OT-ish - j**p exploding clutches

[FridgeFreezer]

In case anyone thought Land Rover were unique in their reliability, it seems Jeep "Desert rated" vehicles can't be driven on sand without risk of the clutch "exploding and causing a vehicle fire"

https://www.theautopian.com/jeep-screwed-up-a-simple-manual-transmission-and-still-cant-get-it-right-years-later/

 

[Bowie69]

It's the same over on the Audi forum frequent, everyone gets a jaded opinion of the mark because no-one posts up when things are running OK.

Plus of course it couldn't *possibly* be down to people putting oversized tyres on them and trying to crawl slowly.

 

 

[Wytze]

For a board of investers is a high return more important then keeping a company alive .    Or customers 😁

[FridgeFreezer]

4 hours ago, Bowie69 said:

Plus of course it couldn't *possibly* be down to people putting oversized tyres on them and trying to crawl slowly.

It's a terrible stereotype but I'd be tempted to put it down to selling manuals to Americans, every car thread or comments section I've read seems to treat "driving stick" as something akin to black magic and even those who can often post some bizarre techniques when describing how they think it's done

[dangerous doug]

1 minute ago, FridgeFreezer said:

It's a terrible stereotype but I'd be tempted to put it down to selling manuals to Americans, every car thread or comments section I've read seems to treat "driving stick" as something akin to black magic and even those who can often post some bizarre techniques when describing how they think it's done

Stick is also known as driving “standard” and no one like standard. 
 

having owned a colonial vehicle with a factory “standard” I can tell you that a series landrover felt like shifting a sports car compared to that thing. I then fitted a short shifter to it for around £400 which made it comparable to a defender with a slick shift. Which isn’t too bad but it’s not £400 worth. Yanks don’t do manuals unless the inderviduial manuals. 
 

(half American so can confirm stereotypes)😂

[Snagger]

8 hours ago, FridgeFreezer said:

It's a terrible stereotype but I'd be tempted to put it down to selling manuals to Americans, every car thread or comments section I've read seems to treat "driving stick" as something akin to black magic and even those who can often post some bizarre techniques when describing how they think it's done

It may be a stereotype, but manual transmissions are rare there (like here in the UAE too).  And the stereotype is reinforced by US tv and films - I remember vividly the scene towards the end of the Nolan Batman Begins film where Batman tells Commissioner Gordon to drive the Batmobile and ask “can you drive stick?”  The irony that Christian Bale and Gary Oldman, and the director Christopher Nolan are all Brits is not lost on me…

[Snagger]

13 hours ago, Bowie69 said:

It's the same over on the Audi forum frequent, everyone gets a jaded opinion of the mark because no-one posts up when things are running OK.

Plus of course it couldn't *possibly* be down to people putting oversized tyres on them and trying to crawl slowly.

 

 

That is the critical element.  People modify cars without comprehension of the engineering and then complain when they break.  In fairness, it happens a lot in the LR community, especially suspension lifts causing trouble with steering and prop shafts.

 It’s also a fair bet that those Jeep drivers slip the clutch a lot when rock crawling on those huge tyres without underdrives fitted, so not just a matter of a lack of comprehension of the effects of their half-arsed mods, but also of their poor operation of the vehicles.

[Happyoldgit]

Funny really as thousands and thousands of GI’s drove manual transmission vehicles in all types of terrain and conditions during the Second World War, Korea etc, but of course Uncle Sam was footing the bill for repair or replacement. I suppose so many returned home to slowly transition to automatics as they grew in popularity. How quickly skills are lost.

 I am not sure I agree with some of the very broad brushes being used to tar whole populations of vehicle users and modifiers over the pond. There are good and bad drivers, modifiers and engineers on all continents. Tabloid-esque language ought to stay in the tabloids or on social media.

[FridgeFreezer]

6 hours ago, Snagger said:

That is the critical element.  People modify cars without comprehension of the engineering and then complain when they break.  In fairness, it happens a lot in the LR community, especially suspension lifts causing trouble with steering and prop shafts.

Except the article explains it's happening to totally stock vehicles...

[Snagger]

1 hour ago, FridgeFreezer said:

Except the article explains it's happening to totally stock vehicles...

I don’t disclaim that some standard vehicles may have had issues, but how many of those “stock vehicles “ had oversized wheels and suspension lifts removed before being limped or towed to their dealers?  Realistically, how many Jeeps of that nature aren’t modified?  Very few around here, and I doubt the majority in the US are standard either.

[miketomcat]

It doesn't really matter gearboxes are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. From what I can see the majority of newer cars are auto or electric now. The human race is becoming more and more lazy and by the state of modern driving manual is beyond their capabilities. It's just niche cars that are still manual.

Mike

[Snagger]

In fairness, driving in cities is much less of a nuisance and probably safer with an automatic, even more so in really hilly cities like those on the US west coast; negotiating all those junctions with severe hills while watch out for weed and meth soaked pedestrians takes a bit of concentration, not to forget the roads being in even more parlous a state than the UK’s.  If I was living in a US city, I’d have an automatic.