Help... Decision Decision

[TSpecht]

Question: Why would the transmission matter since none of the new trucks have throttle cables?

Answer (from my perspective): It's all fly by wire. The throttle pedal sends a signal to the computer which the computer then interprets to decide how much fuel to give it. In fact, the truck idles itself up (although not very reliably) after idling for a while in cold weather. There is no reason they can't adjust the firmware to allow those of us with the manual transmission to idle up our engines via the cruise control.

I suspect they simply overlooked the fact that us manual transmission owners might want such a thing, or were merely too afraid to do it from a liability standpoint, since we can't put it in "park", although the parking brake should be more than enough. If they wanted they could even interlock it via the speed sensors in the wheels to where if they detect motion of the vehicle it'd shut down the engine. There are many ways they could safely interlock the system so it wouldn't take off if it were at high idle and someone knocked it into gear...

I still have yet to figure out who to contact to voice my opinion that such a feature would be appreciated...

 

[Hercules130]

Seems to me it should just be an option in the ECU. I wonder if you hooked up the DRBII if there would be an option to activate it, just like the Airbag switch on the Quad cabs. I think when i get out of the airforce this summer and start going to school it will be a double major in fabricating and electrical engineering

 

[macdaddy]

It's only available with the automatic trans.



Bob

Yup it's true :{



Mac

 

[RodneyNichols]

Well I'm glad to hear everyone is enjoying there 05 dodges. hahahahaha

 

[Hercules130]

Just because i am stubborn, i went to my local dodge dealer and spoke to the shop foreman about this. he willinginly hooked up the DRBII, and sure enough, you can't enable it on the 6 spds . oh well. it knows if it is an automatic, stupid smart computer.

 

[CMBOld]

Got a question bout high idler on our Rams, what is the reason for letten' er run when shes sittin'? Reason I ask is in most states now they have more laws tellin' us we can't do it, or for a limited time at best. I see 'em at the fuel pumps and every time can't come up with a reason for it. I've had a 93 till 99 and still have a 99 so just wonderin' where the benifit is in idleling for us. Mike

 

[TSpecht]

Probably the biggest reason for it is in cooler weather (or not so cool weather) so you can make sure the engine is making enough heat for efficient combustion while idling for whatever reason (trip into the grocery store, etc). I'd like high idle feature so I can let the truck operate at high idle while I get out and scrape the windows in the winter time, since it's difficult to keep my foot on the fuel pedal while both feet are outside the cab. :-laf It's also nice to be able to let it idle in the summer time whilest people are in it for A/C purposes, and so forth.

I let mine idle while I fuel it up simply because I hate shutting it down with a turbo that's probably pretty warm. (Since I don't have guages yet, I have to estimate what feels about right based on how the last few miles of the trip were driven, hard or easy)...

Another interesting one would be if you had anything that worked via the PTO option, surely you'd want to increase idle speed for that.

That having been said, is it safe to assume nobody's figured out how to make it work with a handshaker yet?