Mountains

[David Anderson]

As I remember it, there is roughly a 1% hp loss per 300 feet of altitude, so that would be about a 20% drop at 6000 ft.  Definitely would be a good idea to disconnect the toad and drive it separately if you can if you are doing a 10,000 ft pass.

I've done Wolf Creek pass at least 14 times in 21 years in my Eagle 10 because we like Durango, Pagosa and Southfork so much, spending lots of time there.  It doesn't seem to matter whether I pull the Ford Escape or not.  It's 22mph in 1st gear for me no matter what.  I use the mister if the temp rises to 200.  The tranny goes to about 210 on the climb and 225 on the descent using the retarder.

I don't like the westbound descent.  It is really tough to keep the speed down.  The east bound descent is not too bad. 

David

[luvrbus]

Turbo engines only lose less than 1/2 the power as the the N/A engines with altitude changes fwiw.I noticed on some old Cat dozers with N/A engine the tag would tell you at what altitude the machine could be operated at above 2000 ft most were turbo engines   

[usbusin]

My Cat engine was rated to 10,000 ft.

[richard5933]

Can't say what would happen at 10,000 feet, but in Santa Fe at 7,000+ feet I can tell you that our 8V71 NA struggled a bit. Lots of smoke when starting from a stop, and a bit when shifting. Loss of power made on-ramps painful - could probably have made a sandwich while we got up to speed. Good thing we were on vacation and not in a hurry.

[DoubleEagle]

I went through Wolf Creek Pass several times between South Fork and Durango back in the nineties, and I don't recall having any particular problems with my NA 8V71. You just had to be patient and enjoy the scenery.

[luvrbus]

I sent a 600kw generator powered by a 12V71 N/A from here to a another mine the company owned the elevation was 9000 ft and I had to install 2 turbos, the 12v71 N/A would only produce 400kw at 9000ft according to manual,  smoked like crazy and ran hot

[Ed Hackenbruch]

House was at about 1100 ft., did a job where i was at 10,000 ft.  Equipment ran fine, had the tag about adjustment above 10,000 ft., top of the mountain was 10,021 ft so not a problem. On the other hand it took me a while to adjust when i was walking around doing things up there.    Ran into the same thing when we moved from sea level to 6000 ft. Took awhile before the dog and i got used to it when hiking.....the second time we did that move i was a little smarter and took a couple of months to adjust before getting into any strenuous projects or hiking.   

[dtcerrato]

In the mid 80s we backpacked 1/2 of the john muir trail. Went in at Bishop and 13 days later made the assent to Mt Whitney. The dissent from Whitney landed us at a pizza & beer joint in Lone Pine. When we were walking from the parking to the front door we felt super human floating across the ground - no we weren't high or drunk...
Yet. Lol

[rusty]

I don't  remember  all the  details  but  the  story goes  a construction company from out of state bid a dam job at timberline and lost his A when the  equipment would only get about 70% of the  work done compared to work on the flat land
Wayne

[luvrbus]

All the later equipment had altitude compensating turbos over 10,000 ft you get your checkbook out BTDT