Starting on hills fully loaded

[rayreid0408]

I tow a 24ft caravan with my D40 6 speed manual & have problems when I have got to start on a hill, the van is 3000kg loaded & the clutch isn't happy. Has anyone worked out how to start in lo4 & get uo to hi2 without all the drama I seem to go through. Ther must be someone a lot smarter than me who knows how to do it.

 

[RustyNav09]

Mate best person I would point u towards would be old.tony, he rows a caravan not sure what size though. You mite just need to upgrade the clutch to a hd unit and piss the factory weak unit off.

 

[Leprechaun]

I tow a 24ft caravan with my D40 6 speed manual & have problems when I have got to start on a hill, the van is 3000kg loaded & the clutch isn't happy. Has anyone worked out how to start in lo4 & get uo to hi2 without all the drama I seem to go through. Ther must be someone a lot smarter than me who knows how to do it.

Nope it's not possible. I'm sorry to say you should have bought an auto or a different model of tow vehicle.

 

[Dion]

Not with the electronics locking you out.

 

[Blacknav]

Mate best person I would point u towards would be old.tony, he rows a caravan not sure what size though. You mite just need to upgrade the clutch to a hd unit and piss the factory weak unit off.

Pretty sure Old.tony's Nav is an Auto

 

[Old.Tony]

Yup, mine's an auto, bought because it was recommended for towing up to 3T. As it is, we never bought the 5th wheeler that we'd intended to get, and so we're only hauling 1.8T around - but I'd still prefer to do it in an auto.

Ray, the factory clutch is not the strongest beast around and if your dealer was half as smart as they should have been, they'd have told you to get the auto if you were towing that much weight.

There's no way the transfer case can change from LO to HI range and the D40 will be driving all 4 wheels in both HI and LO, so the slightest turn of the wheel and you're not just using up clutch, you're stretching transfer chain as well. If you had the D22, you could leave the front hubs unlocked.

I suppose if you don't do any 4WDing you could have the front propeller shaft removed which at least gets rid of that problem, but you'd have to climb the hill completely in 4LO because there's no way to switch out until you've stopped the vehicle, put the gearbox in neutral, pressed the brake, place 3 freshly picked white onions on the dash and sung 'Silent Night' in Swahili with an Irish accent.

 

[Dion]

stopped the vehicle, put the gearbox in neutral, pressed the brake, place 3 freshly picked white onions on the dash and sung 'Silent Night' in Swahili with an Irish accent.

I still can't work out why they made that witch doctor a powertrain engineer.

 

[sem]

I have actually read somewhere i think it was 4WD action where someone was able to put a switch inside the cab to be able to go to 2WD Low. I'm sure you would need to still drive to flat ground but it would be possible. I think it was just the reason the guy did it as well as reversing the caravan into spots. I'll try and have a look at some old issues and see what i can find.
Also do you have an upgraded exhaust as i think that would really help. I have a D22 but I have a friend with a D40 who said hill starts were night and day once he got a new exhaust.

 

[Scottar]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but the others are right about "you should have bought an auto."
All of the current crop of small capacity manual turbo diesels have absolutely s**t house clutch systems. I worked in the marine game (until today) and talked to a lot of guys that towed 6 metre plus boats with D40's and similar vehicles. One client was on his third clutch in under 100 thousand K's. He did fix it - traded it in. I am led to believe that part of the problem is these new dual mass flywheel systems that all the manufacturers seem to be going to in the manuals( in an attempt to reduce clutch shudder due to smaller engines not having the low down torque to get off the line). This apparently means that when the clutch is changed the flywheel has to be done as well at some ridiculous cost (correct me if I am wrong guys - only going on what I have been told by mechanic). I think you can change the flywheel to a traditional type - don't know whether this helps with getting off the line or just makes it cheaper to replace the clutch next time.

Regards

Scott

 

[turbogu]

Ive got a heavy duty clutch and solid mass flywheel in mine and other than the fact i know it wont fall on the ground when i ride the crap out of it it wont do jack bugger all for helping you take off

The main problem is A: fly by wire throttle, they need a certain percentage of speedo input to make the throttle start to work effectively and B: no boost

As others have said, things like a decent exhaust, or a power chip will help as it gets power to come on earlier, even blocking the egr in mine made a slight difference to its low down throttle response

The other thing which will help helps is a throttle modifier (or peddle box) from some one like dte in england or monster performance industries in thailand

They plug in to the accelerator harness and amplifes and improves the signals from the pedal sensors to the ecu speeding them up making the throttle work more like a cable job

The dte has 4 settings from memory and the monster has 12 and is changeable on the dash rather than jumper pins like the dte

I just bought a dte tuning chip and peddle box and im going to through it on soon and see what it does then im going to chuck em both on dads 2010 st auto and buy one of the monster performance jobbies

If i had of known about the monster ones before i bought the dte i would never have got it

There gear looks first class and they are getting some massive results out of 4cyl common rail diesels (like 420 plus rear wheel horsepower!!!) and im kean as hell to try one of their full piggy back computers rather than just a chip

 

[rayreid0408]

Thanks to all you blokes for ur advice, I might invest in a performance exhaust while I'm waiting for the clutch to die. What really shits me off is I told the dealer I wanted to tow a big van & he recommended the manual.

 

[nathand22]

i dont really have any advice for you except for getting that salesman to look under your car while you drive over the idiots head. the only trouble would be is that your clutch would probably crap it self and it wouldnt get that job done right for you either. those guys are nothing but thief's for steeling our oxygen..

 

[Old.Tony]

It's a shame about that dealer. They should all know - from any manufacturer, really - that today's manual TD utes can't really tow heavy stuff, because they're mostly fitted with DMF (Dual Mass Flywheels) and lighter-than-air clutches.

Exedy make a replace clutch, and definitely consider a single mass flywheel. The SMF is what we all think of when we think "flywheel" - a solid chunk of metal that bolts onto the back end of the crankshaft with a bloody great lot of teeth around the outside for the starter and a shiny round bit for the clutch to hang on to - and NOTHING else. No bullshit springs, dampeners, slides or anything else.

I'm pretty certain that most clutch places (especially those that specialise in 4WD drive trains) would know a good kit to put in it. Don't ask me for one, because my dealer knows his stuff and sold me an auto. I only know this stuff because I read a lot. Maybe too much!

 

[burgo]

I'm fairly sure the original clutch is 240 mm. dia @1000kg clamp pressure so there is not much more u can do with it and this might explain why NISSAN don't have anything either.
With the above in mind, be careful not to get ripped off with a replacement.
Because of the high 1st. gear ratio a lot of slip is required to get moving and this subsequently requires a large clutch area to handle the heat generated. The D40 doesn't have it. Sorry to say.
Rd's
Burgo

 

[BravoBrad]

Somebody needs to make a mod so we can unlock the hubs and select low range.

 

[Old.Tony]

Somebody needs to make a mod so we can unlock the hubs and select low range.

I'm just going through the manual now and it looks like the transfer case has had the lever system removed from the rear and a little box called a "Transfer Control Device" added to it (p110/144 of TF.pdf). This device is controlled by the Transfer Control Unit (p105/144 of TF.pdf).

It would seem that it's a simple lever that mechanically moves the transfer case into 4WD mode and while in that mode, further movement of the lever changes it to LO range.

I do not think there's an easy way to make the transfer case engage LO range without first selecting 4WD.

Since that's the point where the front axle is engaged, it's the point I'd be concentrating on.

Of course, if you weren't going to be doing any 4WDing, just remove your front drive (propeller) shaft - engage whatever mode you like. I'd put dust boots over the ends to prevent must and dirt and crap from getting in and causing damage, but that'd work - if you don't need 4WD.

 

[micksnavara]

I purchased a steinbauner power module soley to inprove my throttle response. Because when i purchsed my D22 ZD30 i found the throttle was making the car hell to drive.
The module was made it almost as good as a cable throttle.

Hope my Two cents worth of info helps !!! Good Luck

 

[cg d40]

I tow a 24ft caravan with my D40 6 speed manual & have problems when I have got to start on a hill, the van is 3000kg loaded & the clutch isn't happy. Has anyone worked out how to start in lo4 & get uo to hi2 without all the drama I seem to go through. Ther must be someone a lot smarter than me who knows how to do it.

I have 07 d40 &tow 3t boat .The car would not pull boat up the boat ramp. went to dealer 4 times & couldn't fault it. Took the car to a someone else while under warranty & found their was no turbo till 1800rpm.Now i have 5psi at 1000rpm a heavy duty clutch & a dp chip and car tows with no problems

 

[longy509]

How did they get the turbo to kick in that early mine doesnt kick in till around 1800 at the moment.

 

[4 naving]

When i replaced my 07 clutch i was suprised to se that the standard clutch was made by Exceedy.... identical to the heavy duty exceedy one i was putting in... Very interesting!!!!