I don't know too much about torque converters, but you may have a good point. I've ridden the Ruby and the tranny is "constantly vbariable", it does an excellent job of finding the right "gearing" to keep you in the powerband. I thought there would be no way a 3 speed could match it, but maybe with the torque converter it may work OK. I'm still skeptical of pulling a heavy trailer through extreme terrain without a low range though. Like you said, for now we're just speculating till we actually get a chance to ride one.

 

Having driven 'inferior' three speed auto tranny muscle cars-It doesn't bother me a bit that they are going with a three speed tranny. ( Yah a real drag to drive man never the right gearing rmember the guy in the song 'can't drive 55' saying about second gear, well that's cause second gear goes to ninety miles per hour in some auto tranny setups. )


It will however need a well matched torque converter, that allows for a very high stall, maybe 4000 rpm???or would that tear up the front drum brakes while burning out the back? bwahahaha