I'm just south of Ann Arbor in Tecumseh, I'd say that's about an hour and a half from Flint. I've read some posts in the past about turning up the fuel rate and RPM's and I've been very interested in experimenting with it. I've been in Arizona the last 6 months though so I haven't had much of an opportunity to play with my bus, unfortunately (Had to leave her here in Michigan). So I think that would be fantastic!
Tops out at about 60 MPH (lol, with tailwind and hill!), I don't remember what the tach was pegging at. I've talked to a few bus garage guys and they say that they've had a DT360 all the way up to 3600 RPM's in some applications (safe for a bus, I don't think so...they were trying to jerry-rig it as a generator). Either way the transmission I have is an Allison AT545 (5.38 rear end) so max speed will never be that great, but any bump up in the low end for those mountains would be pretty sweet. You say you've gotten better fuel economy with this?
She's only got 4,500 miles or so on the new tranny and 50,000 miles on an engine rebuild so I don't think she'll be damaged by any tinkering.
I've heard alot about the famous (or should i say infamous?
) jacuzzi busses, any chance you're working on one of those right now?
You've made this trip before, for burning man I presume? Any tips for driving that distance? I've made several cross country treks, but normally in a car... The furthest I've gone in the bus was 2,000 miles spaced out over a week and a half.