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Brutus and The Blue Ridge Parkway

racedaymechanic

racedaymechanic

Active Member
Messages
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Location
Troutman, NC
We just got back from a weekend on the Parkway, Its something Ive wanted to do and finally did all I can say Is WOW! its something we will do again many times we are lucky as Its only about an hour and a Half away but @ 4000' the temps are 20+ degrees cooler, The Camping on the Parkway is Primitive No power or Electric but we are self contained so its good. First I am glad I did the cooling upgrades because its a long hard pull to the Top, many miles of 6-8 percent grades lots of slow curves and switchbacks so you never get a chance to gain any momentum. the main problem is you can't go fast enough to lock in the Torque Converter, 30 MPH tops on the curves so trans temps got up to 240-250 at times engine never got above 220, my highest EGT was 1220f that was going from a dead stop from a stoplight at least 8 percent grade AC on High, I will be adding a additional Trans cooler with a fan for the next trip, but all in all I was real happy with the Hybrid HX35 Turbo, My Boost controller kept it at no higher than 16psi and I could pull as hard as the curves in the road would let me, I put it on a 7.3 Powerstroke with about the same setup as me coming home going from a stoplight up a grade, I looked over at him and gave him the nod he did the same and I had several truck lengths on him by the time we crested the hill, it was showing 103 degrees on my overhead outside temp gauge. Im sure he felt bad knowing a lowly 6.5 just kicked his A$$. I have some Pics of the trip to follow
 
We just did the parkway a few months back. Hopefully they had most of the closed off sections open when you did it. I know alot of it was closed for road construction when we went. I found my own detour around asheville that took me up a road that NOBODY with a trailer should have gone up. Towing my 25' travel trailer took EVERY bit of the turns on the switchbacks to make, and I was using a good bit of what the DMAX had to offer on em to. Teh actual parkway was nice except for the one night the fog moved in below us, and when we came down we couldn't see ANYTHING. eEnded up spending teh night in a roadside pull off as it was to dangerous to go any furthur. It was a nice trip though, and Skyline Dr just to the north was even better.
 
Glad to hear you had a great time and happy to hear the 6.5 kicked some butt

racedaymechanic said:
I put it on a 7.3 Powerstroke with about the same setup as me coming home going from a stoplight up a grade, I looked over at him and gave him the nod he did the same and I had several truck lengths on him by the time we crested the hill, it was showing 103 degrees on my overhead outside temp gauge. Im sure he felt bad knowing a lowly 6.5 just kicked his A$$. I have some Pics of the trip to follow
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I like the sounds of that! good job
 
Hey Turbine Doc has a tranny cooler mounted under his bed with a fan on it connected to a switch. Thats my problem with The Lil 6.2, its the tranny heating up the coolant not the engine! Did u make it to Mabry Mills or were u goin the other way toward Linville Falls? Oughta be a lot of good blueberries around Linville right now. I was born n raised n them mountains, folks dont realize how tough them lil ole eastern mtns can be!!!!!
 
Some Pics
Brutus taking 5
BLP1.jpg


A little higher up
BLP.jpg


Lynn Cove Viaduct
BLP3.jpg


Max and Me
BLP2.jpg


Showing off Brutus's new license plate
BLP4.jpg
 
dmaxx3500 said:
very nice,you are allowed to take trailers on that?
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Yep. A word of warning though, sometimes they close parts of the road and you have to turn around to get back out. This happened to me and we almost had to back out a mile to the nearest offramp. Got lucky and was able to hang the back end of the trailer off a cliff edge and 20 point turn it out of there.
 
THEFERMANATOR said:
Yep. A word of warning though, sometimes they close parts of the road and you have to turn around to get back out. This happened to me and we almost had to back out a mile to the nearest offramp. Got lucky and was able to hang the back end of the trailer off a cliff edge and 20 point turn it out of there.
Click to expand...

There were a couple bridges down to one lane with stoplights on both ends but nothing closed, The good thing about a 5th wheel is you can bend it pretty tight if you need to turn around
 
Nice Bruce. was lucky enough in the late '90s to be working in the Roanoke, Va area during Spring and ran about 100 miles of the BR Parkway a couple of times during time off. Just a beautiful drive and area. I'd do it again any time. Kinda fun to thrash a rental car on the climbs too...:hihi:
 
Nice pics Bruce! Definitely a nice area to drive around. Sounds like Brutus did a good job!

I haven't taken the opportunity to camp on the Blue Ridge though... Hmmm
 
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