30 MPG SUV by GMC coming out this year

[theunchosen]

Originally Posted by elhigh

My wife's from Madisonville originally, taking the truck into town for shopping meant at least three hours, and several coolers in the back.

Where she grew up, you had the fridge in the kitchen and two freezers in the basement - one for food, and one full of ice to back up the food one when the power went out. Knoxville power outages are measured in hours, Madisonville outages go by days/weeks.

During three snow storms our power was out for more than 6 days. Most people in the area got power back within the 2nd day(the snow melted and power crews could get to work) but the outlying areas had so many trees downed with lines entangled it took them forever to get us back online.

We would also frequently lose power in the middle of the night for trees going down on the lines and wake up late for school with no hot water, water pressure, or lights(lived on the west side of a mountain range so sun didn't come up anywhere near 8:00A.M.).

I grew up in Jonesborough, so ours was alot worse than Johnson City, but not so bad as that.

I'm sure your wife can attest to when she ended up swinging into to pick up things they loaded up and the aforementioned truck was useful(we weren't as far so we didn't need quite that much space)

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by aerohead

The direct injection and 6-speed is a good thing.Perhaps that will find its way into the passenger cars(Toyota/Suzuki variants would be nice too!) for those who cannot philosophically cannot go the way of the SUV.I think Lexus is up to 8-speeds now,that'd be even better.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...html#post86201

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...html#post86619

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...html#post86722

[theunchosen]

I see what Frank is saying. More gears usually just means they cram more of them in the range we already have. What would be beneficial is if in a 6 speed it tacked onto the end as a whole size larger opposed to shortening most of the gears and then making it slightly larger than the original fifth.

I'm not adverse to having six gears if when I shifted from 5th to 6th I'm transferring out of 5th at 2500rpmish and into 17-1800ish. Then Final drive allows me to cruise at low rpm(2,000) at 70 and maintain an easier time of trailer-surfing at legal safe distances.

[elhigh]

If the Corvette can deliver 24-26mpg ticking over in its top gear, 1400rpm or so at 60mph, then how could my truck do with a taller top gear?

I know I can't overdrive it like the 'Vette - it'd take two more trucks like mine to equal that kind of torque. But I just know there's torque enough to drive a taller gear. It pulls smoothly from 25mph in top, surely if I had another gear I could find a few more mpg. Add aeromods to lighten the at-speed load, and it'd work a treat.

[theunchosen]

another gear(or swapping out your 4th and 5th is possible, trading 4rth for your 5th and moving 5th up a size) would allow you greater speed at lower RPM. If you spend alot of time on the highway at moderately high rpm(2500+) you will see an advantage otherwise you might lose out some as you will have to push one gear further into the rpm range to make the hop.