Re: advi ce
Welcome Cliffie, the only experience I can relate is I have the 454 on my rig, and have two friends with the 8.1. We took a trip to CO in the 8.1 loaded up to its max weight and the only issue was we were down to 25 mph coming across the mountains in western CO. It was a Tropical 34 ft, no toad(wt about 20000lb). The other one we followed to FL last winter, he was dragging a toad and it slowed to about 40 mph in the TN mountains(gvwr about 18400). My unit is a Daybreak, 26 ft (gvwr 12300 lb) and I don't pull a toad. I don't have any issues with power, but others I have talked to said it could be an issue on bigger rigs. Hope this helps
cheers