While the food was heating, I drove around a bit. I encountered some long, steep grades where the M1010 could only manage 20MPH. These were narrow mountain roads, not major highways. It was a little discouraging to sit there at full throttle, maybe 2500 RPM, at 20 MPH. So I didn't have enough power to get out of first gear. On one long grade, I was like that for a solid 20 minutes.
The Berkshires are not high enough for altitude to impact performance much. These were just steep grades. I had plenty of time to contemplate how one might improve this up-hill performance, but I didn't come up with much short of an engine swap. I don't think a blower or different gearing would have helped much. Weight reduction would certainly help, but I was the only passenger. There were several hundred pounds of tools, supplies, and and gear in the back, but that was just the basic load.
I guess I just need to resign myself to using the "slow vehicle" lane on steep grades. If there is no such lane, that sucks for the people behind me.
If folks have any suggestions on how to make a CUCV more mountain-capable, I'd be very interested to hear them. As for cooking with the MRE heater, it will definitely make food hot. You can put any food you like in zip-lock bags. Actual cooking skill is still on my list of things to learn, but the tools are in place.
