Saoirse- The Freedom Unicorn

[cadillackid]

with a 545 you have to play the game right with the RPMs.. its easy on slightly decending ground to reads a couple hundred RPM below the geared RPM... converter slip is negaitc.. meaning engine is spinning slower than the inpiut shaft.. it will throw your gearing calc off a bit...



same with if you put pressure on the converter by running up a slight incline.. you will be positive slip where your engine speed is faster than your input shaft..



are you sure your speedometer is correct? try to get on as flat of ground as possible and test RPMs in 4th gear at light throttle in several speeds.. 45,55,65. wind resistance is real.. use a GPS speedo on a smart phone to verify speed against the dashboard..



-Christopher

[Sleddgracer]

how is your bus on hills?

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

I've been wondering about the gear ratio in the back of my head since I got this bus.
It does interstate speeds at or below 2000 rpm. Going by online gear/speed calculators I can't get near these numbers if plugging in the 4.10 rear axle ratio. I do get them when I plug in 3.54.
Could this bus have been regeared after destroying a transmission trying to keep up with traffic on the outskirts of Atlanta? It may have.

Douglasville is a small rural town, doubt they had much traffic to "keep up" with.

[cadillackid]

maybe thats why its highway geared, had to run rural roads all the time at 55-60+ instead of an in town city route..



"keeping up" with atlanta traffic in my experience seems to be being able to go 25-30 lolol

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

how is your bus on hills?

Its a 5 window shorty with a cat 3126. It FLIES.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

maybe thats why its highway geared, had to run rural roads all the time at 55-60+ instead of an in town city route..



"keeping up" with atlanta traffic in my experience seems to be being able to go 25-30 lolol

The traffic around Atlanta is like 80 mph. Its from a busy suburb of Atlanta with a stretch of 65 mph the bus had to go through. Or maybe the bus was used for trips on the interstate.
Its geared HIGH but with the torque of the cat it still doesn't feel like its lugging.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

with a 545 you have to play the game right with the RPMs.. its easy on slightly decending ground to reads a couple hundred RPM below the geared RPM... converter slip is negaitc.. meaning engine is spinning slower than the inpiut shaft.. it will throw your gearing calc off a bit...



same with if you put pressure on the converter by running up a slight incline.. you will be positive slip where your engine speed is faster than your input shaft..



are you sure your speedometer is correct? try to get on as flat of ground as possible and test RPMs in 4th gear at light throttle in several speeds.. 45,55,65. wind resistance is real.. use a GPS speedo on a smart phone to verify speed against the dashboard..



-Christopher

yeah the speedometer is right. The rpm's don't change a lot on this bus compared to the 444E I had. The picture is the honest 65 mph flat ground cruising.

[Tango]

Sounds mighty nice to me as long as it pulls well on bottom too.

[cadillackid]

that bus sure does ride nice.. . I didnt drive it but it sure feels like it pulls good

[Tango]

Sounds like the gearing is spot on then!

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Tango

Sounds mighty nice to me as long as it pulls well on bottom too.

Originally Posted by cadillackid

that bus sure does ride nice.. . I didnt drive it but it sure feels like it pulls good

Yeah its got enough get-up-and-go.
I'd have never thought it would be geared this high. Maybe its something they switched when they put the new transmission in the bus.

[EastCoastCB]

Got the WC lift out today.
The bus is REALLY quiet when going down the road. This should make it even quieter. Like the last handicap bus I had I did try to talk myself into keeping it. It just rattled around way too much like the last one.

[Kubla]

What did you do with the lift?

[EastCoastCB]

It was leaking and wouldn't stay in the upright position. We put it out by the road for the scrappers.
We had to almost totally disassemble it to get it out of the door. Unlike IC, Thomas put a door on it thats too narrow to fit the unit out of without taking it apart.

Took three hours to remove.

Do you want one?
We're about to pull Shauns WC lift out next. It works better and I think it will fit out the door.

[Kubla]

If you ever priced hydraulic pumps and cylinders you would understand why I cringe at the idea of throwing them away if they work

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Kubla

If you ever priced hydraulic pumps and cylinders you would understand why I cringe at the idea of throwing them away if they work

I'm already using all my storage space at home and my bus stuff has spilled into my friends' properties. I've got no use for em and no one I know has said they want or need them so best to let em go to the curb.

[brokedown]

I had a crazy idea about mounting a wheelchair lift to the back of my bus as a lazy person's scooter carrier, but then I decided I was too lazy to implement it.

[EastCoastCB]

Well that rain yesterday was crazy.
Looks like its cleared up finally.


Gotta get out a ladder and get the rest of the reflective tape and decals off. I've already done all the ones I can reach.

[cadillackid]

we had that rain the other day... yesterday was just cold.. 20..



today we get that rain back and then some kind of polar vortex.. supposed to drop our temperatures century-cold... hopefully that polar crap stays away from florida..

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Well that rain yesterday was crazy.
Looks like its cleared up finally.


Gotta get out a ladder and get the rest of the reflective tape and decals off. I've already done all the ones I can reach.

So crazy the had to shorten the 24Hrs. of Daytona race by a couple hours because they were just running behind the pace car under yellow.