Black Dog
Makin' Beer.
I did a little experiment last night*, I went out to a little road constructed by the local power company to aid in stringing high voltage lines across a wide valley. Its a short road up the shoulder of a mountain, and its steepest part I would estimate at about a 30 degree angle.
My jeep is pretty much stock, the NP231 with 2.72 low range and 3.55 gearing in the axles and an AW4 transmission rolling on 235/75 tires. Coming down that steepest part, which is fairly smooth and not much for rocks or dips or anything, I put my transfer case in low range and transmission in 1st. I never touched the brake or the gas (just coasted), my RPMs barely got to 1000 and I never got moving fast enough for the speedo needle to move. I watched my tach and listened to the engine the whole time and it never went into 2nd, just not enough speed. So totally stock, it does pretty well. This is kind of relevant to the thread I guess, but I'm not sure how you could translate it to 33s with a different rear ratio.
*On my way into this hill I rounded a corner on the road and about 50 or 60 yards ahead of me there was a cow moose and her baby standing in the road. I stopped and watched them for a minute or so, and then the momma casually turned around and went up the hill into the trees. I couldn't see them when I drove by but I could hear them walking. Then coming back out the road borders tight against a creek and the same cow and young one were in the creek hanging out. I watched them for a couple minutes there, then went on my way. I got home and told my wife what I saw and she wanted to see them so we hurried back out there and sure enough they were still there about 20 minutes later, we sat for about 10 minutes and they just stayed there eating and every once in a while one would glance up at us. Moose are pretty cool animals, they don't have a care in the world.:elkgrin: (except that is an elk smiley)
My jeep is pretty much stock, the NP231 with 2.72 low range and 3.55 gearing in the axles and an AW4 transmission rolling on 235/75 tires. Coming down that steepest part, which is fairly smooth and not much for rocks or dips or anything, I put my transfer case in low range and transmission in 1st. I never touched the brake or the gas (just coasted), my RPMs barely got to 1000 and I never got moving fast enough for the speedo needle to move. I watched my tach and listened to the engine the whole time and it never went into 2nd, just not enough speed. So totally stock, it does pretty well. This is kind of relevant to the thread I guess, but I'm not sure how you could translate it to 33s with a different rear ratio.
*On my way into this hill I rounded a corner on the road and about 50 or 60 yards ahead of me there was a cow moose and her baby standing in the road. I stopped and watched them for a minute or so, and then the momma casually turned around and went up the hill into the trees. I couldn't see them when I drove by but I could hear them walking. Then coming back out the road borders tight against a creek and the same cow and young one were in the creek hanging out. I watched them for a couple minutes there, then went on my way. I got home and told my wife what I saw and she wanted to see them so we hurried back out there and sure enough they were still there about 20 minutes later, we sat for about 10 minutes and they just stayed there eating and every once in a while one would glance up at us. Moose are pretty cool animals, they don't have a care in the world.:elkgrin: (except that is an elk smiley)
