<VV> FC hill performance

[Bryan Blackwell]

As with any Greenbrier, the questions are:

  - How full is it?
  - How big a hurry are you in?

You are correct that your combo will do better on grades, third gear is 
very useful.  There may be stretches where he will need to run in low 
if the van is well loaded, the *very* big no-no is to run it hard at 40 
in high.  If it will do 70 on the flat then it should be ok.

For reference, we have a similar combo, Red's a GB with a '66 110 and 
PG.  I got her pretty hot on a very long (over a mile) grade on the way 
to Chicago, I had to pull over to idle for about twenty minutes.  She 
was loaded down with the whole family (me, Ellie, and our 3 boys) plus 
enough gear for a two week trip - the cargo area was full to the 
ceiling, plus the area under the seats was full.  Ours is a deluxe with 
three seats, so it's the heaviest factory combo (except maybe a 
camper).  We came back via Charleston, West Virginia without issue.  
You can read the whole story if you like:

http://autoxer.skiblack.com/chicago01.html

BTW, I've updated a few pages lately for those of you who are 
interested, look for the red dots on the index page that signify the 
page has been revised.
--
Bryan Blackwell bryan at skiblack.com
http://autoxer.skiblack.com/
   Corvairs: '61 Lakewood, '64 Greenbrier, '65 Corsa, '66 Corsa
   '69 Road Runner, '97 Ford F-150, '99 Neon R/T
"Why do something if you're not going to obsess about it?"

On Jul 13, 2006, at 10:46 AM, Bill Wells wrote:

>   A fellow club member and myself are travelling together to the 
> convention this year in our FCs. My ride is a Greenbrier with late 
> 95hp engine and 4 speed trans with 3.27 gears. His is a Greenbrier 
> with 95hp engine and powerglide with 3.55s.
>   I am concerned about the ability of his machine to negotiate the 
> grades ecountered while travelling through Tennessee. Do any of you 
> have any experience with his combination of vehicle and drivetrain? I 
> have never had any issues with my van on this route. We live in north 
> Texas and have no real grades to test his van on. His van cruises 
> smoothly, but takes plenty of time to get there and I need to know if 
> we need to re-route along a less hilly path to the convention.