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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: October 25th, 2023

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  • I think many Redditors don’t understand the point of this vehicle…

    Watching TFL Truck’s tests, it seems like the first BEV (along with the Hummer of course) that can actually tow long distance under heavy load. I guess just putting a huge battery in works pretty well for that. The charge time at full power is pretty quick too, so theoretically you could do a road trip with a trailer in one, assuming you are willing to fiddle with the trailer at charge stations and find 350kW stations that work.

    Thing is, it’s a pretty steep price to pay for that, both in dollars for the truck and in inconvenience compared to gas/diesel. I’m guessing most truck buyers looking for a long distance tow rig wont’ bite.



  • Probably a nice rack, with the motor on the rack and not the column, for starters. Add careful assist tuning, with lots of assist to make it light and a good speed curve to make it consistent. Also good bushings in everything to take slack out. Suspension geometry and tires too, of course, though I think Metris van drivers aren’t dealing with very high slip angles, so there might not be as much magic there.

    Modern cars that aren’t named Wrangler tend to have real solid/precise front suspension, so my guess it that you are mostly feeling the rack parts choice and calibration - but I’d love to hear from an actual engineer.


  • Hybrids are especially susceptible, at least ones with direct injection. My Wrangler, like most PHEVs, has logic to track how much oil is in the fuel (via software estimates) and force engine runtime to burn it off. Does it work well enough to keep the oil good long term? I don’t really know, no one does yet - but I do know that after so many cold starts and short trips, it will force engine use until you get the oil hot enough, long enough for it to decide it’s good again.

    Of course being a PHEV, the Wrangler has a great solution built in to handle oil dilution on shorter trips.




  • I built an “analog” car, an LS-swapped NA Miata. OK, sort of, it had two ECUs - the airbag controller and the PCM for the LS1. Guess what? My Y has better throttle response than that car because er… there are fewer mechanical components in the foot->torque path, it’s purely electrical and instant. It also had little steering feel due to the GM pump running more pressure than the Miata rack expects, haha - hydraulic steering doesn’t magically feel good and unassisted got old real fast (I tried it for a while).

    Not disagreeing that analog cars are cool, just pointing out that you gotta be sure what you are after. Road feel means lots of things to different people, but usually it’s killed by things other than electronics. Specifically - tuning for emissions and smoothness, setting the chassis up for easy steering and low feedback, adding lots of sound insulation for less NVH, etc. IMHO, the problem isn’t electronics or EPS or any other single thing killing the feel of modern cars, it’s how they are designed overall. But many modern cars are quite good to drive - try a manual C7 for example. Do you just want a car that feels great to drive, or do you truly want a throwback analog car?

    If you really do want no electronics, find an old diesel or carb’ed car. Thing is, you are also gonna have old suspension, and an old chassis, and old steering… That might not be the feel you are looking for.