Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

For the massive rads Mistubishi put in our rigs. Ive been driving a lot across the US southwest, and it's staggering the routes some of these highways go, with climbs like I've never seen before. I've gone from below 500 metres, to over 2000, and back again, several times. And the grades they think are acceptable put both the Coq and the Malahat to shame; I'm talking 7% grades that last 15km or more. Yet despite miles and miles of 3/4 throttle and EGT over 1100 degrees F, temp gauge barely rose past halfway. So many trucks and motorhomes broken down by the side of the road; even one late model passenger coach blew it's cooling system, yet the Delica chugged along. Overengineering rocks!

Rock & Roll R&B

FalcoColumbarius wrote:Kootenay Skyway (7.4% grade at steepest) comes to mind as a hill that requires the heat on in the cabin (to keep the temps down). Three and an half thousand foot climb in about 20 kliks. I find that the balance between the power displacement of the Astron motor and the two tonnes of Starwagon that it's pushing up that hill is a delicate Zen balance. Blows my mind (but fortunately not my head) when I think about it.

Happy trails, R&B... smiles.

Falco.

Coming down the skyway in -20 weather my thermostat closed and the cabin stopped producing warm air!

All was fine at the bottom when I got under power again.

Constantly seeing vehicles overheated on the way up these killer climbs, and now I saw a brake fire, or the results of a brake fire, on the way down. Again, it was a modern passenger coach and it had a brake fire after a very long descent. All three rear tires were burned off, the side of the coach above was badly scorched, and the windows above that were shattered. Didn't look like the fire spread further than that. It was just sitting there on a pullout, nobody around, no emergency equipment, nothing. Very strange.