Is coasting in neutral bad

WA
46.61.625 << 46.61.630 >> 46.61.635

RCW 46.61.630
Coasting prohibited.
(1) The driver of any motor vehicle when traveling upon a down grade shall not coast with the gears of such vehicle in neutral.
(2) The driver of a commercial motor vehicle when traveling upon a down grade shall not coast with the clutch disengaged.

My previous post listed CA. I am not looking up all 50states, but the states govern the operation of all motor vehicles. Fed. sets standards for equipment.

I agree it is a stupid provision considering all the auto and truck manufactures do the exact same thing with their automatic transmissions.

 

@scottied67 's article:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/hybrid-electric/a5977/coasting-in-neutral-fuel-economy/

 

I like the truck ramps built for coasting.

What about burned brakes.

 

That is because the auto trans is not considered to be out of control in that situation.
Touch the throttle or brake or cruise setting and it is back in gear.

That regulation is for manual transmissions being controlled by people.
A person can not reliably put it back in gear if or when it is needed. An auto can every time.

Well, unless something goes horribly wrong.

 

The whole concept of coasting is stupid. The theory is if you use the potential energy stored up at the top of the hill without dissipating it with the engine or brakes, you can see a return on your energy investment with better fuel milage. The key is you don't dissipate that energy with brakes or engine and you let the car/truck run free to recover that energy and momentum. Of course you have to discount the damage to the car/truck, the ticket, and the damage to your driving record to recover that little bit of fuel.

So goes the mentality of the auto driver. As such, despite what Moosetek's reply, I have no problem picking up or hunting any gear in a manual, I know that is not the case for guys starting out though. I have also had automated manuals and trucks screw up while hunting for gears after going into coast mode.

 

its illegal in certain states, but it will give you slightly better gas mileage.

it wont hurt your transmission, unless you push the clutch back in a gear where the RPMS dont match the speed your going. say you put it back in 3rd or Reverse going 70 MPH.

I coast from my house down the hill all the time, and then start out in fourth gear, every morning. in a car mind you.

don't see how you could get pulled over, unless you were impeding traffic. or coasting faster than the speed limit. dont see how anyone would know a vehicle was coasting.

I think part of the 'saving fuel part' of coasting, is that youre not having your foot on the accelerator unnecessarily using fuel, when you could be coasting.

and your probably talking tenths of a mile in fuel savings, but over hundreds of miles, the tenths of miles add up.

and I'd say also coasting with a heavy load in a tractor trailer would probably not be a good idea, not having it in gear going down hill, gravity, will certainly give you more speed, maybe more speed than you need. not sure but I'm sure if your tractor was governed coasting would probably overcome that part of the speed limiter.

 

While trying to find the article I'd read which discussed this, I learned something new! Clessie Cummins himself actually devised a way to do this on the old PT fuel systems: https://www.google.com/patents/US3220392

He was pursuing ways to make the jake work better, and had mechanisms to close the plunger in the injector on both overrun and with the jake engaged. It's actually easy reading, and worth the time to peruse.

 

I'm all for better jakes.

 

I agree with ya completely. I'm not sold on any of this technology stuff. Never had a radar in a truck yet that worked properly. Knock on wood, I haven't had any issues with these automatics. But like you just said....I may only ever have the one!