Cruise Control

[frank-id]

Agood cruise control will work very effective for any type engine. The difficulty begins when the vehicle travels down the freeway/hiway at maximum engine speed all the time. Many of the school buses and transit buses have a verylow rear axle ratio. With a 4:10 axle ratio, the engine will spin at maximun RPM to achieve 57MPH. No cruise control needed, just a heavy concrete block to rest on the foot throttle. When it is time to slow down, kick the block off the throttle. My last bus trip was about 1200 miles of hell. The bus had a 8:16 rear alxe ratio. Driving down the concrete ribbon at 53 MPH was an endurance test. I had the local truck shop install a different rear axle ratio at a cost of $1600. The buswill now go about 72MPH with an Allison 5 speed. A hand throttle will doa better job than a cruise control and the cost is about $20 and some install time. Frank

[Steve]

A cruise control is not going to increase your MPG. What your really want in a truck of this size is a way to set your engine speed. (Loadstars have a cable on the dash to do this.)

This way you set your engine speed once you are at the speed you want to go and when you hit a hill the bus slows down some but does not waste tons of gas just to keep a constant speed, look at how much gas you waste doing that just to get where you are going 15 minutes faster.

[the_experience03]

I believe that is referred to as a Finlander Cruise Control up in my parts (and a skoolie is referred to as a "Finn-abago"). I know it might not be the safest thing, but I use my hand throttle for that as well. The pedal isn't particularly hard to push down, but it's nice to stretch. Besides....I have EVERY faith that my brakes will EASILY overcome the engine in an emergency. I learned mighty quick just how good the bus's brakes are after jumping in and driving it after spending some time in my truck. Even with my vastly upgraded brakes on the truck, stopping those big bias ply swampers takes a little work. The 40 inch tall tires on the bus on the otherhand will lock up with as little as about 2 inches of pedal travel

[phillbus914]

Originally Posted by pjespers

I tested out my poor-mans-cruise-control, or throttle knob this week. It has the potential to work great, but it tends to slip causing the preset speed to slowly decrease. Is there a way to tighten something so it is less likely to creap back in?

Mine does the same thing, I'm also intrested to know if theres a fix for this.

[Steve]

On mine you twist it clockwise to lock it into place. I have a couple british cars that work that way also.

[the_experience03]

I have to twist mine somewhat hard to make sure it looks in place good. That'd be my only recommendation....twist harder

[phillbus914]

I'm pritty sure mine dosent have a twist to lock feature. It just pulls straight out, in fact when I first got my bus I pulled it out so hard that it broke the cable. With it all the way out I could see that it was smooth, no lock or "catch" in it at all. I fixed the broken cable with a zip tie down by the gas pedal.

[Steve]

You could always clamp some small vice grips to hold it out. Better be good at unlocking them if you get in trouble though...

[bdavis441]

mine is also the twist to lock type, but you have to twist it HARD to make it hold. The knob is smooth, so it's difficult to get a good grip. I'm going to find/make a T handle for it. That should fix it.

[Steve]

Mine has a T-handle and it very nice and easy to use.

[the_experience03]

Sorry, Phil....I forgot you have one of those (pfffttt.....) Bluebirds with the T-handle high idle, pull to stop lever, etc. I test drove a TC2000 like that with all the t-handles. It started right up, got out the snow, and drove great. We didn't run into a problem until we got back to UTB and we couldn't get it to shut down. We pulled the lever, but with a broken cable it wasn't very effective I kinda like my Ford....turn the key to start it, turn the key to turn it off....simple as that.

[phillbus914]

Yeah my pull to shut off handle works fine, but the throttle lock T handle slowly works it's way back in.

Jason’s bus has a pull to stop lever also, I just assumed all diesel busses did. I wish I had a turn off with the key bus, although it is kinda handy to be able to take the keys out with the engine still running. Why just the other day I took the key out driving down the highway to pick something out of my teeth.

[the_experience03]

The t-handle shutdowns are probably safer to be perfectly honest. In that case you are manually shutting down fuel to the injecter pump whereas I'm relying on electrical means. I guess if turning the key energizes a solenoid to allow fuel to flow it should be fairly reliable. I've never had a problem. I wouldn't mind having a handle, but atleast this way I don't have to worry about what might happen if I ask one of my less mechanically gifted friends to turn the bus off. When my arm gets caught in the fan belt I don't want to have to explain how to turn it off.

P.S. Ford buses also have column shifters...not that I prefer either the column or dash shifters (I actually prefer the kind that come up from the floor and come with and extra pedal to the left of the brake ), but I don't think I've ever seen the column shifter on any other make.