• barsoap@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        The secret to pulling trailers, for the uninitiated American, is simple: Don’t have an automatic transmission. It’s a torque thing, most automatic transmissions aren’t designed to haul because enabling them to do that requires actively cooling the torque converter which is yet more moving parts, cost, and weight, so only SUVs and upwards ever have that capability.

        Meanwhile, Europeans haul things all the time with cars. Regulations and different approaches to tongue weight are yet another factor.

        • peasntanks@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          Many cities and towns across the Rockies in North America have elevations above 1800 meters. That’s the starting point. Buy comparison, “high” cities in Europe, like Bern (500m) and Innsbruck (574m) don’t Even come close. It’s not a factor of one thing like having a manual transmission, but a multitude of factors like road condition, grade, elevation, distance driven, humidity, etc. It’s a completely different environment. The 2.2 turbo diesel may indeed not have enough power to get over any of the many 4000+ meter passes if it can’t get enough air or cool itself while towing.

          • barsoap@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            Many cities and towns across the Rockies in North America have elevations above 1800 meters.

            Elevation does not say anything about incline. Total elevation btw also does also not say anything about elevation starting from the base of the mountain. Ask a Mountaineer who scaled the Kilimanjaro, the summit is 4.9km above its plateau base.

            Also, have a look at other places in the US: Flat like a pancake. Yet you don’t see cars hauling stuff there while people haul things with cars in the Alps. How come?

            The 2.2 turbo diesel may indeed not have enough power to get over any of the many 4000+ meter passes if it can’t get enough air or cool itself while towing.

            Motor torque doesn’t matter add an extra gear and anything can pull anything (slowly). Any motor is also plenty powerful enough to cool itself, air is thin there yes but it’s not like we’re in space, if you can breathe, so can the motor. Do you even know what a torque converter is. What it does. Why it’s in an automatic, but not a manual.