2005 Best in Class [Review 3/9]

[Tycondero]

How is the writing coming along Lordred?

[Lordred]

Expect them tonight.

[Lordred]

Review #1: Best in Class Power:

Power, what comes to mind at the utterance of such a word. Visions of nature's destructive force, an erupting volcano, earthquakes which tear asunder the very earth, the roar of a hurricane leaving naught but ruin in its path. These are all apt synonyms, as the 2005 Boss Stump Puller 1-Ton “not really” a pickup truck is that unbridled power ready to leap out and take what it wants.

Boss Engineering, decided to kick in the door of the very well established Heavy Duty road fairing truck market by throwing power at the agenda. With a lightweight Polymer body affixed to a bare steel chassis, and a slightly over-square american iron V-Eight which weighs in at a hefty 7,092cc (432cid for the colloquial). At first it sounds like the normal fair, most trucks in this category feature engines of similar displacement, but that is where the similarities end. Boss decided to put all the power at the end of the rev range of this giant with the assistance of two massive turbochargers, a camshaft which would make a race engine blush, and a Allison 3700PT 5 speed transmission which had to be modified to handle the torque. With power that slowly creeps on below 5000rpm, the whole truck feels lethargic. Thanks to the omission of a torque multiplier at the converter, driving the Stump Puller slowly feels more like a lesson in patience. However if you dare to cross the 5000rpm mark, just as other gas burning trucks tucker out, you will begin to taste fear itself, as the power rockets from 400hp to over 1300, and continues to climb all the way to 1775 by 7300rpm. All the while as the engine screams and rages.

Famous poet Dylan Thomas wrote: “Do not go gentle into that good night.” and that is what Boss did with the Stump Puller, with a simply unusable power-band, a vehicle impossible to be comfortable in, reliability which rivals the Yugo, and a safety rating which gives Chinese trucks a good reputation. It is a miracle that this vehicle even made it past the NHTSA, which gave the vehicle the lowest rating on record of “Unsafe”. The very same vehicle which promised a ‘un-surpassed towing capacity’ but has mushy rear springs and makes use of a low profile rear tire which lack a load rating. The whole package is a cheaply built shell which was constructed purely with the intent to house a motor of mountain-moving power while trying to squeeze into the 30K bracket.

Attempts to fully load the vehicle with 1-Short Ton of cargo resulted in a near collapse of the rear suspension, and a total failure of the rear ABS. Attaching a trailer to the Stump Puller with use of a high grade load leveler gave much more desirable results, with the added weight on the rear tires the whole truck was significantly more stable. But any attempt to make use of the massive power at the upper end of the engine resulted in predictably horrifying situations. WOT should only ever be used while already well above a crawl, and even with the beefy drive line keeping tires on the rear wheels is a daunting task. Nearly as difficult as keeping fuel in the tank.

Which neatly moves us into the next problem with the Stump Puller, combined with the maintenance costs of the Boss 432, and abysmal fuel economy, operating this vehicle requires a significant income, or a government stipend. On a good day, one might be lucky to achieve 3mpg with the Stump Puller, we know the advertising team at Boss said it was less expensive to operate than an 18-wheeler, but last we checked, while requiring a special operator's permit, modern Rigs achieve 4-5mpg and cost half the amount to maintain. If anything the Sump Puller is a lesson to be learned, if you set a focus too narrow you lose out on bigger, more important things, while Boss did manage to earn this years Best in Class: Power, it cost them dearly with a vehicle few would willingly buy for on road use, when others offer similar payload capacities in a package that is more comfortable and cost significantly less to operate. But should you pursue this beast and make it your own, there will be no obstacle you cannot power your way through.


The 2005 Best in Class

Boss Engineering

Stump Puller

7092cc 90 Degree V8 SOHC 4v
Electronic Sequential Multiport Fuel Injection
1775* HP @ 7300rpm / 1303* lb-ft @ 6800rpm
Redline 8100.

*Use of 95 AKI to acheive 1775hp, only 1746hp using Regular






I will post at least one a night, two if I am happy with editing and the 3rd round of reading.

[BlastersPewPew]

I like it!!

[strop]

1775hp LOL and here I was thinking I had a shot with 1000. Then again, I did actually save a chunk of money for the chassis, tyres, brakes...

[xABSOLUTIONx]

1775hp LOL and here I was thinking I had a shot with 1000. Then again, I did actually save a chunk of money for the chassis, tyres, brakes...

and then I was thinking you'll go for broke and do ~2000hp on the cheap

Lord keep them coming, really nice write-up

[strop]

On that note it's very difficult to make viable engines with 2k hp anymore these days ;_; I'm sad.

But then I remember, V12s are in the next update agenda. Now, a 11L V12, let's see what I can get out of that. It'll be like straight out of Carmageddon

(I already figure, the final version of my Mephisto will have a multi turbo V16 in it. That's why I paid extra, of course, because V16.)

[KLinardo]

1775hp LOL and here I was thinking I had a shot with 1000. Then again, I did actually save a chunk of money for the chassis, tyres, brakes...

Ha, yeah I said the hell with everything else. I knew one thing, and that was that I wanted the power review. I had every intention of not going overboard, but I had a feeling that someone else might decide to do what I did, so I decided to out crazy them. If you read my original post you'll see that I knew the vehicle would be practically useless. Now if I had a little more money I could have put some stuff in it and the truck still would come in around $60,000 on the market, which is well within reason for a super duty truck in the US.

It was a great write up and I knew what was coming.

[strop]

I think it was a great move too. It's the move I would have made about a year ago when all I cared about was POWAAAAAH. Oh, actually that's not 100% true, I cared first about getting cars to go fast around the track. Then I wanted to see if I could do it with maximum POWAAAAAH

[KLinardo]

I still don't understand the voodoo magic that is suspension tuning, but I understand engines. So I went with what I knew. I could have really upped the crazy and designed a motor that was purpose built for the competition, (all the POWAAAAH) but instead I used my Boss Big Block which I developed in 1969.

I was, however, really disappointed that I couldn't make that moster make 1776 HP. Cause, you know... 'MURICA!

[Tycondero]

Boss Engineering

Stump Puller

7092cc 90 Degree V8 SOHC 4v
Electronic Sequential Multiport Fuel Injection
1775* HP @ 7300rpm / 1303* lb-ft @ 6800rpm
Redline 8100.

*Use of 95 AKI to acheive 1775hp, only 1746hp using Regular

Good luck getting all that power on the road

[KLinardo]

It's not possible. But you could do madd burnoutz 4 dayz, yo.

[Lordred]

Glad you guys liked the Stump Puller, that is not a reflection of the attitude of all reviews, Klinardo had a vehicle which was so single minded that it deserved everything that was said about it, but he had no competition up there, Strop was way behind him in Strops.

The AVG power value of the BiC was 0.342KS (342hp), if we remove the Stump Puller from the equation the AVG drops to 280hp

Work today (The new blood didn't work, surprise! kids these days do not know how to work, of this I am sure.)

It will not effect the release schedule of at least 1 a night till done.


ps: does this mean we need to start calling then Klins instead of Strops?

[KLinardo]

We spared nothing in search of power. I don't think I've earned the honor of having a unit of power named after me that replaces Strops. If we were going to use alternate units of powers to Strops, I suggest using KLs instead of Klins. My username is KLinardo for a reason. (KL are my initials)

[koolkei]

Glad you guys liked the Stump Puller, that is not a reflection of the attitude of all reviews, Klinardo had a vehicle which was so single minded that it deserved everything that was said about it, but he had no competition up there, Strop was way behind him in Strops.

The AVG power value of the BiC was 0.342KS (342hp), if we remove the Stump Puller from the equation the AVG drops to 280hp

Work today (The new blood didn't work, surprise! kids these days do not know how to work, of this I am sure.)

It will not effect the release schedule of at least 1 a night till done.


ps: does this mean we need to start calling then Klins instead of Strops?

ohohohoho. the first 2 weeks of my part time job were purely chaos. (i'm in retail )
i started working on the weekend, with literally only 5-10 minutes of product introduction, no training about the proper way to answer the customers.
when i was called, and asked.....i knew..... NOTHING. and called my full-time co-worker to either tell me the answer, or just take it over for me.
me and a couple of my other part timer friends was essentially just an anchor, instead of helping.....
if they're new, they might just as frustated as you are, overwhelmed by almost everything. don't know what to do.
just my 2 cents about newbies at work.


anywaaaaayyyy

what about a grade?
there's the strop-level power, and the KLin-level power?


ps: KL..... is also an abbreviation for the city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.