I have 4 Honda dealers near me, and I made the rounds calling all of them this moring. Absolutely nobody in sales anywhere had a clue that this was a unique transmission....even though they all have units out on the floor. Part of the problem may be that Honda did not have a dealer convention this year. They instead had an on-line "unconvention", and I think everybody just passed this one over thinking it was the same old same old tranny as the 400AT.

Anyway, I did however have luck with the service manager at the dealership which is my favorite! He has parts lists and diagrams, and did indeed confirm that it is a geared fully/semi-automatic transmisson, much like the VW has!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-clutch_gearbox


He was very familiar with the VW, and was totally stoked at the new technology! He says that the VW tranny is slick and completely bulletproof. He is copying the diagrams for me, and I will pick them up tomorrow.

This may turn out to be the only automatic transmisson that I could ever recommend. You add IRS into the mix, and it might just be worth the extra $1,000 price tag over the SRA Rancher.......

 

**NOTE** Chrysler has a simalar tranny comming out soon, and from what I have heard they are one heck of a setup! JFYI

 

it will be nice, but not $1000 nice. lighten it up, get it to the 500cc mark, SRA option, better shocks. maybe.

Chrysler isnt the only one intro'ing one. Getrag is making it for them AND Ford very soon. Which kinda deja vu because if you know automotive history, Ford used to buy transmissions from the Dodge brothers back in the early days!

There are only a handful of meaningful, major tranny manufacturers in the world: Allison(GM) , Aisin(primarily toyota - they own part of them but also used in almost every other brand), Borgwarner, Getrag, Jatco, and ZF. They will work with each other sometimes but in the end make transmissions for nearly all of the oems for various needs...

However, honda and mercedes continue to make their own exclusively and rarely outsource trannys.

wikipedia hunt:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZF_Friedrichshafen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BorgWarner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_Transmission

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...f_Aisin_transmissions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getrag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jatco

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...of_Jatco_transmissions

 

the dealer near my house has the new irs rancher and i love that honda has a irs rancher now i was just hoping that it would have a little more ground clearance. but i bet it woud be a very nice ride on the trails.

 

Here is link from ALLPAR.COM and will give you a good idea how it is designed and works.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Tom of Barbaria

the dealer near my house has the new irs rancher and i love that honda has a irs rancher now i was just hoping that it would have a little more ground clearance. but i bet it woud be a very nice ride on the trails.</end quote></div>

Honda doesn't make their quads tower way up in the air, because they know that hurts stability! They also don't go with the sloppy long travel suspensions, that also hurt stability. Safety first!!!

Some manufacturers, don't seem to care whether you kill yourself or not, once they have your money....

 

That allpar link was interesting...

I have a feeling it might take some time to work any kinks out, but I can see the advantages. I would think that it would be considerably more efficient than planetary gearsets and a torque converter, or a hydrostat.

 

Essentially, it is a gear-on-gear manual transmission (that sounds good to me!), that can be rapidly shifted semi-automatically or programed to shift itself fully automatically.

The unit in the pictures, looks like it is very compact and perhaps light (???).

 

I would presume the one they are showing is light duty, intended for a front wheel drive passenger vehicle?

Anyhow, the nested input shafts look kind of complicated, but if it works I could see it being a big advantage in the big pickup market... An automatic transmission that doesn't suffer the MPG loss of a tradtional auto...

 

I am very interested how a simalar design is going to work in a atv. On paper sounds like a great idea! If it works Honda may just ave a hit/winner on there hands.