pulling hills/mountains

may get the dealer to deduct the price of a gear change off the purchase price or maybe even do the swap for you. i would say its not a ideal rear end setup if it had better rears or a 10 speed it would be more drivable but ether way it would still get the job done. try some negotiation and see what you can get.

 

I am with Danny on this one. I don't really understand where you guys are coming from. Can you reach the required final drive ratio? Sure...it's just going to be a lower gear. Yes every shift will be a lever shift instead of some shifts that would be split with a 13 or 18. I've never driven a 10 but I used to drive a 15 and that's similar....lack of splitter of no big deal IMO. With the 3.25 you may have to drop gears a little quicker near the start of the pull but once you get in the right gear I can't see how the driver or the truck would know the difference.

 

I have a 386 Peterbilt with an 18-speed MX 11 paccar with 325 rears I run the mountains quite a bit and it dies when I hit the the Hills would 355 or 370 rear ends be the better one for me. Right now my top speed 87 miles an hour in the flats, but any kind of an uphill it dies falls on its face. I pull a tanker my loads are 45k to 46k

 

If you know your route you can Google the trip by grade and what percentage of the trip is pulling a grade by a chart graft.

 

You will see your rig settle into one speed on a given grade.

It could be less than walking speed at 25% straight up or it will be a easy 42 mph run up Townhill 5% Or somewhere in between on steeper hills.

There are a way of running upgrade using momentum. When that wears off and you aint hit the top yet, down through the gears you go until you find the one that does hold a speed and keep your pyrometer below a grand.

Your fuel burn will rise to gallons per hour on upgrades. Something like 30 plus for up to a hour. It changes your calculus of fuel planning if you intend to spend time in the mountains all day.

Your 10 speed is going to be horrible. I prefer 13's or more. We had a 15 once for years that could crawl up anything. (And did...)

Im not trying to touch the ratios or give you this number or that. Ive run all sorts of trucks in my life time and if you had a 9 speed with the speed of 122 (Down from 135 due to previous downgrade and curve) plus hitting that 10 mile milesburg westbound upgrade, the momentum finally wears off at 65 plus at the top. It's ridiculous but an example of what is possible. And Ive had trucks with 10 speeds fuller but tiny 300 cummins big cams at 16 on townhill which added too much time to the trip total.

Big horse rules upgrade. the more you have beyond 500 into the realm of 600 plus the less fuel you burn (Work) and the easier it is to maintain the speed. The 120 on my avatar had a 500 capped at 72 coming up grape vine at the speed limit for the first set southbound in the second lane. The one next to me on the right was doing maybe 32.