So last night I was coming out of Screwfix at Stoke and got back on the M6 at J15 to head south. I went round the bend and as it straightened out I hit cruise resume as I was going down the slip road. The gearbox immediately shifted to 11th and revs dropped to about 900. This was not ideal as once on the motorway there’s a fairly long incline and I had a loaded decker on.
However the truck just sat there at 40mph, 900 revs and wouldn’t change. Tried manually shifting, disabled. Tried manual mode, disabled. Tried Eco Off on the cruise settings, disabled. Tried blipping the engine brake to induce a downshift. Hooray, it dropped to 9th. Pressed accelerator, changed up to 11th again, back to square one.
I gave up in the end and crawled up to the top of the hill at about 38mph, powerless to do anything about it. I don’t get this, dropping to 10th I would’ve still been in the green band and would’ve been able to accelerate and stop creating a moving road block for everyone behind.
I’m guessing this was done in the name of saving fuel. But does it ?
Does it save fuel? Probably does, at a guess.
Would enabling the driver to choose to burn a little more fuel to build up speed to safely join m-way, cost more than a few pennies?
I doubt it.
Highway Code rule 259 “check the traffic on the motorway and match your speed to fit safely into the traffic flow in the left-hand lane”
Does the modification prevent this?
Maybe the office think that drivers, are all a bunch of lead footed chumps?
Some undoubtedly are. Some aren`t.
I’ve heard of speed limiters being altered to deal with those drivers with won’t listen when being told to stop speeding, but I can’t see why anyone would deliberately limit a vehicle to that degree, it’s inherently dangerous if you can’t “make progress” in a reasonable way.
Zac_A:
I’ve heard of speed limiters being altered to deal with those drivers with won’t listen when being told to stop speeding, but I can’t see why anyone would deliberately limit a vehicle to that degree, it’s inherently dangerous if you can’t “make progress” in a reasonable way.
One for the defect sheet?
Unable to safely progress??
Edit to add:
Is 38mph too slow for a m-way? Or it just feels like it is!
Did you get her up to speed then apply cruise? I have heard (on Facebook so must be true) that more fuel is used gaining speed with resume rather than using the foot pedal.
Not quite on post,but I’ll mention that my Mondeo has a habit of dropping into “limp mode” on a fairly regular basis.This can be alarming trying to seek a safe refuge with so few of drivers reluctant to slow down,even for a few seconds.
Four different Ford dealers have told me there is nothing wrong with the car,but clearly there must be.
Franglais:
Is 38mph too slow for a m-way? Or it just feels like it is!
It would certinly attract unwanted attention from the authorities, but I don’t believe there is an enforcable minimum speed limit for motorways generally, though a minimum speed limit sign does exist.
For anyone caught short by a limper, I would argue that if an STGO Cat 3 vehicle is limited to 40mph max on a motorway, then 38mph can’t really be impermissible unless signed otherwise.
Franglais:
Is 38mph too slow for a m-way? Or it just feels like it is!
It would certinly attract unwanted attention from the authorities, but I don’t believe there is an enforcable minimum speed limit for motorways generally, though a minimum speed limit sign does exist.
For anyone caught short by a limper, I would argue that if an STGO Cat 3 vehicle is limited to 40mph max on a motorway, then 38mph can’t really be impermissible unless signed otherwise.
A newish truck dragging up a hill slowly? Looks good for a pull doesn`t it?
Agreed Cat 3 are slowish, but, they need to give notice of intended moves don`t they? And might they be refused at certain times if their slow speed causes an obstruction?
Do they also need flashing beacons on the rear?
I`m not sure that I would really say that 38 is too slow, but it all seems very woolly and ill defined.
There are minimum power/weight ratios aren`t there? Is restricting a vehicle in this way breaching those rules?
Again doubtful, I know.
Franglais:
Is 38mph too slow for a m-way? Or it just feels like it is!
It would certinly attract unwanted attention from the authorities, but I don’t believe there is an enforcable minimum speed limit for motorways generally, though a minimum speed limit sign does exist.
.
The only minimum speed limits I have seen in use are 10 mph for the Dartford tunnel and 8 mph for the Clyde tunnel.
Is it relevant what make and model this lorry is? Or is it all down to the operator installing restrictions? (Love my Actros in Power mode)
Probably Eco engine/gearbox programming box option ticked on the spec sheet when ordered, almost certainly this because you say manual has been disabled too.
If it makes driving actually dangerous, as these things do when you end up entering fast moving junctions at 35mph when a normal truck will be doing 50+, time to escalate the issue, if no one gives a monkeys re verbal discussions put it in writing citing danger of possible accident if you have proper incident forms available, if this doesn’t work compile a letter to the management and get other drivers to co-sign the letter. Once they have this letter the ball is in their court.
Truck ecu needs reflashing with the correct program.
Was it a truck you’ve driven before and its never done this? Or is it a regular occurance?
If its doing it all the time not letting you select manual, non eco mode etc then I’d agree with above… its been programmed like that.
Edit. I’m not convinced it saves fuel either. If it does its negligible.
alamcculloch:
Did you get her up to speed then apply cruise? I have heard (on Facebook so must be true) that more fuel is used gaining speed with resume rather than using the foot pedal.
I’ve heard both arguments and worked for different companies with different ideas as to which one is best. I would’ve thought newer trucks would be programmed to get to cruising speed as efficiently as possible. I don’t know tbh and don’t really care. I’m hitting resume either way. Never had a problem doing this and have always ranked fairly highly on things like Microlise and Fleetboard using resume.
It doesn’t really matter in this instance. My argument was I was left sitting like a lemon below 40mph without any way to accelerate my vehicle after joining the motorway. I tried both ways, cruise resume and knocking it off and using the pedal, it would not change gear.
Dav1d:
So there’s no lever for changing the gear up or down, like on (an older) Daf or as the right hand lever on an Actros ?
Everything except automatic eco program is deleted, the levers are usually still there (can’t speak for all makes) but no manual selection permitted, no kickdown, no power/hill function, if you enter a downhill slip road literally the accelerator will have no effect or input and eco might still disallow fuel to flow even if you can select manual, you have to experience one of these bloody eco programmed things to appreciate not only how frustrating they are for the driver but how dangerous they can be for everyone.
Dafs tend to default to eco, annoying enough and the main reason i don’t want one, but usually you can select the 3 settings being eco normal drive and manual if you click the switch, even in normal Daf eco the above scenario decribed in the OP doesn’t happen because even though the revs have dropped because its selected the highest gear possible you still have power, with eco only programed vehicles normal drive and manual are programmed out completely and power will be shut off on almost every slight downhill stretch, worse i’ve found for this so far is new gen MAN.
The latest Volvos that have arrived at ours have an iSave badge on, the seat mounted shifter has gone and selection is done by fairly non descript buttons in the dash select drive / neutral / reverse. There is a button for up down shift but doesn’t work, perhaps as it seems to be locked into e mode. Compared to the units we have a couple of years older, cruise resume pulls very sluggishly. Most bizzarely is if you click the cc speed up from 55 to ‘56’ it disables cc and has you wondering what happened as you fail a lane 2 overtake…
Terry T:
So last night I was coming out of Screwfix at Stoke and got back on the M6 at J15 to head south. I went round the bend and as it straightened out I hit cruise resume as I was going down the slip road. The gearbox immediately shifted to 11th and revs dropped to about 900. This was not ideal as once on the motorway there’s a fairly long incline and I had a loaded decker on.
However the truck just sat there at 40mph, 900 revs and wouldn’t change. Tried manually shifting, disabled. Tried manual mode, disabled. Tried Eco Off on the cruise settings, disabled. Tried blipping the engine brake to induce a downshift. Hooray, it dropped to 9th. Pressed accelerator, changed up to 11th again, back to square one.
I gave up in the end and crawled up to the top of the hill at about 38mph, powerless to do anything about it. I don’t get this, dropping to 10th I would’ve still been in the green band and would’ve been able to accelerate and stop creating a moving road block for everyone behind.
I’m guessing this was done in the name of saving fuel. But does it ?
I’m not convinced.
The DAF LF Euro 6 rigids do this, even with your foot flat to the floor and not using cruise!!!
md1987:
Next time floor it down the slip road before hitting resume is my only solution. 40mph isn’t that bad up there with a heavy trailer [emoji38]
How about going the wrong direction for a junction, then u turn for a longer run up before the hill? I read on the internet that it will save fuel [emoji849]
md1987:
Next time floor it down the slip road before hitting resume is my only solution. 40mph isn’t that bad up there with a heavy trailer [emoji38]
How about going the wrong direction for a junction, then u turn for a longer run up before the hill? I read on the internet that it will save fuel [emoji849]
