When we were talking about radiators last week, general opinion seemedto be that the main advantage of aluminum was lower weight.I don't see how this matters that much. (Note: I'm not trying toargue - just saying I don't understand.)Here's my thinking: Most of the time, jeeping is a low speed, lowRPM activity. You're not usually trying to fly up the hill or throughthe mud at max speed and power. It's rare to have the gas pedalfloored when off-roading. So there's almost always plenty of "oomph"left in the vehicle which you could get by simply pressing downfurther on the accelerator. Further, most of the time you get stuck, it's because the wheels are spinning and not getting traction, orperhaps because you are hung up on something, not because the enginedoesn't have enough horsepower to turn the wheels.Also, in the overall 3,000 or 4,000 pound weight of a jeep (maybepushing 5000 lbs with passengers, winch, ice chest, etc.), the smallrelative weight difference of aluminum radiators seems like an awfullysmall drop in the bucket. Not to mention that additional weight canactually help a vehicle gain traciton.So, all in all, it seems to me like you're getting an extremely tinyhorsepower improvement which probably isn't even needed. And to doso, the tradeoff is that you're now running aluminum, which severalpeople have said is more expensive, harder to work with, and moreeasily damaged than a traditional radiator.This just seems like a lousy trade to me. If you're that concernedabout weight, there are other things you could do, too, such asrunning without that big ol' heavy spare tire, but that makes about asmuch sense as far as I can see.Am I overlooking something???

I agree with you, if you were building a full-on rock buggyfor competition, maybe that would make a difference.But for a regular Jeep, hell, I could have a big lunch andovercome the weight savings, plus there is the hassle ofspecial coolant, sacrificial anodes, etc

Ditto. God Bless America, ßill O|||||||Omailto: "Nathan W. Collier" wrote:

Rig weight - why worry?

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L.W.(ßill) 22 years ago

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TJim 22 years ago

Ooooo! Are you allowed to say that??? ;-)

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TJim 22 years ago

Likewise. I finally killfiled Cal. Maybe in a few months, I'll take him back out and check to see if he has learned some manners...

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Matt Macchiarolo 22 years ago

He can do what he wants, confirm, deny or ignore.

My name's in the header.

South Lyon, Michigan.

34, married, 3 kids.

Only place you'll see my email address in Usenet is this group, rec.audio.pro, alt.trucks.ford, alt.jeep-I.

For the record, I never made up anything that wasn't already in the Usenet archive. I've merely shown the possibility that Mr. Nelson's statements don't jibe with his posting history. I agree Cal's posts have been somewhat corrosive, but in principle I agree with him that Mr. Nelson isn't everything he says he is. When confronted with Cal's screaming, or when confronted simply with what's been posted, Nelson skirts the issues without really providing specifics. That doens't mean I am obsessed with "outing" him, I'm not trying to be Netcop, I have merely pointed out his inconsistencies, due to my own curiosity in that there was something that just didn't seem right in his thread about his 4500# winch...though I recognized the possibility that he was just clueless, it was difficult for me to believe that was the only explanation for his responses.

I disagree, and let's just leave it at that.

* * Matt Macchiarolo
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Tookie 22 years ago

Please, people, let this thread die!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Rig weight - why worry?

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