Passing Power

[PW69]

I saw a thread some time ago about the + and - key adjustment to give a little boost in throttle response while driving in the city. Can someone point me to that thread?

 

[Loudram]

Are you talking about an after market throttle controller or the manual gear selector switch?

The gear selector switch won't give you any more power. It'll only adjust down what your top gear is. ie 6th or 7th gear instead of 8th. And if that's what you're thinking about, 6th gear is your 1:1 gear. 7th and 8th are overdrive.

The aftermarket throttle controller is called a Pedal Commander. There are also other brands for less money that do the same thing. They have a passing feature that you can adjust.

 

[joesstripclub]

The only additional throttle response you would receive is because manually selecting the gears turns MDS off. I do notice what seems like a bit of a delay trying to downshift when MDS kicks in.

 

[kurek]

In addition to turning off MDS when you manually operate ERS (I must have lucked out, my MDS is the most seamless thing in the world..) - it's also a function of ERS to deliberately select a maximum sequential gear for your transmission to shift into.

That means if you as an attentive and adequately knowledgeable adult driver who is entrusted to dress yourself and operate a motor vehicle can anticipate a need to be in a lower gear "soon", you can pre-select that maximum gear before the actual need is imminent and then when the need becomes present you're already in that gear without waiting for the PCM to figure it out.

To give a practical example of that you might be on a typical highway with more than one lane in the same direction, stuck in the right lane behind some dingus going 18mph below the speed limit and you want to cut out into the left lane to speed up and arrive at your destination before the heat death of the universe. But traffic density is such that your timing on that move becomes critical so you don't become a hazard to drivers already in the left lane, plus if you pop into the left lane and cause those drivers to have to slow down now you're every bit as much a dingus as the slowpoke in front of you. Trouble is your truck is in 7th gear and when you see your opportunity to change lanes you'll have to smash the go pedal, the truck's computer will have to read that, think about it for a moment, decide to get into 3rd gear, carry out the shift and THEN give you power.

Instead of all that you could use ERS to select 3rd gear already. Sure your engine will be whizzing along at 4k rpm for a few seconds while you wait for your opportunity but then when you see the gap you need you've got instant power available, you're already int he gear you needed to be in... and after you've made your lane change since you're an adult who is entrusted to dress yourself and operate a motor vehicle you can remember to disable ERS or select a higher gear for cruising.

I'm being extra elementary here not to insult you but because there are plenty of people in this world who truly do not know how gears work and would think nothing of driving around all day in 1st gear with the engine screaming for mercy if they managed to manually select that gear on accident. Then they would tell the service writer at the shop "it was making a weird noise but i just drove it the whole rest of the day then all of a sudden it blew up out of nowhere it's a POS!"

 

[HEMIMANN]

@kurek - isn't this just the manual top gear selection switch? Used to be the console shift lever tapped left and right, then they got rid of that and used a steering column lever with switch on the lever handle, now I don't know what they've done with the dash-mounted knob.

I have the original 66RFE Chrysler Trans 6 speed. When towing I use tow mode switch for higher rpm shifting and gear selector switch limit in 5th gear so it doesn't over-torque the trans kicking out of 6th gear after going downhill or on flat road.

I believe this was introduced by Audi and called "Tiptronic" back in the day. It's nothing more than manual shifting of an automatic transmission.

 

[Treburkulosis]

I run in manual 4 around town with my 6 Spd and manual 6 on the highway. IMO it doesnt change anything except locks out the MDS. In my Charger I run manual 4 around town and manual 6-7 on the highway occasionally I will run it in 8th at a higher speed.

 

[kurek]

@kurek - isn't this just the manual top gear selection switch? Used to be the console shift lever tapped left and right, then they got rid of that and used a steering column lever with switch on the lever handle, now I don't know what they've done with the dash-mounted knob.

Yes ERS is just a top gear limiting selector. On the 1500 w/ 6 speed it's + and - buttons on the shift stalk, on 8HP it's + and - buttons on the steering wheel.

Unlike manual-shift-automatics (my Jeep has that..) you can't direct upshifts or tell it to hold a specific gear, just tell it to downshift or limit upshifts. On my 1500 I use it for engine braking when going down long grades and very occasionally if I find myself in dense traffic and want maximum responsiveness. But most of the time I just stick the thing in drive and let it work itself out.. no need to micromanage it. The only thing we humans have the computer doesn't is the ability to predict the future a little bit, we can see road conditions ahead and we know what we're about to do. The computer has to wait for input before responding.

 

[hemihustlin]

@kurek - isn't this just the manual top gear selection switch? Used to be the console shift lever tapped left and right, then they got rid of that and used a steering column lever with switch on the lever handle, now I don't know what they've done with the dash-mounted knob.

I have the original 66RFE Chrysler Trans 6 speed. When towing I use tow mode switch for higher rpm shifting and gear selector switch limit in 5th gear so it doesn't over-torque the trans kicking out of 6th gear after going downhill or on flat road.

I believe this was introduced by Audi and called "Tiptronic" back in the day. It's nothing more than manual shifting of an automatic transmission.

The buttons are on the steering wheel and they work wayyyyyyy better than the RFE transmissions
you can manually upshift from 1 to 8 at full throttle and downshift at speed and it will rev match and seamlessly knock out every gear down to 1. with a good exhaust it crackles like an srt while downshifting and engine braking with full torque converter lock up in every gear! amazing technology I say! I spend more time in manual mode than not, its that good!

 

[Moparfanatic21]

Are you talking about an after market throttle controller or the manual gear selector switch?

The gear selector switch won't give you any more power. It'll only adjust down what your top gear is. ie 6th or 7th gear instead of 8th. And if that's what you're thinking about, 6th gear is your 1:1 gear. 7th and 8th are overdrive.

The aftermarket throttle controller is called a Pedal Commander. There are also other brands for less money that do the same thing. They have a passing feature that you can adjust.

Which one would you recommend?

 

[ramffml]

The buttons are on the steering wheel and they work wayyyyyyy better than the RFE transmissions
you can manually upshift from 1 to 8 at full throttle and downshift at speed and it will rev match and seamlessly knock out every gear down to 1. with a good exhaust it crackles like an srt while downshifting and engine braking with full torque converter lock up in every gear! amazing technology I say! I spend more time in manual mode than not, its that good!

You can't actually "manually upshift". It's just a range limiter, the transmission still decides when to upshift and downshift within the X gears you give it; so if you +/- to 5, the transmissions decides what gear to upshift and downshift into, any gear between 1 to 5.

So if you're driving lazily and "upshifting" way too early, the computer is going to ignore that until it knows it can actually do the upshift.

If you're driving WOT and hang onto the gear way into redline, then it may appear that your next upshift is actually a real upshift, but the computer is finally allowed to upshift at that point so it does it. But if you then again really fast upshift 2 more times, the transmission ignores that until it needs the next shift.

 

[hemihustlin]

You can't actually "manually upshift". It's just a range limiter, the transmission still decides when to upshift and downshift within the X gears you give it; so if you +/- to 5, the transmissions decides what gear to upshift and downshift into, any gear between 1 to 5.

So if you're driving lazily and "upshifting" way too early, the computer is going to ignore that until it knows it can actually do the upshift.

If you're driving WOT and hang onto the gear way into redline, then it may appear that your next upshift is actually a real upshift, but the computer is finally allowed to upshift at that point so it does it. But if you then again really fast upshift 2 more times, the transmission ignores that until it needs the next shift.

oh Im quite aware of the limitations like I said I use it daily. say you are accelerating full throttle in a lower gear like 3 or 4 and you are at 5500 rpm when you press gear+ it will immediately shift to the next gear, but like you said only because the conditions are right for the computer to immediately ok the shift.
I accept the limitations and use it within them and it works great for me!

 

[Loudram]

Which one would you recommend?

I don't have one. I will say do your homework. Some of the very cheap ones can cause problems but there are good ones cheaper then Pedal Commander. Do a search in here and you'll find plenty of information on them.

Roar throttle controller seems to be pretty good but again do your homework.

 

[ramffml]

Which one would you recommend?

Banks Pedal Monster. It's the only one that is powered by a stable power source (obd2 port instead of the line voltage on the pedal sensor) and the only one that has not (yet?) caused any unintendend acceleration and/or dead pedal and/or christmas lights on the dash.

 

[TomB 1269]

Wow a lot of lengthy response to simply say...Yes when not manually locked out to 8th gear the MDS will engage. Yes, the MDS will cause an additional and noticeable lag when engaged and truck running in ECO mode on the display.
In heavy traffic and needing quicker transmission response manually lock it out to 8th gear.

PS, I have also found it best to do so while towing as it stops the tranny from having to jump 2 or more gears due to the lag....And no Tow haul does not shut it off.

 

[Nick@GotExhaust]

If you have any questions about the throttle response controllers feel free to send me a message and I can also offer you a quote on them. We offer a few different brands. As mentioned Banks Pedal Monster and Pedal Commander are the most commonly used and proven options

 

[cityredneck]

after i start my truck i always put it in tow haul mode and when i'm in drive i gear down/up to 8. i feel like i have more passing power than just regular drive and tow haul off. also leave it in 4wd auto.

 

[Moparfanatic21]

Banks Pedal Monster. It's the only one that is powered by a stable power source (obd2 port instead of the line voltage on the pedal sensor) and the only one that has not (yet?) caused any unintendend acceleration and/or dead pedal and/or christmas lights on the dash.

I'll buy it for my Durango first see if I like it. Never ran and pedal thing