| [GMCnet] Anyone tow a Fiat Abarth? [message #311040] |
Mon, 28 November 2016 18:51  |
glwgmc
Messages: 1014
Registered: June 2004
Karma:
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Senior Member |
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Hi all,
We are just back from a 1000+ jaunt to the SF Bay area and back to have Thanksgiving with all three of our sons and their families. Great time was had by all and somehow we managed to navigate past the political stuff with no noses getting bent out of joint. All of our sons live in the tiny sliver of Ecotopia along the west coast that has a specific political slant. While we also live in this region, our political slant is …. different from that so without careful navigation the sparks can fly, especially now. Thankfully, they didn’t.
The Clasco ran like a champ without a whimper as it roared up and over the many hills along the US101 (the route along the Pacific coast). As with most of our trips, we never needed to shift into second with our 3.67 effective gearing and never strained the engine either. As we were nearing home I decided to lean out the FiTech EFI a bit - adding 0.2 to the target air/fuel ratios across the board everywhere but under WOT which I left as it has tuned itself as we have driven in all kinds of terrain. Randy Van Winkle made this suggestion on the Facebook GMC FiTech page. I think the 455 likes it a bit leaner, but time will tell. I will report more when we get back from the winter jaunt into the SW and Mexico. Those are usually around 3,000 to 4,000 mile trips so I can compare operating temps and fuel consumption to see if it makes much difference. maybe Randy can chime in here and add his experience to explain the whys behind leaning out the FiTech a bit for our application.
Next week I will have the time to add the FiTech EFI the Royale along with converting its Onan to run on either propane or gasoline at the flip of one toggle switch. If any of you have not yet seen my presentation on that conversion, I urge you to download it off of GMCWS and several other GMC club web sites. It works like a charm and costs less than $300. Running on propane your existing Onan will likely out live you and the next several owners combined. Plus your Onan will start more easily and run much better to boot. The ~14 gallons of propane you have on board is plenty to run the Onan for nearly all your needs except, maybe, long stents running the roof air(s). When you need to do that, flip the toggle switch and run on gasoline.
As the subject notes, I am considering buying a Fiat 500 Abarth to use as a tow car. It is among the lightest and smallest modern cars at 2500 pounds and just under 12’ long. I would like to hear from any of you who have owned or towed this vehicle with a GMC - the good, the bad and the ugly. While the auto mags generally pan the car, our needs in terms of a tow car to pull behind a GMC are far more important to me that what some mag writer thinks about it when compared to other performance cars in this segment. The older Mini Cooper S is similarly light, but longer. The newer ones are considerably heavier and longer. I will appreciate your comments. Thanks.
Jerry
Jerry Work
The Dovetail Joint
Fine furniture designed and hand crafted in the 1907 former Masonic Temple building in historic Kerby, OR
glwork@mac.com
http://jerrywork.com
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Jerry & Sharon Work
78 Royale
Kerby, OR
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