Charlie’s already made the point, but yes.
You’d have to add a reduction drive, but 300hp is 300hp. The RPM that power is made at only matters for the gearing required to get it to the ground (or to the prop, in this case).
On a PowerStroke forum a while back there was a great discussion about this, complete with math. The bottom line is that a 400hp v8 gas engine (when properly geared) can pull a load up a mountain equally as well as a 400hp diesel.
Painfully reminded about this thread recently.
I disagreed when I first read it, and disagree more than ever now. Muscle car types, and engineers frequently cite horsepower as the measuring stick to motivation.
To me, it's a useless data point without torque and rpm figures, where the 3 intersect is where the magic happens.. and every time I trust the motor heads or engineers it costs me. If I never hear a hyped up horsepower figure again, it'll be too soon.
I will offer my latest experience, chew on it, agree, disagree shoot it down or not. I'm ok with any of it, because for me, first hand experience always trumps what the books (or screen) say....
Our nurse rigs for the spray service were long in the tooth International 4700's (DT466) pulling fairly heavy trailers. Not much horsepower, but decent torque. Good workhorses, but time to update.:roll: (why am I messing with a good thing?)
Since the current employee pool is limited, I thought I'd try and make at least the actual driving part of a load rig more user friendly. So we opted to build up a few goosenecks in to Heli and fixed wing support systems.
For trucks we figured probably any flatbed 1 to 1 1/2 ton diesel would suffice. I am not terribly brand loyal, as I have owned diesels from all the major players, had gems from each brand, and lemons as well.
When the first trailer got close I went to the dealer alley (hate that task) and there stood a single cab dually C3500 cab chassis with a 6.6 gas engine. Being a full $12K cheaper than any diesel counterpart, and having a heck of a horsepower salesman in front of it, it caught my attention. Now days crew cabs and 4wd are so popular that finding cab chassis on the lot in a single cab are pretty rare. So that box was ticked, dually - check, 401 horsepower - check (I thought). I thought... what the heck? Maybe the gassers are getting better.
Did the deed, and ran the truck to the bed dealer for a flatbed, and initial impressions were, man.... this thing has pep. (of course that was empty). When the bed was done I ran the truck to pick up gooseneck number two, and things were starting to get a little concerning. These trailers are not terribly heavy empty @ 35' and 7000# +/-, and although chassis wise the truck was handling it just peachy, hauling wise it was already feeling the load.
With the first trailer mostly done, we hooked on and took it out for a small Heli job. Empty but with equipment on (how it normally goes down the road) it was just shy of 10,000#. Not much of a load for most one ton trucks, and this one was pulling it, but not in a fashion you'd want to call a daily driver.... uh boy. 2000 gal. water, 500 gal. fuel, and a pallet or two of chemical on board and this truck would not catch up to a moped going down the road.
Now for those numbers types (or CDL guys) on board, yes this is way over gross for the truck / trailer, but this is not how it goes down the road, it's how it sits at the side of a field to load planes / helis. It does have to move from border to border, or ditch bank to ditch bank though, and it needs to do it without coaxing. Immediately I thought I had made a huge mistake moving away from the old 4700's, and had expected too much out of a lowly 1 ton.... what a sleepless night.
The following morning, just to put my mind at ease, I backed my personal daily driver up to the very same trailer. Which currently is a 2018 Ram 2500 / Cummins (370 HP). I went ahead and loaded it all up, and proceeded down the strip. Chassis wise the truck knew it was heavy, power wise you could have had an empty bed and no trailer and it would have moved on down the road just about the same. Wow! I've never had such a wonderful relief provide such a disappointment at the same time. Had we not already cut and welded on the Chevy, I would have dumped it right back on the dealer. I did phone him, because it was his hyped up horsepower conversation that tipped the purchase in the gasser. turns out a local grower had ordered 2 more 1 ton chassis cabs with D-maxs, but backed out due to Covid slow downs. Needless to say, I dragged a trailer down there before moving forward on those. They hauled the load as good as the Cummins. Probably would be a little more highway friendly with the 10 Spd tranny, but that's not a regime ours will ever see.
Unfortunately they are 4wd crewcabs, but we were able to take advantage of some savings as a result of the initial order being balked.
SO bottom line;
Gasser ; 401HP 464 #ft. Torque I wouldn't want to depend on this engine to haul this trailer down the road empty, let alone packing the full load.
Dmax ; 445 HP 910 #ft.Torque Hauls the load exceptionally well. Time will tell if it lasts as long as the DT
Cummins; 370 HP 800 #ft. Torque Would haul the load day in day out no problem. I would have just as easily bought all Rams.
DT466; 350 HP 860 #ft. Torque Hauled the same load for 20 years at friends spray service and never felt it.
As I said at the start. you can agree, or not. But as long as the new flagger truck (the gas powered chevy :roll
is in the fleet, anyone is welcome to come by and validate their own theories :lol:
Take care, Rob
All up load looks like this