That’s leaving a mark!!

[Global Driver]

Just last week on top of Wolf Creek Pass.

[sourdough]

I've seen many, many semis and RVs blowing steam, smoking brakes and/or stranded on Wolf Creek Pass. It's a serious pass; coming up from Pagosa and going down from South Fork. Many folks take that route and have no idea what they are putting their truck or equipment through....they squirted some grease in the zerks a couple of years ago.....

[flybouy]

I think that it'll buff out.

[jasin1]

Sounds like they are saying it started in the truck…they have a recall on 2021-23 Ram 2500 and 3500 with 6.7 for the heater grid relay…wonder if that was the problem….also people tend to plug 25 different cords ( myself included) into the 12 volt outlet which can cause problems.
My sons prior boat had a volvo diesel and two fuel tanks…the former owner had rigged up a fuel transfer pump with a 12 volt cigarette lighter adapter..the wire caught on fire and burned up the engine wire harness when he used it..i had to rebuild the engine when we bought it after the owner flooded it putting the fire out in the engine room
and replace all the wiring …Volvo oem parts are crazy expensive.

Also see he had a front bull bar on that rig…My wife’s cousin had a bull bar with a hitch and carrier on his f450 and had to remove some of it because it caused the engine to overheat

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a4...defect-recall/

[dutchmensport]

I'm having difficulty reading the article. The image is too grainy on my laptop. It's too small.

[1tenor]

Pulled a 23 foot travel trailer over that pass with a Ford E350 van once. Air gets pretty thin up there for a naturally aspirated engine. I was younger and stupider then. I'm older now.

[chuckster57]

Originally Posted by dutchmensport

I'm having difficulty reading the article. The image is too grainy on my laptop. It's too small.

And I’m having no issues on my iPhone 12 Pro Max.

[JRTJH]

Maybe this will be easier to read, click on the paragraph or on the photo, should open individually and larger than the original post ???

[flybouy]

The article in the link looks fine on my Samsung tablet (Galaxy Tab S7 FE 5G) as well.

[wiredgeorge]

Interesting... overheating? Trucks usually don't overheat enough to start a fire. Odd. BTW: That truck will probably be in Texas with all the flood-outs and a cooked title next week for sale.

[Kirk's Keystone Outback.]

Not trying to top the burned out rig, but this video emerged on You Tube recently, and is truly concerning, especially if you're the neighbor sleeping while this is happening. Just plain scary...

https://youtu.be/zgCZzYlRs9k

[Balvar24]

We pulled Wolf Creek pass. Seemed like West to east was harder on things than east to west. Transmission was warm when we crested the top, but not bad considering. Being able to manually shift the transmission was handy.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Balvar24

We pulled Wolf Creek pass. Seemed like West to east was harder on things than east to west. Transmission was warm when we crested the top, but not bad considering. Being able to manually shift the transmission was handy.

W to E you have about a thousand ft. more in elevation to climb not to mention the grade. From Pagosa (W) it's 72xxft. to the summit at 10,857. South Fork sits about a thousand ft. higher. Going down the W side can be exciting as well.

I read that there were 49 semi truck crashes going down the W side from 2011-2015 with 3 fatalities - maybe 10 a year? depending on start/stop dates. It's the wildest side but I watched a guy crash on the E side of the pass while heading W. It was May, still cold up there and there were frequent patches of black ice. I saw the guy far down the twisting road coming my way driving like there was no tomorrow (for that kind of weather). Out of the blue maybe a 1/4 mile in front of me he just sort of veered and ran straight into the rock wall on his side of the highway. Ground along that wall and didn't come into our lane (I was stopped by the time he stopped ahead of us). Kid, looked mid to late 20s. He was fine and said he just "lost control"...really (delivering newspapers to Pagosa!). That car wasn't going to be repaired.

[pawpaw]

https://youtu.be/X6LzWZYWpOU?t=2 CW McCall Wolf Creek Pass

[{tpc}]

What is the grade going up and for how long? I could see it was 7% downhill on one side, maybe its the same for both sides?

7% doesn't seem too crazy, but if its 20 miles long, that may be part of the issue.

[sourdough]

E side is not as bad as the W (toward Pagosa Springs). W side has lots of switchbacks and the grade is about 7% for what seems like 30 miles but it's probably 10-15? It will wind a car up without anything behind it and keep it howling or use your brakes a lot. The problem is the load and trying to keep it controlled. I've seen lots of steaming engines with hoods open as they went up and lots with smoking brakes on the side going down and an occasional whiff of burning tranny fluid.

[Balvar24]

It's easy to get in a hurry going down. Then it's hard on brakes. I could do the speed limit and people were zipping by.

[sourdough]

Originally Posted by Balvar24

It's easy to get in a hurry going down. Then it's hard on brakes. I could do the speed limit and people were zipping by.

LOL! It's been like that on every mountain I've been on that had a ski resort at the top...ski season or not. Downhill is like all everyone wants to be a "speed racer" just flying by. Since it's Saturday I'll share a quick tale;

Coming down the mountain from a ski resort one Sat. after the lifts closed there was the proverbial line of cars trying to fly down the mountain. The road had snow and ice on it but that didn't matter. One guy in a new Suburban came flying by driving like there was no tomorrow. In a bit the line slowed and there's the Suburban and he's hit the rock wall that was on one side (going the direction of traffic). He was sort of stuck but kept hitting the gas moving a foot or two at a time just tearing the snot out of the side of the vehicle. It finally wouldn't go anymore, the guy got out of the driver door (right beside the vehicles trying to inch by) and took a whiz!! Right there. He was drunker than a skunk! I couldn't stop laughing the rest of the way down the mountain.