A note to the anti-auto crowd

What I don't understand, especially with the current level of tech, is why nobody has ever added a simple gyro, leveling sensors, or a combination to a vehicle to tell it if it's level, nose down, nose up, etc. That would help it immensely with both shifting and cruise control.

I hate when you hit the bottom of a hill and the cruise waits until you've dropped 2-3mph under what you have it set at before it even starts to spin up the turbo and accelerate. I hate it even more when you level out at the top of a hill and the cruise keeps it floored until you're 4-6mph over the speed limit going down the other side. If the truck could tell when it hits a hill or levels out, everything could be made so much smoother and less aggravating. But they don't do it, and there's no reason at all not to.

 

My 18 speed manual doesn't have any of these problems! Just have to keep my right foot off the floor mat. lol

 

all our modern automatics have angle sensor if you think on it?

but it is sometimes tricky thing on mercedes powershift while you are driving on sharp serpentines it can be confused so in this cases it is smart to put it on manual

 

I would love to have an 18 manual but it looks like I'll have to work my ### off to buy my own. That's ok with me, I suppose.

Ours don't. I don't know of a single vehicle, not even high end models, that have that technology. Not on this side of the pond anyway.

 

As for cruise control and hills best results you can get are without cc...you can acc before hill and release before top of hill...also try to look at freightliner new cc with gps interesting thing

 

I'm sure your 18 does react the same way on cruise, I drove a 13 over today that did it. Just a normal cruise thing.

This makes me think of the new GPS enabled cruise control. Will know the lay of the land, and react before hand, atleast on paper. I hope the GPS isn't the crappy system I have for directions or it aint gonna work!!!!!! RECALCULATING!!!!
Mercedes calls it Predictive Powertrain Control, and Scania has a version.

 

Last fruitliner I test drove had problems with the variable vane turbo not working worth a crap and the jake was a switch on the floor. As in if you didn't have your foot on the switch, the jake would not work at all. Nor would it work if the cruise was switched on, regardless of whether it was active or not. One of the stupidest designs I'd ever seen. Done with crapshaker, sorry.

 

The cruise control already can be used with downhill speed control, with an auto box this means just set your cruising speed on the cruise control, then set your top speed on the downhill speed control ( usually 3 - about 10 kph above cruise ) and the truck will stay very precisely inside those speeds, the auto change selects the gears and it automatically uses the retarder and brakes for the decents, this new GPS system is going to predict a hill giving the truck a burst of speed past the speed limiter to get it up the hill more efficiently

 

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[TD]theoretically.... lol.

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were can i get a job driving one of them old corn poppers ---- now that was trucking --get my standard steering back too