GU 3.0 Common rail

[busterbob1]

Hi all. First time poster.
I have a question for anyone who may know the 3.0crd.
I have a 2015 model patrol 3.0crd. Manual. 3 inchcexhaust. Steinbauer chip. My question is regarding towing. I have a Kimberly kamper I tow and as soon as I hit any kind of incline, always find having to drop back to 3rd gear and sometimes 2nd. Would anyone have any advice as to fix or is this normal?

[nipagu7]

hi . how heavy is your camper . i had a 1400kg camper that my car towed easily and i don't have a chip . do you have a boost gauge , if for some reason your not getting enough boost the engine will not produce enough power .

[Dhuck]

Welcome to the forum mate.

[busterbob1]

Hi. Thanks for your reply. I don't have a boost guage. My camper is 1800 fully loaded. Would a boost guage help? I was thinking of a remap but still have 1 year left of factory warranty so don't really want to go that way yet.

[nipagu7]

1800kg is starting to get up there weight wise . i just mentioned boost because if it was not high enough you will not produce enough power . i use a scan gauge to read boost and it also allows me to read and clear codes . i also have the dawes and needle valves which allow me to control boost pressure and spool up rate . i run about 18 psi boost , standaed is about 15-16 psi , this gives me a quite noticeable increase in power and higher boost helps to decrease egt's . steinbauer chips are pretty good but i thought they were adjustable , you might be able to adjust it to give more torque for towing . also it might be a case of not keeping the revs up . if you let the revs die down the power falls off sharply , you would need to keep revs above 2ooo rpm for useable power , with peak torque being about 2400 rpm . so you need to drop back a gear early so as by the time you have actually changed back a gear , let the clutch out , put your foot on the throttle and the boost has climbed back up , the revs are around 2400 rpm . if they are less than 2000 rpm you will not be making enough power to keep your momentum up . they call fourth gear the towing gear , it is literally stronger than 5th , the motor will be reving at about 2900 rpm in 4th at 100kph and it will do it all day every day with ease and it will run cooler than if in 5th . 5th is for ecconemy when lightly loaded. when towing use 5th for down hill , flat roads or slight inclines depending on the weight you are carrying

[Hodge]

Hey buster. Welcome mate.

From my experience, and just word on the street in general, the factory boost setup on the zd30 CRD's is absolutely s*** house. It's a boost yoyo.
I think nipagu is on the money here. My 2009 CRD was exactly the same and this was not even towing. I never expected much from the 3L motors pulling such large vehicles especially towing.
What transformed my engine entirely was the needle and dawes valves to control the boost, and make it more linear... It made a world of difference and from there I had steady power and boost across the rev/power range. It also limited the boost which prevented the limp mode after overboosting. \
MIght be something to consider. But first you will a gauge to see what the boost is doing in the first place.

[busterbob1]

Thanks guys. That's a big help. I'll keep posted on how everything goes.