THE DANGERS OF DOWNSPEEDING

Avatar photo
@JamesMenzies

While in San Diego for the American Trucking Associations conference I had an interesting chat with Mike Schwanzl, senior manager, field sales with Dana. He’s concerned about the increased torque loads the industry-wide trend towards downspeeding is placing on the driveline.

Downspeeding, or running the engine more slowly with faster axle ratios, places about 57% more torque on the driveline. This needs to be taken into account while spec’ing vehicles with a downsped powertrain, but too often fleets are choosing standard drivelines and then suffering damage while on the road.

Mike told me fleets choosing a downsped powertrain should torque-limit the engine through a software recalibration from the engine manufacturer. And they should fortify the driveline by spec’ing components that were designed to survive in a downsped engine environment.

You can check out my report on this issue here.

Avatar photo
@JamesMenzies

James Menzies is editor of Today's Trucking. He has been covering the Canadian trucking industry for more than 20 years and holds a CDL. Reach him at james@newcom.ca or follow him on Twitter at @JamesMenzies.


Have your say


This is a moderated forum. Comments will no longer be published unless they are accompanied by a first and last name and a verifiable email address. (Today's Trucking will not publish or share the email address.) Profane language and content deemed to be libelous, racist, or threatening in nature will not be published under any circumstances.

*