My Truck

[aerohead]

The 1st gen S-10/GMC S-15 was Cd 0.475 and with mild streamlining (Gale Banks Syclone ) got down to Cd 0.315 which was lower than a Corvette at the time.
Your grandad's S-10,in 2WD configuration is Cd 0.42,a much cleaner starting point.
If this lower drag,smaller frontal area,lighter truck can handle your hauling and pulling duties,then it would have better 'beginning' parametrics than the Dodge.
With a comprehensive streamlining package you could drop below Cd 0.2.
This would get you easily above 30 mpg,based on early powertrains.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by aerohead

The 1st gen S-10/GMC S-15 was Cd 0.475 and with mild streamlining (Gale Banks Syclone ) got down to Cd 0.315 which was lower than a Corvette at the time.
Your grandad's S-10,in 2WD configuration is Cd 0.42,a much cleaner starting point.
If this lower drag,smaller frontal area,lighter truck can handle your hauling and pulling duties,then it would have better 'beginning' parametrics than the Dodge.
With a comprehensive streamlining package you could drop below Cd 0.2.
This would get you easily above 30 mpg,based on early powertrains.

The S-10 is a 4.3L 6 cylinder 4x4 with off road package and a medium aggressive tread pattern. It's rated at 14/18 15mpg combined with the automatic tranny.

My full size turbo diesel easily gets better fuel economy even with a full load. I like the Dodge better because I have pulled heavy with it before, I can crash through the forest without caring about dents, and it has bench seating. The downside is it has 350,000 miles on it, the brakes suck, the AC is out, the speedo and cruise stopped working, and the front end is perpetually sloppy. Oh, and it needs a tranny rebuild.

I suspect the only reason the Chevy doesn't have more problems is that it only has 60k miles on it.

I've thought about a bed topper for either truck, but I only drive the thing when I'm hauling something.

[t vago]

Brakes are fairly easy to overhaul on a Dodge.

It sounds like you lost a vehicle speed sensor, first of all. The speedo and cruise control rely on this sensor to figure out how fast the truck is going. Odds are that your transmission is sloppy, for the same reason. No vehicle speed sensor = no way the powertrain computer would know when to lock the torque converter up.

However, if your transmission problem is separate from your lack of a vehicle speed sensor, you might could try to find a replacement transmission from a junkyard, instead of paying the $2000 or so to overhaul yours.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by t vago

Brakes are fairly easy to overhaul on a Dodge.

It sounds like you lost a vehicle speed sensor, first of all. The speedo and cruise control rely on this sensor to figure out how fast the truck is going. Odds are that your transmission is sloppy, for the same reason. No vehicle speed sensor = no way the powertrain computer would know when to lock the torque converter up.

However, if your transmission problem is separate from your lack of a vehicle speed sensor, you might could try to find a replacement transmission from a junkyard, instead of paying the $2000 or so to overhaul yours.

Thanks for the reply T Vago. I've replaced the calipers already once, but they just don't seem to like to work for very long. Truck always pulls when under heavy braking. This is the least of my worries at the moment.

I don't know if the speed sensor thing is just a broken wire, or if my tone ring is too damaged for it to work. You see, I had a few bolts let loose in my differential and it did a little damage to my tone ring, which is read by the speed sensor. My guess is a bad connection somewhere. The tranny is bad separate from the sensor issue, but a junkyard pull is a thought. These trucks are notorious for bad trannys though, so I'm hesitant to pull one.

Here you can see a sheared bolt that came almost entirely out, and damaged teeth on the tone ring.


More bolts just sitting in the differential housing.

[t vago]

That tone ring looks shot.

Understand the hesitation about getting a replacement tranny. Maybe it's time to do a 5-speed conversion! Heh.