Random Thoughts... [Automotive Edition]

Centurion was a truck conversion company. This is not nearly as odd as their 4-door Bronco conversion.

Conversion trucks were BIG in Oklahoma when I was a kid. Almost convinced me I wanted a stock height 2wd Chevy with a fade paint job, "ground effects", 15x10 wheels and 295/50 tires...

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It looks like a strip package and then the overhead console with the extra switches is all there was to it. Though, I wonder what the TV switch does?

What I don't fully understand, did Centurion buy these from the manufacturer, do their tape and stripe kit, then hope to sell them on to a dealer or did the dealers order from Centurion or did the manufacturer commission these from Centurion to sell to dealers?
 
ohai.

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How long is it since you owned it? Your thread is marked as SEP but there aren't any posts since you bought it in July 2010. :p

However long it is, you shouldn't have sold it.
 
How long is it since you owned it? Your thread is marked as SEP but there aren't any posts since you bought it in July 2010. :p

However long it is, you shouldn't have sold it.
No, it’s good I sold it. The cab roof had messed up paint and was rusting away, I painted twice and rust still came through even after sanding it away. Engine had shit exhaust headers that warped a second time after being machine smooth once. It had dual fuel tanks but I couldn’t use them because if I used rear tank, it filled up the front tank to overflowing, the dual tank parks are unobtainable. The rear window was broken in that I could just press my hand on it slide it open and the latched part stayed with the other glass, that could be easily fixed.

I bought it July 2010 sold it in July 2013 and bought a mustang convertible in September 2013, sold that and leased the golf in February 2018, and here are.
 
It looks like a strip package and then the overhead console with the extra switches is all there was to it. Though, I wonder what the TV switch does?

What I don't fully understand, did Centurion buy these from the manufacturer, do their tape and stripe kit, then hope to sell them on to a dealer or did the dealers order from Centurion or did the manufacturer commission these from Centurion to sell to dealers?
I was wondering about th TV switch too I can't find any reason for it. Maybe it is set up to run something else as this is a regular cab model?

I never sold cars for a place that did aftermarket stuff like this so no idea how they handled the timing of installing the kit. Anytime we had aftermarket stuff done we sent it out either per customer request or because we wanted something unique for the showroom floor.

They have had this thing for about 48 days at this point. Assuming they still have it next week I will take a look at and give them a low ball offer.

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The Centurion piqued my interest so I went digging, someone has the brochure on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1994-Dodge-Ram-Centurion-Conversion-Brochure-/124179680055

It looks like this was the Austin model if the stickers are anything to go by and originally had lights on the front bull-bar. Another brochure shows that they did fit TVs but there isn't anywhere for it to go in this truck. The lights have escaped so I dunno, maybe the owner needed more switches and wanted to keep a 'proper' Centurion switch plate without extra holes cut in it and this is all they could get..?

Some info about the Ford options on this site:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cur...cles-creates-a-frankenstein-suburban-fighter/

Would be interesting to put it back to original spec, quite a fancy thing in its time.
 
So I was driving about today on one of my automatic cars when I came to ponder something. In the olden days, automatic transmissions needed ATF because they were essentially mechanical computers with hideously complex patterns that needed precise and predictable fluid dynamics to function. But they have computers now and don't need those anymore, so why don't we make them simpler, closer to manuals, and then they can be as reliable as a dumb manual transmissions and not need unicorn tear ATF.

It is at this moment that I realized that I had invented the DCT :p
 
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It is at this moment that I realized that I had invented the DCT :p
Or the abomination in my Smart that acted like an 80 year-old was operating the clutch and gears based on instructions passed the them on sticky notes. In the dark.
 
But the issue is, they’re not that smart, I worry I am burning the clutch on my work Golf Alltrack when slowing rolling such as rolling into the automatic car wash that pulls you along, or backing up.
 
But the issue is, they’re not that smart, I worry I am burning the clutch on my work Golf Alltrack when slowing rolling such as rolling into the automatic car wash that pulls you along, or backing up.
You have a wet-clutch DSG, right? It isn't an issue in those, that's what the regular fluid and filter changes are for. Volkswagen decided to reinvent the automatic. If you can't put it in D and drive normally without things breaking, that's VW:s fault and not yours. Besides, you're not footing the repair bill so why do you care?

The dry-clutch dsg found mated to the smaller engines is a different thing altogether. They don't creep nearly as nicely as the wet-clutch boxes, and that's partly because they're programmed to keep clutch wear to a minimum. As far as I know you can make them lose drive and throw an error on the trip computer if you "abuse" them by doing things like backing up with a heavy trailer, etc.


So I was driving about today on one of my automatic cars when I came to ponder something. In the olden days, automatic transmissions needed ATF because they were essentially mechanical computers with hideously complex patterns that needed precise and predictable fluid dynamics to function. But they have computers now and don't need those anymore, so why don't we make them simpler, closer to manuals, and then they can be as reliable as a dumb manual transmissions and not need unicorn tear ATF.

It is at this moment that I realized that I had invented the DCT :p

The car industry tried their best to replace the slushmatic. "Robotized manuals" used to be a thing and they can be found in Smart cars, various Opels, Toyotas, Peugeots and Citroens and Mercedes Sprinters and that's just off of the top of my head and not counting the exotics. I guess they wanted to give (mainly) European customers an option that would rob less power and fuel than the automatics available at the time.

What you got was fuel economy like in a manual, but you also got slow gearshifts and dim-witted behavior. What you didn't get was that smooth slushmatic creep that's so nice when you just want to roll forward another car length or two.

DCT:s have been a thing for a long time now and they do shift as good or better as normal automatics while on the move, but they're not simpler and certainly not less prone to failure. They might not use ATF, but they do have their own special kind of unicorn tears that need changed every 60.000 kilometers or so. There are lesser "maintenance free" DCT:s like the dry-clutch DSG I mentioned above but that only really means that it'll need an expensive and complicated clutch replacement at some point, and that they won't be as comfortable or as quick-shifting as the better DCT's even when they're working as they should.

Have you ever been in a robo-matic Peugeot that decided to shift gear while taking a roundabout at speed? I have. You lose drive for a second which shifts the entire weight of the car to the outer front wheel, and as a passenger you're wondering wtf is going on until you realize what car you're in.
 
The Smart gearbox was slow but OK on the open road, felt like a centrifugal clutch when manoeuvring at low speed and was awful for stop and go driving where it felt like you were winding up a rubber band before it would get going. I still love a torque converter slushmatic for smoothness, although I've seen a situation where a Land Rover sat in mud with the engine revving at stall speed and none of the wheels turning. Which was odd. Clearly the auto box wasn't happy.

Gearboxes as we know them are irrelevant with the inevitable adoption of electric drive across the board anyway. IC engines may still live on to drive generators but an electric motor just suits propelling a car so much better.
 
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So I was driving about today on one of my automatic cars when I came to ponder something. In the olden days, automatic transmissions needed ATF because they were essentially mechanical computers with hideously complex patterns that needed precise and predictable fluid dynamics to function. But they have computers now and don't need those anymore, so why don't we make them simpler, closer to manuals, and then they can be as reliable as a dumb manual transmissions and not need unicorn tear ATF.

It is at this moment that I realized that I had invented the DCT :p
Problem: Modern manuals are often filled with ATF now. Even not-particularly-modern ones. Tremec says you can fill the T56 and friends with either ATF or gear lube, but should not switch between them without tearing it down and cleaning everything.
 
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Problem: Modern manuals are often filled with ATF now. Even not-particularly-modern ones. Tremec says you can fill the T56 and friends with either ATF or gear lube, but should not switch between them without tearing it down and cleaning everything.
Didn’t the T3650 used in sn95/new edge mustangs also use ATF?
 
The car industry tried their best to replace the slushmatic. "Robotized manuals" used to be a thing and they can be found in Smart cars, various Opels, Toyotas, Peugeots and Citroens and Mercedes Sprinters and that's just off of the top of my head and not counting the exotics. I guess they wanted to give (mainly) European customers an option that would rob less power and fuel than the automatics available at the time.

What you got was fuel economy like in a manual, but you also got slow gearshifts and dim-witted behavior. What you didn't get was that smooth slushmatic creep that's so nice when you just want to roll forward another car length or two.

DCT:s have been a thing for a long time now and they do shift as good or better as normal automatics while on the move, but they're not simpler and certainly not less prone to failure. They might not use ATF, but they do have their own special kind of unicorn tears that need changed every 60.000 kilometers or so. There are lesser "maintenance free" DCT:s like the dry-clutch DSG I mentioned above but that only really means that it'll need an expensive and complicated clutch replacement at some point, and that they won't be as comfortable or as quick-shifting as the better DCT's even when they're working as they should.

Have you ever been in a robo-matic Peugeot that decided to shift gear while taking a roundabout at speed? I have. You lose drive for a second which shifts the entire weight of the car to the outer front wheel, and as a passenger you're wondering wtf is going on until you realize what car you're in.

Am I to assume that DSGs do not do the creeping forwards that Torque Converter automatics do then? Also, I have to imagine the DSG fluid is not compatible with ATF and so the thing will become a leaking metal lump if you mix them

Also, that is what annoys me about automatic gearboxes, they just went MORE complex. Though the efficiency improves, so I guess that's nice.
Problem: Modern manuals are often filled with ATF now.
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Gearboxes as we know them are irrelevant with the inevitable adoption of electric drive across the board anyway. IC engines may still live on to drive generators but an electric motor just suits propelling a car so much better.
Do not remind me that the future will be extremely boring.
 
Am I to assume that DSGs do not do the creeping forwards that Torque Converter automatics do then? Also, I have to imagine the DSG fluid is not compatible with ATF and so the thing will become a leaking metal lump if you mix them

Also, that is what annoys me about automatic gearboxes, they just went MORE complex. Though the efficiency improves, so I guess that's nice.

Do not remind me that the future will be extremely boring.

DSG:s do creep because they're programmed to do so, but the feeling you get when you let go of the brake is that a little man inside the dashboard is lifting the clutch for you and applying some throttle as needed to not stall. I prefer the slushmatic kind of creep. There are better and worse robot clutches out there. The W213 E class and its 7 speed "AMG SpeedShift" fooled me completely - I thought it had a torque converter until Google told me otherwise.

ATF and DCT fluids aren't compatible, and that's no different from different engine oils not being compatible. Or different power steering fluids, etc. Tldr: don't just put any random fluid in your car. :p

Also, I'm not convinced the current battery and charging tech being suitable for everyone just yet but electric drive is not boring, it's awesome.
 
Yeah, I had my doubts but electric cars just feel like automatics with more blue graphics in the dash cluster.
 
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