Our test truck for this article would be fairly representative of your average mildy modified diesel. Still, the tuned ’16 Ford was able to crank out some good numbers, especially considering Cheyenne’s 6,000-foot elevation.
Even if you’re new to the diesel game, you’ve probably heard of a chassis dyno. In its most common form, a dyno consists of a roller (or rollers) that measures how fast your vehicle can accelerate, then uses weight (or load) to calculate its horsepower and torque. Chassis dynos have been known to measure up to 2,500 horsepower and can handle wheel speeds of 200-250 mph! Now that we’ve told you all of this, we’re here to tell you that is just scratching the surface of what chassis dynos can do. In addition to measuring horsepower, chassis dynos can also be used for tuning purposes, can learn transmission shifting, may be used for emissions purposes or fuel economy testing, and more. For the purposes of this article, Haller’s Repair in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was nice enough to let us use their dyno, and one of their customers, Joe Webber, provided a mildy tuned ’16 Ford that we could play with.
Types of Dynos