Crawlability Experiments
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2003 10:35 am
Been working hard to get the bugs out of my junk, though I still have not dived into the driveline problems. I decided it was finally time to test out the 2:85,5:29, low stall combo platter for the first time. With my driveline angle/ t/case bearing problem I went with sand dunes closer to my house rather then the rocks across town. First, as most know big tires kill your sand dune running due to stall, but super low t/case aint much better and combined with a front Detroit, you get some handling! Anyhow, I definately need a radical hill now to get the thing to run away on me(could not do it today on the steepest dunes) so compression braking is definately getting sweet. I tried a few 2mph runs up lesser dunes(still had to bop the pedal a couple of times not being aired down)I found, despite the low gears and 300rpm lower stall on the convertor it still will only crawl light grades without gas. Problem is 300rpm puts lock up at around 1000rpms it appears.(dont have stock rpm number) Since idle is running about 650, I have to bring idle up to 1000, which gets the rig up most hills, but on a steeper, say 50 degree hill it seemed I needed 1100 rpm to crawl. Again, this is dirt and sand, and rocks still need tested, but regardless the net result I think is I need a manual throttle control to bring up idle off-road when I need to for perfect crawlability. Obviously a similar geared manual would be a completely different story. Am I off my rocker? And what type of manual throttle would be best? Aftermarket or stock Aussie shipped from a stealer?