Hagen Brothers farms,Goodrich ND | How to pick through the drive line mess of transmission gearing, axle gearing and tire sizes to find one that will pull out of a soft field ? This worked for me.
Have run an old IH cab over with 8V-92 and 13 spd for many years, this thing has low enough gearing to pull a load or overload out of a soft field.
Went shopping for another one last winter , but nothing was equipped with the same setup as the old one, nor would I want another with that setup, so how to pick another one that could pull out of a field without knowing the trans ratio, axle ratio and tire size of every truck out there ?
I decided that almost all the big block diesels run about the same working/top rpm, so I decided that another that runs at the same speed in low hole at 2000 rpm as my old one should work ?
Using my little Garmin pocket GPS unit with it's speedometer that seems accurate to 1/10 mph, I found the old truck would run a number like 3.8 mph at 2000 rpm (don't quote me at that number, it's been a year).
Went looking at a few prospects we liked the looks of and tried the low hole speed at 2000 rpm thing with the gps. The one we liked for the right price ran the exact same low hole speed at 2000 rpm.
Now those two trucks could not be much more different, a Detroit V8 with 13 spd VS an 855 Cummins with a seven speed with different size tires, but the low hole speed at 2000 rpm matched, and the thing also pulls good in a soft field.
Not an interstate burner with that 7 spd, but fine for our use on the farm.
Edited by Jon Hagen 12/22/2008 19:56
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Revisiting semi truck advice yet once again
