Looks slick, nice pickup. I know these things will do 95 mph at least with plenty more to give, when I was passing through Wyoming I had to test it out since there's no body there. 95 no problem, but figured it won't last very long and get lousy mpg so it was back down to 65 for me.

Are you keeping the utility bed, looks kinda funny on it. As for the tires, 235/85 are a pretty popular size and have good load ratings, figured if the rears are 235s that what they were. Any how, nice pickup.

 

I knew there was more to give - but like you said it is where you get to a point of diminishing returns when you are pedal to the metal in these things. It has cruise control so I like to keep it at about 65 or 70 on my 80 mile daily commute.

Funny you mention the tires I was actually thinking of running a new thread about what size to get. I might have to wait awhile for the $$ but the ones on there now are 235/85 on the rear and 265/75 on the front. Factory calls for 225/75...

As for the bed I would like a regular bed - but since funds are tight I may leave the utility bed on for awhile. I sure would like to see it with a matching (paint) dually bed though. It is a LWB truck and I know it would look better. I don;t need the utility bed - but it is kind of fun to play with the doors and store extra tools etc...

~GOD BLESS~

john

 

Well I think its just the color scheme of the utility bed that throwing me off. I'm used to the plain white cabs having them not a sandstone with them. I can help but notice all the chrome all over the place, the only other pickup these years I've seen with all that chrome was the cream of the crop in terms of interior and being a GMC, I bet yours is too. That's a really nice pickup. As for the bed, I doubt that you can easily find one with all the trim yours has, so actually have you considered a flat bed, I seen some duallys pull of flat beds pretty well and I'd imagine that yours could. I think that the utility bed sticking out a foot on both side of the cab is whats getting me.

Its funny cause I've got 265/75s on the back and 235/85 on the front so the exact opposite, but yours is a dually so slimmer tires of the back won't look as funny as they do on a 3/4 ton.

Its amazing, I've been looking forever to find a 4 door 6.5 long bed and can only find 454s or automatics, good to see what I'm looking for is out there. Anyways nice truck and good luck with it.

 

Thanks again for the comments on the truck. I am very Blessed indeed with this trade. It is the SLE so it has all the power options inside, carpet not vynil and nice cloth seats with captains up front and buckets with center fold down armrest in rear. The back seats are perfect and look like the have seen little use. The only issue with the front is the drivers seat has the typical tear on the seat edge from sliding in and out.
I need to give the inside a reall good cleaning including shampoo of carpet and seats and it will look real nice.

The morrors are actually an add on mirrow that holds itself on by a tension screw to give the towing mirrow look - but they help seeing around the bed.

As for the bed I agree with you that most I see are the typical plain jane white cabs with white beds. I know if the box bed was painted to match the truck it would look much better. As for a flat bed I can't say. I do like the tool boxes that are all over this one and I will not mount a compressor or generator etc... so I am really using it as a pick up bed. I do agree that finding a nice bed that matched the truck would be a needle in a haystack kind of find - but maybe I could run a barter ad and see what turns up! I would like to try the do it yourself bed liner in the bed an possibly paint the entire box itself based on how the bed turns out. That would help with future trade. I most likely will be trading out in a few months...

As for the 5 speed I am liking it more and more every day. Getting used to it and also teaching my son how to drive it is alot of fun. I miss my boost guage so I can not tell what the turbo is doing. But as we all know they are not boost monsters - but I do like seeing what is happening. So that will have to come soon.

As for the chrome... I'll take it they way it came. Looks nice cleaned up and no rust at all on the cab. Keep looking yourself because this was a person who responded to my for trade add on craigslist. He needed a suburban and had the truck I wanted. Praise GDO!

~GOD BLESS~

john

 

The auto will multiply torque ad long as its on the converter

 

So what you're saying is that the torque converters in automatics basically "multiply" or adds torque to the rear wheels? I might have read it wrong, but that's how I interpreted it.

Sorry I don't think it works that way. In scientific terms, energy is neither created or destroyed as stated by the law of the conservation of energy, meaning the only possible way that the torque converter would add energy (in the form of torque) is if it sucks up heat energy, which is impossible with moving parts in there making friction. The more parts/components that the energy from the engine has to travel through to reach the rear wheels is more power that's lost through the system. This is why transmissions get hot, there is friction through the gears in them that release some of the energy in the form of heat, that's why lubricants are used to reduce friction and keep temps a little cooler, thus prolonging engine/transmission life.

In layman's terms, the torque converter doesn't add/multiply the torque from the engine. If it did, then the manual transmission would have died completely when the torque converter was invented. The more components (with moving parts in them) that the engine torque moves through on its path to the wheels is more power lost. All the torque converter does is essentially what a clutch does in a manual. It controls the amount of torque going to the transmission, while a clutch connects/disconnects the engine from the transmission.

 

So what then is the advantage of a modified tourque converter? Better control of the additional power while it translates your engines tourque into the shifting gears?
Is that why automatics have bands? Are they like the different gears if you will? Please forgive my ignorance - just trying to learn.

~GOD BLESS~

john

 

When I saw that, I did a little research on torque converters, just to see what they do. It sounds like they push fluid through them to control how much of the engine torque actually gets through to the transmission, that's why the engine doesn't lug down so much when you put them in drive, they act more essentially as the clutch does on a manual. I think what they really do is try to keep the engine in the power range, have you noticed on some of the newer automatic vehicles that at the same speed you can jump the rpms up 2-400 rpms without shifting gears, that's the torque converter working, allowing the engine to produce more power without putting the excess stress on the transmission with the rapid power increase. Also, even with the engine getting the same numbers of torque, it is sometimes easier to maintain a speed with the rpms up a little.

As for the modified torque converters, all I think they do is let more of the engine torque through at lower rpms so you technically get more low end power. It should give you more "smooth" power while accelerating, but I don't think it has much to do with shifting gears as the transmission is separate, just connected to the converter.
This video explains how the automatic works. I don't know too much about automatics, just that they are inferior to manuals so I try to stay away from them.

After some more research, the torque converter simply is used to keep the engine from dying when you are at a stop, and give you better low end acceleration cause you can keep your rpms up a little, but use more fuel when doing that, where manuals get a 100% connection and thus you get more efficiency from them, but you can't rev them up while at the same speed to get more power to the wheels at that speed. The torque converter allows the engine to rev up higher to produce more power when accelerating. They don't add power they just let you throw more at the transmission, but give you less efficiency while you're doing that.

In a nutshell, the torque converter rotates the same speed as the engine and uses fluids to turn a turbine that turns the transmission. They let you rev up a little higher at lower speeds to obtain more engine power to travel the same speed or accelerate quicker. They don't multiply power, they allow the engine to produce more power before you start to accelerate, so you have more power while you are accelerating to have better performance, but they are also the reason that automatics are way less efficient than manuals.

Sorry I can't really explain it too much, but I saw that the one guy said they multiply torque, and I thought he meant that you are putting out the same power from the engine and essentially boosting the torque. He was right and wrong I guess since they do let you have more torque, but they don't multiply it, they just let the engine rev up higher producing more torque for the transmission to have available. That's why locking converters are more efficient since they will lock and spin the same speed as the engine to turn the transmission so there is little to no slip.

 

That help me understand the process of the automatic much more. Thank you.

On a side note - I have been teaching my son to drive the truck - he has no experience with straight shifts. He has done very well. Third time out yesterday and he was all over the NV4500. Just needs to work on the "hill starts from a dead stop" some more. He tends to dump the clutch and stall the truck.

I had a chance to drive my wife home from a dinner party last night in the truck while my son drove her car and she fell asleep! guess that means I have the clutch down

Just taking time to enjoy the truck now and decide what inexpensive things I can do next.

As for the tranny I am still working on understanding fourth gear. It kind of reminds me of first gear - seems to be a short time until 5th works just as good as fourth. I also noticed on downshifting that you have to be careful not to hit fourth when going too fast.

So I tend to shift from a rolling start into 2nd, draw out the rpms in 2nd up to about 2500 then time for 3rd, get a nice pull in 3rd then spend a few seconds and mph gain in 4th while moving quickly to 5th.

Downshifting is the reverse of above. But I love it! Really a blast compared to driving my Burb' with its auto. As my son said so well "It really make you more involved inthe entire driving experience" as he bucked and clutched then got it smooth as glass...

~GOD BLESS~

john

 

Well I always keep the rpms under 2000k when possible. I got the 3.73 gears so it's not hard at all. I start from a dead stop in 2nd and shift to third in between 10-15 mph, then from 3rd to 4th at 25 mph, and from 4th to 5th at 40+ mph depending on if I'm accelerating for the interstate or normal highways and how much traffic there is around. Down shifting is from 5th to 4th in between 50-45, from 4th to third at 30, and from third to 2nd at 15, this is pretty good about slowing down and keeping rpms low.

When I up shift after the shift I usually am around 11-1200 rpm and when I down shift it will reach anywhere between 18-2000 rpm. I think at about 16-1800 rpm is when I up shift, can't really tell ya, I go off speed and engine noise.

As for your son learning the manual, good luck, I think everyone should know how to drive a manual. I learned on a 1990 Isuzu pickup with a 2.6L that put out a whopping 110 hp and 115 ft/lbs of torque, pretty easy to kill. As soon as I got my 6.5, I thought it was much easier to drive than that thing. I have yet to stall and where I live, the town is built on a huge hill with the stop lights situated where you have to start on them, and of course I always hit the red lights.