Slow Motorway Speeds?

[mike.perry]

follow some trucks on the open road - they should be doing 56 mph exactly!

Only on the motorway (Legally)

[bmcecosse]

They are governed to that speed -and can do so on single carriageway.

[RobMoore]

HGV are or should be restricted to a max speed of 56mph, though I have known and driven some that woujld sit at 60mph.
However there are many who bypass the restriction to go faster so to be sure follow one of the larger well known firms such as sobbart of a supermarket lorry.

[Alec]

Hello Nuffles,

as your speedometer seems rather inaccurate, a check on what differential you have might be an idea? Possibly been changed in the past for a low geared version from a van?

Alec

[HarryMango]

HGV are or should be restricted to a max speed of 56mph, though I have known and driven some that woujld sit at 60mph.
However there are many who bypass the restriction to go faster so to be sure follow one of the larger well known firms such as sobbart of a supermarket lorry.

But a supermarket lorry will only be doing 50.

Rog

[mike.perry]

HGV limits 56MPH motorway, 50 dual carriageway, 40 single carriageway unless lower limits are in force. With modern digital tachos and driver's record cards which are almost a "black box" there is little chance of getting away with breaking limits

[PSL184]

Tesco, ASDA & Morrissons limit their trucks to 50mph these days - It is their effort to combat climate change !! When I used to do the abatttoir runs, years ago, in Scania's we just used to pull out Fuse 13 and the limiter was disabled

[faversham999]

Just drove 400miles in france 70 to 75 all the way just stoped twice for fuel (not steep hills) acording to the sat nav no prob but it did have a new rad . Going out overheated as rad broke

[Alec]

Hello PSL,

"Tesco, ASDA & Morrissons limit their trucks to 50mph these days - It is their effort to combat climate change !!"

I'm glad to see the exclamation marks there. Supermarkets that import food from all over the world and they limit their trucks to save fuel?

Alec

[PSL184]

That's the irony of it all Alec
Why can't be buy more British produce ?

[Alec]

Hello PSL,

we certainly should but farming seems to have declined, due to a variety of factors but both the supermarkets and the government have been negative contributors. It's crazy that we import milk and our dairy farmers have declined as they can't make it pay. Robin Page in his weekly column has some almost incredible tales of the bureaucracy that DEFRA are inflicting on farmers, just who's side are they on?

Alec

[aupickup]

wondering way off topic

[captain_70s]

Heres an idea, find one of the stock Minor videos on YouTube and compere the revs they are getting to the ones you are getting, that'll at least show if there is something off about your car or its just general noise.

[Nuffles]

Sorry to bring this up again (but I guess it's better than creating a new thread topic), but I've only just got around to actually counting the ratio of my differential. Turning the prop 10 times results in 4 and 3/4 turns of the wheel, and divided by two to take the differential action into account, that's 2 and 3/8th turns of the axle for every 10 turns of the prop. This equals 10:2.375 ratio, which cuts down to ~4.2:1 so I have got the normal diff, which is kind of a surprise considering the car feels so low geared and doesn't go very fast at all Looks like I'm going on that search for a 3.9 diff

[bmcecosse]

Unless your engine has the power - it won't go any faster on a lower final drive ratio. But - good news is - it's easy enough top get a bit more power!

[Nuffles]

It certainly feels like it has the power. I can often accelerate through 4th, thinking I'm in 3rd before going to change gear and finding that I've run out It pulls well through 4th and just runs out of engine rpm. What would be the cheap ways to increase power output then? I've heard about upgrading the carb to a bigger/better one, so which carb would be a direct fit? Anything else to look at? 55-60 feels a lot faster than the 45 I usually cruise at (I can attain an indicated 60 going down long hills in neutral, in fact the fastest I've ever been in it was coasting down a long hill but it's the only way of actually getting to that kind of speed). Thanks for any tips.

[Nuffles]

Would any of these be of any use, for example? With a bit of a cleanup, obviously:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MINI-SERIES-SU-CA ... 4cf0956cba

[MarkyB]

Increasing the power wont make any difference to how many revs the engine is doing at speed though.
I've lost count of how many times I've reached for 5th gear even around town.

Motorways didn't really exist for most of the life of the Minor and the management of the company were allergic to the idea of investment or development.

This is the sad story of our once great manufacturing industries.

[Nuffles]

But there must be some reason why my car flat out refuses to go any faster than 55mph, when many on here claim to cruise at 60-65mph. Bummer.

[mike.perry]

Have you checked the timing, distributor condition etc? Excuse me if this has been covered, I have had a quick read through back posts and may have missed it.