I am at sea level. I am of no help here, but running at 8600feet is interesting.
It is interesting, but power at high altitude is not the problem for a couple of reasons. One is that a turbo almost - but not quite - makes up for the missing air pressure. It's close enough that the difference due to altitude is not an issue here at 7000 feet.
But that's not the whole story. The problem iwith turbos is that they are RPM dependent and not as efficient at low RPMs. So if you like to run a tractor at low to medium RPM like most do in the mountains then the machine is running where the turbo isn't very efficient. That makes for a much smokier exhaust. Still plenty of power though.
In the mountains I don't think we have as much use for pure HP as flatlanders do. We can't go as fast or as far or pull much of anything through the dirt. And there are usually obstructions that make pulling any wide implement impossible. An 8 foot wide implement is plenty.
Taking a look back at Jeff's post #48, I can see where he is going to need all the HP he has to pull that box blade full of dirt up an incline. But we just don't do that sort of work in these mountains. Well....that's not entirely true, there are some agricultural areas even at high altitude - and yes, those areas have real dirt and few trees so farming there is like farming anywhere. Only that kind of land was pretty much settled a couple hundered years ago. Most available land today doesn't have many areas places where a box blade could get such a load of dirt because it would hit enough rocks to stop it.
The only time I ever use a lot of throttle is when roading the tractor to go over to a friend's house. There some extra HP is nice for the uphill stretches.
What we use more in the mountains is side hill stability, traction on granite gravel sand, low speed maneuverability, lots of gears (love that HSTplus!) and the ability to change front and rear implements often as we go from rock to sand to trees over and over again.
YMMV,
rScotty
