Fuel Efficiency
Limiters are used as a means of increasing the fuel efficiency of commercial motor vehicles. Limiters can be individually adjusted by fleet owners to meet the performance requirements of many different driving conditions. A limiter used for this purpose, however, especially if it is mechanical in nature, is more commonly categorized as a governor. Electronic adjustments require special diagnostic equipment to access control settings, and are limited to authorized personnel, such as a fleet manager or mechanic.
Due to their electrical nature, however, it is still possible to drive an engine beyond the maximum RPM level set by the limiter. This most commonly occurs in the case of selecting the incorrect gear with a manual transmission - for example, selecting second gear instead of fourth after shifting out of third. The speed of the vehicle and the drive wheels may drive the engine far beyond its intended range in this situation, likely resulting in rapid engine wear, and in extreme cases possible outright engine failure.
Read more about this topic: Rev Limiter
Famous quotes containing the words fuel and/or efficiency:
“I had an old axe which nobody claimed, with which by spells in winter days, on the sunny side of the house, I played about the stumps which I had got out of my bean-field. As my driver prophesied when I was plowing, they warmed me twice,—once while I was splitting them, and again when they were on the fire, so that no fuel could give out more heat. As for the axe,... if it was dull, it was at least hung true.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Nothing comes to pass in nature, which can be set down to a flaw therein; for nature is always the same and everywhere one and the same in her efficiency and power of action; that is, nature’s laws and ordinances whereby all things come to pass and change from one form to another, are everywhere and always; so that there should be one and the same method of understanding the nature of all things whatsoever, namely, through nature’s universal laws and rules.”
—Baruch (Benedict)