Not-So-Speedy Dressage
From Endurance to Dressage
I have had my new truck, Newt, for about a month now. Boy, do I love her. She is everything that I hoped she'd be. She's not as hard to park as I thought, and her low end torque, what helps get her moving, especially with a trailer, is a whopping, 935 lb-ft of torque. That means when we're stopped at a light, I can actually go forward without mashing the gas and barking the tires. Newt's dash is a literal computer. It reports all kinds of information. It knows when my trailer is hitched up and offers me all kinds of data. I have a DEF gauge, DEF is the additive that all diesel engines require, but I haven't needed to add any yet. The screen that I finally landed on for daily driving is the one that shows hours running, miles to empty, average fuel mileage, and miles driven. When the dealership delivered Newt, the fuel needle registered full, but I knew they had driven at least 120 miles. I headed over to the gas station and topped off the tank. It took 13 gallons of diesel. I reset the Trip 1 data to what you see in the above photo, and then I drove it. For ten days. All of the Trip 1 data changed except for the miles to E. It stubbornly sat at 568 miles to empty. The fuel gauge never wavered. It too sat firmly at full. Big sigh. Newt's fuel gauge was obviously broken. I have a 100,000 mile warranty on her, so I put in a call to the service department here in town and made an appointment for the following Tuesday. The very next day, a Friday, I started Newt up and saw the fuel needle drop a tiny bit. The next day, it dropped down to three-quarters full. That weekend, I pulled out the owner's manual and started looking at some of Newt's specs. When I saw the size of the fuel tank, I almost had a heart attack. Newt lugs around a massive 48 gallon tank. I started doing some calculations based on the computer's miles per gallon average and realized that Newt has a range of about 700 miles! No wonder the needle hadn't moved. I cancelled the service appointment. Once I realized how big the tank was, I filled it up again, and reset the trip data. This time, the miles to empty came in at close to 700 miles. Things were working just fine. In fact things were better than fine. I realized that I would never again have to fill up while driving to or from a show. I drive about 300 miles a week which means I am only going to need to get diesel about twice a month.
I was a little embarrassed about the whole Newt is Already Broken thing, but since then, I've been reading my truck's manual. Like they say, read the directions first!
Glad Newt's not broken already! Reading through I had a sneaking suspicion you had the BIG tank in there! I'm also glad I'm not the only one who writes about my truck (cherry red metallic 2013 F-150) on my otherwise horsey blog! 12/13/2019 11:57:33 am
I've written about Blue Truck tons and tons. Newt takes her place. When you have horses, trucks are definitely a thing. LOL Comments are closed.
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About the Writer and RiderI am a lifelong rider.
I began endurance riding in 1996 where I ultimately completed five, one-day 100 mile races, the 200-mile Death Valley Encounter, and numerous other 50, 65, and 75 mile races. I began showing dressage in 2010. Welcome to my dressage journey. About Speedy GSpeedy went from endurance horse to dressage horse. After helping me earn a USDF Bronze medal in the summer of 2020, he is now semi-retired. Speedy is a 2004, 15'1 hand, purebred Arabian gelding. His Arabian Horse Registry name is G Ima Starr FA.
About IzzyIzzy was started as a four-year old and then spent the next 18 months in pasture growing up. I bought him as a six-year old, and together, we are showing at the lower levels. He is a 2008, 16'3 hand warmblood gelding. His Rheinland Pfalz-saar International (RPSI) name is Imperioso.
National Rider AwardsState Rider Awards
State Horse Awards
Working Towards:
CDS Sapphire Rider Award Third Level: 63.514% Third Level: 62.105% Fourth Level: Fourth Level: 2023 Show Season
Show Rating (***) CDS/USDF/USEF (*) CDS (s) Schooling (c) Clinic (r) Ride-a-Test Clinic 2023 Show Schedule
TBD 2023 Completed … Pending 2023 Qualifying Scores
Regional Adult Amateur Competition (RAAC) Qualifying Training Level 3 Scores/2 Judges/60%: Score 1: Score 2: Score 3: Archives
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