 degrees F.
@Hojack now has me really reconsidering a cummins 4bt. I was dead set on an LS swap before but his build has me really re considering this. The sure brute force of the UPS motor is really appealing. I love the idea of the race truck with an LS but the Cummins seams to be more suited for the trucks actual function.
Here's a couple pics of the trip (yea yea... same as the ones in by build thread)
This thing was just the coolest.
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