Learned something about cvt's today

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wasilvers

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I was eating out with the family when a gal ran into the restaurant and needed help getting her car unstuck. Her handicapped mom had driven through the construction barrels and into an area prepared for new sidewalk, just dropped the front wheels off the edge (maybe 9 inches most straight down). We built a ramp to within 4 inches of the top with loose gravel and tried backing her 4x4 car out. It would hit 2k rpms and nothing, no wheel slippage, no pulling out, nothing. Turns out the car had a continuous variable transmission (cvt) and apparently has no torque in reverse. I had to drive it up the other side to get a run at reverse just to barely squeak it out of the small ditch. Me and the other guy were really missing our 4x4s, would have been no problem pulling her out. Heck, we almost pushed her out with the two of us.

So now, when looking at new 4x4s for daily driving, one of my tests will be to back it against a curb and see if it can give a good effort clearing it. The car today would easily fail that test.
 
Out of curiosity, was it a late model Subaru? Us late model Outback owners with CVT have noticed that if we're backed up right against something it takes high revs or perhaps a foot or so of running room to climb over something to the rear.

However, the AWD CVT does deliver 30+mpg and a tow capacity of over 2,500lbs - so that aspect is hard to beat.
 
However, the AWD CVT does deliver 30+mpg and a tow capacity of over 2,500lbs - so that aspect is hard to beat.

My wife drives a Jeep Liberty Diesel. It gets 30-31mpg highway and can tow 5000#. A few years ago, it was pushing snow with the bumper getting out of the driveway.
 
bgeddes said:
My wife drives a Jeep Liberty Diesel. It gets 30-31mpg highway and can tow 5000#. A few years ago, it was pushing snow with the bumper getting out of the driveway.

That's awesome. Is it the 4wd model? I glanced at the Liberty when I bought last year but I discounted it for some reason, may have been that I just don't have enough personal experience with jeeps going 200K miles over the years without trouble. Although the only person I know at the moment with a jeep has put serious miles on without too much trouble - so my opinion may not be accurate for current jeeps.
 
wasilvers said:
I was eating out with the family when a gal ran into the restaurant and needed help getting her car unstuck. Her handicapped mom had driven through the construction barrels and into an area prepared for new sidewalk, just dropped the front wheels off the edge (maybe 9 inches most straight down). We built a ramp to within 4 inches of the top with loose gravel and tried backing her 4x4 car out. It would hit 2k rpms and nothing, no wheel slippage, no pulling out, nothing. Turns out the car had a continuous variable transmission (cvt) and apparently has no torque in reverse. I had to drive it up the other side to get a run at reverse just to barely squeak it out of the small ditch. Me and the other guy were really missing our 4x4s, would have been no problem pulling her out. Heck, we almost pushed her out with the two of us.

So now, when looking at new 4x4s for daily driving, one of my tests will be to back it against a curb and see if it can give a good effort clearing it. The car today would easily fail that test.
From here......

"Even though the calculated max reverse torque for the CVT is slightly greater, the MT still will have an advantage when backed up against an obstacle. The MT driver can “pop” the clutch pedal out and get a momentary burst of torque from the drive train inertia. There’s no way to do this with the CVT’s torque converter. But once the wheels are moving, both cars should have a similar sustainable backup capability up a slope."
 
A few years ago we were down at one of the local rivers. A guy had driven his AWD Ford Escape (I think, can't remember) down on the sand. He got stuck on top of the sand. I mean on top. Didn't sink or anything. We kept telling him to give it more gas but he had it floored. RPM's barely increased. Maybe 2000 like mentioned above. It just wouldn't drive across loose sand.
 
That's awesome. Is it the 4wd model? I glanced at the Liberty when I bought last year but I discounted it for some reason, may have been that I just don't have enough personal experience with jeeps going 200K miles over the years without trouble. Although the only person I know at the moment with a jeep has put serious miles on without too much trouble - so my opinion may not be accurate for current jeeps.

The Diesel is an '05. They only made diesel Libertys in '05 and '06. Ours is four wheel drive, and I believe all of the diesels were as well. Our other Jeep, a 2000 Cherokee, we bought new and it has 175K on the clock. Many, many Cherokees break the 200K mark. This is with the now discontinued 4.0L straight six. Longevity is typical in any manufacturer's straight six.
 
MOE said:
A few years ago we were down at one of the local rivers. A guy had driven his AWD Ford Escape (I think, can't remember) down on the sand. He got stuck on top of the sand. I mean on top. Didn't sink or anything. We kept telling him to give it more gas but he had it floored. RPM's barely increased. Maybe 2000 like mentioned above. It just wouldn't drive across loose sand.

Guaranteed he had the traction control on.. When it detects any wheel slip it cuts all your power
 
bgeddes said:
However, the AWD CVT does deliver 30+mpg and a tow capacity of over 2,500lbs - so that aspect is hard to beat.

My wife drives a Jeep Liberty Diesel. It gets 30-31mpg highway and can tow 5000#. A few years ago, it was pushing snow with the bumper getting out of the driveway.

I sure wish my gas Liberty could get 30mpg.. Hard to get 20mpg going downhill in neutral with a tailwind!! But that's my only real complaint, other than the rear suspension being garbage ( and now recalled!)
 

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