Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[Al Kraft]

After reading your description, I consulted the manual. It is as you described. They present it in the context of towing where you want to set the highest gear for towing power.

In the old days, you had a selectable low 1, 2, 3, and drive on a four speed automatic transmission. The driver served as the computer and directly controlled the mechanical links.

With 9+ speed or even 6+ speed automatic transmissions becoming the norm which are further complicated by all kinds of the combinations of torque converter lock-up, having an old style standard gear selector would be pretty hard to pull off. And I thought it was tough getting the hang of the old Road Ranger 9, 10 and 13 speed manual transmissions in Class 8 trucks (e.g. GMC Astro 95) - these new automatics are a lot more complex IMO.

 

[agedhorse]

My 8 speed automatic in my truck works the same way, set to 8 rather than drive disables eco- mode

 

[GonePlaid]

My 8 speed automatic in my truck works the same way, set to 8 rather than drive disables eco- mode

I had a 10 in my first Freightliner, switched out to a 13(loved it), then my second FL-'87-was a 9. Thought about making a 13 out of it but decided to get outta the lease operator gig and go drive someone else's headache. Edit:My truck, Company wagon.

 

[beans-on-toast]

I had a 10 in my first Freightliner, switched out to a 13(loved it), then my second FL-'87-was a 9. Thought about making a 13 out of it but decided to get outta the lease operator gig and go drive someone else's headache.

Do more gears allow you to use engine brakes most of the time on the highway?

 

[GonePlaid]

Do more gears allow you to use engine brakes most of the time on the highway?

Dunno. I only ran FL and GA, didn't have a Jake in either truck.

 

[BadExample]

so for self driving car lovers, my son a brilliant software engineer explained to me that imagine a whole city full of self driving cars that are programmed to obey all traffic laws.....limited to speed limits, no entering an intersection on yellow. no crossing yellow lines to turn left, leaving the proper space between cars when driving, I could go on for a long time....It would be instant grid lock and total chaos......the only reason traffic works is because humans take advantage of the little things that speed up traffic....would you really want to go 25 miles an hour for miles or would 30 do like most of us drive......think of the effect of obeying all traffic laws with every car on the road........butterfly effect

The the infamous BSOD, will really become the Blue Screen Of Death.

 

[BadExample]

Do more gears allow you to use engine brakes most of the time on the highway?

With or without the Jake, the lower the gear, the more the braking. More gears allow you to keep the braking closer to the maximum. So in a sense, yes.

 

[GonePlaid]

I have two of those Makita drills, a third right angle fixed speed unit and a jigsaw. They are nice tools.

Thanks for the temperature settings. It confirms my Dorothy's thought.

She’s a bit down ATM cos yesterday we went to our Dermatologist who confirmed a growth on her hand was a benign cancer. Right there and then he cut the thing off and told us there’s only a 10% chance of it coming back. I pray he’s right.

Best of luck with that!

 

[RoadRanger]

With or without the Jake, the lower the gear, the more the braking. More gears allow you to keep the braking closer to the maximum. So in a sense, yes.

Diesels have close to zero engine braking (main reason they are so efficient) - you have to have a compression (Jake is one brand, originally an add-on aftermarket) or exhaust brake to get any at all.

 

[BadExample]

I didn't know that. I would have thought more with the high compression. I know if you try to add a Jake brake to a gasoline engine, you're likely to be in for new head gasket(s)

 

[RoadRanger]

Do more gears allow you to use engine brakes most of the time on the highway?

A 13 over a 9 mostly gives you something to do LOL - also you can keep the RPMs down for lower engine noise. The 500HP road tractor I drove didn't really need the 13 speed it had. The 350HP 9 speed one I had was fine also - just a bit noisier and slower on hills...

 

[GonePlaid]

A 13 over a 9 mostly gives you something to do LOL - also you can keep the RPMs down for lower engine noise. The 500HP road tractor I drove didn't really need the 13 speed it had. The 350HP 9 speed one I had was fine also - just a bit noisier and slower on hills...

That was my thinking on going to 13 from 9. Didn't care about going faster(top end was 80-formula 350), just dropping the rpm's at cruise, better range on hills.(yes, there are hills in FL/GA)

 

[BadExample]

I always liked driving farm trucks with the split transmission. They loaded me up bad one time and turning left onto the highway fully loaded, it tipped over and filled the ditch with corn. You probably know I would be going about 3 MPH by the time she tipped. So they sent one of the empty trucks out and we were minding our own biz, scooping up the corn we could, and a truck from another farm rear ended the rescue truck. Messed up the tail gate, but we were able to get that one going. I was out a truck, so rode with my dad. Got to the elevator and the truck in front of us starts to pull out, so my dad starts going up the steep ramp, then the other truck stopped. My dad hit the brakes and... notta. He probably should have let out the clutch with it in 1st LO, but he tried and failed to get it into reverse. Then a lot of colorful language and cranking hard on the steering wheel avoided rolling out into the highway, but when smashed the stairs up to the office where the scale operator sits. We were out of trucks.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

In the Army I drove an APC with three gears forward and one reverse. When I was young I had manual transmissions with three forward and one reverse. Then as we got older we bought auto transmissions. The automatics had three forward and one back. Now with our newest cars, they have four different settings forward, two of them go sideways! I'm no Forrest Gump but I don't get the point. Why couldn't they have left it alone and left it three forward and one back? I just want my car to get me there. I've been out of college 40 years and I don't need to play with the transmission when I drive. Oh well. So I'm a dummy!

 

[Al Kraft]

Diesels have close to zero engine braking (main reason they are so efficient) - you have to have a compression (Jake is one brand, originally an add-on aftermarket) or exhaust brake to get any at all.

Diesels are unlike "air throttled" gasoline engines in that they continue to intake large amounts of air all the time and when they are not being fed fuel they simply compress air and then have that potential energy spring back as they continue to turn (a rough, but close to accurate explanation). While not perpetual motion, it doesn't provide for any real engine compression braking unless fitted with a system to open the exhaust valves after the compression cycle has occurred to release the air and prevent that energy return effect.

Jacobs (the Jake Brake guys) has been the industry leaders in this technology ever since I can remember. A Jake style is actually integrated into the engine where the exhaust brake designs can be retrofitted, but have some limitations in terms of their ability to provide the same level of braking force.

 

[Al Kraft]

In the Army I drove an APC with three gears forward and one reverse. When I was young I had manual transmissions with three forward and one reverse. Then as we got older we bought auto transmissions. The automatics had three forward and one back. Now with our newest cars, they have four different settings forward, two of them go sideways! I'm no Forrest Gump but I don't get the point. Why couldn't they have left it alone and left it three forward and one back? I just want my car to get me there. I've been out of college 40 years and I don't need to play with the transmission when I drive. Oh well. So I'm a dummy!

It all goes to efficiency in terms of maximizing fuel economy while not adversely impacting performance. Every engine has a place in its power band where it can most efficiently do its best work (so to speak) for any given demand and set of operating and environmental conditions. The job of modern power-train control systems is to manage the transmission and engine controls from a total integrated system perspective that can be fine tuned/optimized on continual basis to produce the best balance of performance, economy, and component longevity/system reliability.

More gears to choose from offers the system more flexibility to optimally match gear ratios with engine capabilities within the priorities established in the control laws/algorithms consistent with operator inputs demand. This is why well-designed CVT style transmissions can produce very impressive performance and economy with small power plants. They essentially get to have virtually any ratio at any time to best match engine performance at a given RPM consistent with operator demand.

Believe it or not some over the road diesel truck designs I've seen (which may be in production, not sure) actually have adaptive control logic that essentially anticipates road conditions (e.g. steep inclines) via GPS and adjusts in advance to ensure the truck has optimized it's power-train settings for the specific road (altitude and grade) as well as the prevailing environmental conditions and driver inputs. There is a good case to be made for utilizing complex control logic to optimize system performance when it's easily within current capability...and this leads to having systems with lots of "gear choices" and the ability to adjust or re-tune the engine multiple times a second.

FWIW, I still like having a Chevy big block with a Rochester Quadrajet sitting on top all backed up by a TH400...but those days are history!

 

[beans-on-toast]

That was my thinking on going to 13 from 9. Didn't care about going faster(top end was 80-formula 350), just dropping the rpm's at cruise, better range on hills.(yes, there are hills in FL/GA)

Are automatic transmissions pretty much the way most trucks are equipped these days?

 

[beans-on-toast]

Now with our newest cars, they have four different settings forward, two of them go sideways! I'm no Forrest Gump but I don't get the point. Why couldn't they have left it alone and left it three forward and one back? I just want my car to get me there.

Because engineers can’t resist changing things.

 

[beans-on-toast]

It all goes to efficiency in terms of maximizing fuel economy while not adversely impacting performance. Every engine has a place in its power band where it can most efficiently do its best work (so to speak) for any given demand and set of operating and environmental conditions. The job of modern power-train control systems is to manage the transmission and engine controls from a total integrated system perspective that can be fine tuned/optimized on continual basis to produce the best balance of performance, economy, and component longevity/system reliability.

More gears to choose from offers the system more flexibility to optimally match gear ratios with engine capabilities within the priorities established in the control laws/algorithms consistent with operator inputs demand. This is why well-designed CVT style transmissions can produce very impressive performance and economy with small power plants. They essentially get to have virtually any ratio at any time to best match engine performance at a given RPM consistent with operator demand.

Believe it or not some over the road diesel truck designs I've seen (which may be in production, not sure) actually have adaptive control logic that essentially anticipates road conditions (e.g. steep inclines) via GPS and adjusts in advance to ensure the truck has optimized it's power-train settings for the specific road (altitude and grade) as well as the prevailing environmental conditions and driver inputs. There is a good case to be made for utilizing complex control logic to optimize system performance when it's easily within current capability...and this leads to having systems with lots of "gear choices" and the ability to adjust or re-tune the engine multiple times a second.

FWIW, I still like having a Chevy big block with a Rochester Quadrajet sitting on top all backed up by a TH400...but those days are history!

In my case the engine is a four cylinder 1.5 liter turbo. That’s like one Coke can per cylinder. The performance that they get out of the system is pretty impressive.

The transmission is adaptive using data from the sensors including environmental, no GPS though. Something new in this vehicle is an automatic shutter in front of the radiator to retain engine heat on cold days. They go to great means try to squeeze out every ounce of efficiency at the cost of more things to break.

The dealer provides a free lifetime warranty on the engine as a selling point. This is beyond what GM offers. I had to laugh, the fine print reads lifetime or 10 years. Maybe that’s good enough for most. The oil change and inspection have to be perfomed every 5K miles which serves to bring in money to their service department. With the full synthetic oil that they use, I typically change the oil every 15K miles with no apparent ill effects on the engine life. I had 380K on the Impala that I traded in.

One thing that I don’t get is why no ceramic coatings on paint. The technology has been around for a long time and it is available for cars. It would go a long way to protecting and preserving the finish.

Here’s one example of a car ceramic coating.

Ceramic Coating For Cars - Ceramic Pro Americas


I’ve been using a ceramic coating product called Evershield from Stewart Systems for years. They use it to protect aircraft paint. It’s also used on propellers to prevent nicks. The specs are impressive.

STEWART SYSTEMS: EVERSHIELD CERAMIC SURFACE TREATMENT from Aircraft Spruce

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[GonePlaid]

Are automatic transmissions pretty much the way most trucks are equipped these days?

There's a company that ordered new trucks w/ auto trannies 'cos some of their new hires were burning clutches and grinding gears so much that it was better to take those decisions outta their hands.