03.12.07
Kim of Spring Hills, Kansas, installed a PowerPack, Banks Brake and Banks Billet Torque Converter on a ’94-97 Power Stroke 7.3L turbo-diesel
With 150,000 miles on bigdawg, I was waffling between a new 1 ton crewcab dually or a Banks kit. I opted for the PowerPack system, Banks Exhaust Brake and Banks Billet torque converter. Having wrenched on everything from 12,000 HP 12 cylinder in-line Fairbanks-Morse marine diesels to run of the mill Cats and Detroits, it was a seamless install that took me two weekends. (Really.) It went in with only one very small snag (my error). On the initial shakedown run my son at one point yelled "Dad we're sideways"! I yelled back "Ain't it great"?
Our
first long trip out with it was a week later. Weighing
17,000 lb, we hauled our 30-ft fifth wheel and an extra
110 gallons of fuel from Kansas to Arizona. We breezed
up the grades outside of Albuquerque and between Flagstaff
and Phoenix. Not wanting to push things the first time
out, we averaged 14 MPG the entire trip. Now, bigdawg
has 200,000 on the odometer and it hasn't been babied.
It's seen the Grapevine at 110 degrees F, in CA, 9,000
ft passes in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks
and over the great divide several times. I haven't
had one problem with the Banks system, or the engine
yet. (Scouts Honor) Oh yeah, with the Banks Billet
Torque converter, it really will pull out stumps and
still gets 14 mpg. Thanks Banks for my "new truck"!
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