Quote:
Originally Posted by JRMichler
When you are geared for mileage you DO NOT accelerate uphill. That 60% load is near ideal for cruising with mileage.
Learn to DWL. If you take the time to get good at it, you will be amazed at how well you can hold speed without downshifting.
That, plus DWB to better use your inertia.
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Not all stop signs/lights have a straight/ flat road in front of them. There are times when it is necessary to accelerate uphill. I try to avoid it as much as possible though. Often times I attempt to keep load constant when on hilly roads and just let my cruising speed drop as I go up and pick up as I go down. At that though, it's not uncommon to lose 15+mph going uphill if it's significant enough. If you're starting out at 50mph that means you're down to 35 at the top and you're out of the range of OD and the tranny is going to shift to 3rd. I've gotten pretty good at working it just enough to keep it in 4th with lockup but it's tough as this thing wants to downshift at the first sign of a hill.
My point was that even under normal conditions with a conservative driver (me) engine loads go high enough at low rpm to make it go into open loop. Under ideal conditions (straight, flat road) I'd say it's geared perfectly but in the real world I'd say it geared too tall. Since 95% of the time this vehicle is used under less than perfect conditions (it seldom ever sees wide open highway for miles on end unless it's has a camper in tow) I believe there might be some mpg to be had from a shorter ratio. I was curious as to everyone else's thoughts though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by trooper Tdiesel
ive had it in the back of my head what it would be like to put the 4.2L V-6 and manual trans from a 1/2 ton in a Expedition
i know it woudent go any faster at all. 
but there both 1/2 autos so the swap woudent be that hard... |
I've wondered that as well. My Dad used to have an F150 with the 4.2 and a manual trans (ext cab, short bed) and not only did it run surprisingly well, it would get 23+mph in mixed highway with a driver than knew NOTHING of hyper-miling.