Driving Experience -- manual shifting and steering

[GCATX]

View attachment 378066

Ha. The left paddle shifter is called Jose, the right is called JosB.

 

[Gator85]

Hmmm, let's see. Your comments are: 1. You hate me, or close; 2. You spoke for me and told me what I want; and 3. You criticized how I express myself and write. But I didn't see any subject content. I'm not sure why you would even type such a harsh, opposite-of-love word "hate" in such a situation where you don't even know me and we're all goofing around on a dirt truck forum. Hate is the most intense, negative, and vile thing that you could wish upon anyone. It seems like there's a lot of people hating a lot of people these days, but the truth is, we're all the same really -- I invite you ponder that. Usually expressing hate for others we don't know, that haven't even chosen to directly interact with us, is really just an expression of Self. I do NOT hate you, and have respect and compassion for you, as I know your comments have nothing to do with me. That's your own journey. I wish you well bother, never intended any of my words to torque-you-out so badly to the point of hate. I guess I should have thrown in some smiley faces! Enjoy your truck, whatever it is!

Sounds like one of them there edumacated bleeding heart liberal snowflakes that likes to hear themselves talk.

 

[ATXtor]

Sounds like one of them there edumacated bleeding heart liberal snowflakes that likes to hear themselves talk.

Me: Liberal; not even. Educated; yes!
You: Def not liberal. Educated... not so apparent. Judgemental; yes! Do you have any shifting content, or just trolling hate and showing your true colors? I bet you hate everyone that doesn't think like you, don't you? Or, do I have that wrong? If so, explain yourself; if you can. You don't seem like you can express yourself in terms of the topic: shifting and steering. It seems that you only lurk here and criticize without any intelligent content.

 

[GordoJay]

It seems that you only lurk here and criticize without any intelligent content.

Better that he lurk than blather on without any intelligent content. Just sayin' .... Non critically. I like salad. Word salad? I'm working on liking that. Thanks for giving me the opportunity. Cheers.

 

[KOK JR]

Jeeeezzzee

 

[catinthehat85]

After driving my new 22 for a couple weeks, on pavement only, I found a couple things, one is very troublesome, and another is pesky. They are tangentially related because of "one f'd-up feature of this truck."

Pesky: Stering ratio -- it's a shame it's not just a bit tighter. This goes out of my mechanical zone of knowledge for street mods, but is it not possible/practical to somehow have a custom gear made for the steering rack that will increase wheel-turn to input? I suspect not, but curious what you guys know.

Troublesome!: It's the "same ol'", but with an even worse element for THIS truck. The macro: Why doesn't everyone mount paddles on the steering COLUNM, fixed!, rather than on the turning wheel! But that's another topic, akin to "world peace." The truly unfortunate thing, is that when you are spinning the steering wheel wildly, or even mildly in this truck, in 1-3rd gear, it's a **** to shift timely, with precision. Same as say, BMW, right? Wrong! The micro: However, on EVERY car I have driven with "spinning paddles", you can easily default to a old-school center console shift-lever "+/- gear-shift-lever, pull-left, toggle position" to shift up or down in a fraction of a second with the right hand. Well, the dumb-ass "work space" cheesy plastic shift lever, that only works when the truck is stopped (fricking lawyers!), intentionally blocks that feature from existence here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF! So, for "true drivers", who ONLY shift manually, even on the street, we just lost near total control of the transmission, when sawing back and forth on the steering wheel under 25mph, 1st-3rd! Even on the street, just a plain right turn from a stop with a mildly-sporty acceleration -- It's a paddle shift-show! (I guess I'll get used to the massive dysfunction of this; I suppose??) This, in my mind, is REALLY unconscionable with the design of this truck and its stated intentions. Huge "work-space ball-drop!" But, it's a great truck otherwise, surprisingly fast out of the box! Nothing to do here, but "cope." ( I wish they put the Manual shift button in a more accessible place too.) This is my biggest disconnect with this truck, and it's BIG.

So, steering ratio? Anything to do here, or just move hand-position on the steering wheel for every other minor turn? Now you see how they're related in this issue?

Full disclosure I didn't read through the 4 pages as much of it seemed irrelevant to the topic.

1. Steering ratio is a perfect balance IMO of being tight enough to make the truck do with you want, and loose enough to allow control at high speeds in rough terrain. Ford knocked this one out of the park, steering is a joy on this machine. I have zero interest in making the rack and pinion system more complicated, it's a weak point as it is.

2. No complaints here on shifter paddle location. During street driving it's easy enough to change gears during slow speed turns. As with all vehicles driven at the limit, you should be limiting your shifting during turns regardless. Really happy how Ford did not cater to the "I need to shift easily no matter how much I'm turning" crowd.

3. I do wish the manual mode button was more readily accessible, maybe somewhere near the knob for driving mode, or in my wildest dreams on the steering wheel.

4. Nothing is going to replace the feel of a well engineered manual gear box, or DCT for that matter, but this transmission does adequately for what it is. I do wish it was more responsive. I think much of this could be solved with improvements to the shift logic. It is useable however, so I'm glad in an era of automated-everything that I have the option to choose the gears myself.