[rbarnett]

I've heard of a lot of guys towing 7000-10000pound loads with 4BT conversions. I tow >22000 lbs occasionally with my Cat 3204Turbo powered truck. I am installing a 4BT in it's place. It will be set up to produce from 175-maybe 200hp. Most of the time it will be running empty. The truck weighs aprox 7500 lbs now, and will loose about 500lbs with the installation of the 4BT. Anybody else tow heavy loads with their 4BT's?
Bob B.

 

[Jed]

Why are you replacing your Cat 3204 with a Cummins 4BT? Did you destroy it or something pulling those heavy loads?

 

[mcinfantry]

who is pulling consistant loads with a 4bt of 7000 to 10000?????

 

[Dougal]

Why are you replacing your Cat 3204 with a Cummins 4BT? Did you destroy it or something pulling those heavy loads?

From memory the fuel consumption of the CAT 3204 (if that's the 4L engine I'm thinking it is) is terrible. Only makes a BSFC of around 240 g/kwH at best. Compared to the 4BT at around 210 g/kwH.
That's about 15% improvement.

 

[IHRAcer]

I don't know that I will be pulling that heavy regularly, but I have some. Most recently, I picked up a rusty old 67 IH truck for parts, stripped what I wanted, loaded it with scrap metal when I was done and drove it to the recycler just two days ago on Monday. I grossed in at 13,600 lbs and grossed out at 8,740 lbs. The last time I weighed my truck at the local elevator, it weighed 6100 and change with me in it, and the plate on my trailer says that the empty weight is 2450. Add in four chains and binders and a spare trailer tire, and that makes up the difference. Either way, the trailer and load weighed about 7500 lbs, and I pulled it about 40 miles. Coincidently enough, I am going just east of Cleveland tomorrow to pick up a 1962 IH Travelall (3/4 ton, 4x4) that I just bought on eBay; it should weigh about 6500 - 6700 lbs so I will be dragging a little over 9000 lbs for about 150 miles. I will let you know how it goes, and how much fuel I burn doing it!

 

[IHRAcer]

Oh yeah, almost forgot. The 7500 lb load made my truck work, but at least I wasn't holding up traffic. I am guessing that tomorrow's run shouldn't be much worse, but I don't think that you can realistically expect to pull loads in excess of 10 tons with a 4BT, no matter how jacked outta shape you have it, unless you are pulling at way less than highway speeds, or only a few miles at a time. Good luck!

 

[Makintrax73]

If you think about the trucks that have GCWR in the ball park you are talking about they usually have something like a DT466 or a Cat 3126 (I think that's the number) - point being we are talking about a different class of engine than the 4bt.

 

[rbarnett]

First of all, I apologise for being too vague on my post. The total combined load (the truck, trailer, and load on the trailer is aprox 22000 lbs. So, right now I am pulling an aproximate 14600 load. After the 4BT conversion, the truck will shed 500 lbs, so I will be pulling a 14100 lb load. Again, this will be done ONLY OCCASIONALLY! 95% of the time the truck will be empty.
Also, slowing down on the hills is not a concern really. Don't want to have to smoke the brakes on the downhill! The Cat slows down on the hills, and really smokes too! Also, there are some mostly flat roads in WV.

JED,
The Cat has 500,000mi on it and is delevoping some blow by. A lot really. Nobody wants to mess with the injection pump, there is no real performance engineering done on this engine other than for marine applications. Doesn't really relate to road use, and I am concerned with parts availability on the road. You can get parts for a 4BT from numerous places. Also, the Cat is very heavy, and I want to shed 500lbs. from the front end.

 

[JimmieD]

I had a load of near 1 ton in the back of my 5,200 lbs Dodge, plus pulling a Chevy LUV pickup. I don't know what the LUV pickup weighs, but about the same as a Nissan or Toyota 2wd I guess. LUV had at least 1,200 lbs in the back, probably more. My truck is stock 4BT, NV4500, 4.1 Dana rear, 29.5 tires. Pulled with no problems at all, plenty of power including very steep grades. SURE WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE TO HAVE AN EXHAUST BRAKE!!!!

The torque was the big deal, plenty there, and also got something like 19+ mpg or so over a 600 mile trip. Only problem was with the LUV overloaded and a funky towbar the load was all over the road above 52mph! Other than that, GREAT!

 

[Jed]

JED,
The Cat has 500,000mi on it and is delevoping some blow by. A lot really. Nobody wants to mess with the injection pump, there is no real performance engineering done on this engine other than for marine applications. Doesn't really relate to road use, and I am concerned with parts availability on the road. You can get parts for a 4BT from numerous places. Also, the Cat is very heavy, and I want to shed 500lbs. from the front end.

All are very good reasons to dump the Cat! Jed

 

[rbarnett]

IHRAcer,
I'd sure be interested in your milage when towing that beast home. My truck gets about 16-18 when towing a load of junk weighing about 8000 lbs.
With the truck included, about 15,500, give or take. My turbo has too big of a turbine section, and the injection pump is just not set up for automotive use. The 4BT with a few mods should do better.

JED,
It's not that the Cat didn't serve like a trooper for 500K miles, but it is time for something different. Also with the Cat a new head gasket was in order about every 150K miles. The 3208 in my dump truck also showed a propensity toward killing head gaskets. I was going to upgrade to studs the last time I changed the head gasket, but I couldn't find any made to order kits, and $500 was about the cheapest. No prop finding studs for the 4BT.
Bob B.

 

[rbarnett]

Hey, How do you guys quote a post, or a part of a post in your reply? Also I want to post some pictures of my Cat install, and the future 4BT install. Any tutorials?
Thanks,
Bob B.

 

[BobS]

Hey, How do you guys quote a post, or a part of a post in your reply? Also I want to post some pictures of my Cat install, and the future 4BT install. Any tutorials?
Thanks,
Bob B.

At the bottom right corner of the message you will see a "button" marked "quote" Just click on that and that entire message will be quoted. Then just delete any parts that you don't want to quote. Just make sure your QUOTE in the brackets [QUOTEE] and [/QUOTEE](which I just mispelled on purpose) are the first and last words after you remove the unwanted sentences in the quote.
Posting picture information is highly explained in this message thread: http://4btswaps.com/forum/showthread.php?t=106&highlight=resizing

 

[Driverswanted]

I just finished with a fishing trip. Had 1,800# camper in the truck bed and towed the boat behind loaded to 4,700#. I got 16 mpg on the trip. Could have been better if I did not have such a big frontal area I'm guessing. I have the full fuel screw still set to max. I was blowing black smoke while accelerating up Pennsylvania hills after exiting toll booths. It could have towed much more in my opinion. It's just a little slow accellerating from third gear up through the lower rpms in 4th, but that's the way the NV4500 is. That was 4th gear from 35 mph to about 45 mph. Outside of that it's a happy camper.

 

[IHRAcer]

Well, I got home late last night and I am disappointed! I stopped by the scales on the way, and I only grossed 13,760 lbs, which means the Travelall only weighs about 5,000lbs. What is left of it is so rotted out that there are several large areas where if you lay under it and look up you can see the headliner! It has been parked in a damp barn for over 30 years; the rear licence plate is still on it and it says '72!

IHRAcer,
I'd sure be interested in your milage when towing that beast home.

I went a total of 334.6 miles and it took 16.83 gallons to fill back to the top = 19.88 MPG. I drove at least the speed limit all the way (65 in most places except for all the CONSTRUCTION :nuke: ), and had the same problem as Driverswanted with the smoke because my fuel screw is cranked all the way to full boogie. I think that after pulling some of those mile long grades on I-71 in 5th gear at 65 mph I am glad I don't have a pyrometer yet. Ignorance can be bliss! :rasta:

 

[tndonor]

My dad used my truck to pull a #5200 car 380 miles. I turned the fuel up more since I had never towed with it. Got 15 MPG. Not bad considering the fuel adjustment, 35 inch tires, and areodynamics like a brick!!!!!

 

[dieselcruiserhead]

I towed about 12K with my 4BT powered 55, it struggled buy moved.. I towed about 8K and it was pretty good, seemed to run almost better under the big loads, the engine ran smoother I swear I'd look at it like towing the a chevy 350 or a juiced 305 or something like that...

 

[57 napco]

I towed 20K combined weight with my 96 a few times. It did fine. I don't think 2k more would bother.

 

[bcowanwheels]

my neighbor uses his p30 bread van, loaded with landscapeing tools and pulls his full size backhoe at the same time and get 19 mpg.
bob

 

[rbarnett]

Thanks for all the replys guys. I did have a question though about the 4BTA designation. That is what is on my tag (4BTA), although it is currently rated at 105hp. It was manufactured, according to the tag in 1992, and does not have an aftercooler. It was out of a Gruman-Olsen Frito Lay truck. It does have the vertically mounted oil cooler. Anyway, I thought the "A" in 4BTA stood for aftercooler. With the 105hp rating on the tag, is the conclusion that the "A" doesn't mean aftercooler correct? If so, what does the "A" mean?
Thanks,
Bob B.