Hand throttle discussion

BigClay

BigClay

Knower of useless ZJ things
Joined
Sep 24, 2008
Location
Winston-Salem
Looking for opinions from those of you that wheel a manual transmission. Do you have a hand throttle? If so, do you like it or recommend it? If you don't have a hand throttle, is there a time when you wish you did (i.e. climbing a ledge etc.)?
 
I have one I've been working on for a while. I have not been able to get it working properly. I'll be very happy when I do. Anyone that says they don't need one with a manual trans simply hasn't been put in a situation where they do need it.
 
Also, where is the best place to mount it?
 
I had one that worked great it was just a bicycle cable and a u shaped wire clamp and a hose clamp to hold the cable in place but I pinched the line and have not been able to get it to work right sense and boy do I miss it
 
I had one on my old rig and loved it. I will dig up a picture of it.
 
i had one on my old TJ & loved it & mount it on the gear shifter near the top
 
Never had one personally since I've always been an auto guy but I've seen zuki and yota guys using bicycle brake levers and cables. I've seen that work but is there other mechanisms out there besides that?
 
I had one on my TJ for a long time. It waas GREAT to have. I can only recall needing it 2 or 3 times, but it was those "if I roll back more than a quarter inch I'm probably going to flip and die" situations. The other nice thing about it was being able to set a high idle for winching or recharging a battery or things along those lines. Mine was an old bike shifter with no detents, so it was infinitely adjustable. I had it mounted on the shifter just below the handle/ball where I could activate it with my thumb. When I swapped in the NV4500, I was tired of working on the jeep, so I never had the motivation to put it back on. It can also be used as redneck cruise control if you need to take your foot off the gas for a second, but remember, it won't cut off when you hit the brakes!
 
@shawn Well done sir. Take your crawler to an obstacle like escalator in Moab. Go halfway up, stop and start over. You'd either have to have some huge feets or your pedals are very close to avoid something going wrong. I can side step a clutch as good as anyone but there are certain times it's just not enough.;)
 
An old Shimano rear derailleur shifter (preferably off a road bike since they were less likely to have detents in it and a front derailleur does not have a long enough throw), Jagwire or comparable shift cable housing (Brake housing is about 1mm larger and will cause slop in the cable) and a few small clamps. Any bike shop usually has a parts bin in the back from old parts scavenged from junkers where you might find the shift lever, the cable and housing they sell pretty cheap. If you are in the Charlotte area, just go by the Trips for Kids Re-Cyclery as they have a TON of old bike parts from stuff that has been donated and all the parts are sold at a reasonable price. I think the last one I put together and tried out I had maybe $20 invested in. The trick to getting them to work right is to have the straightest shot possible from the lever to where you attach it to the throttle cable up near the butterfly.
 
I love mine! As said before its great to idle up the truck to fill an air tank faster or charge the batteries, but its been useful to start on inclines as well.
Mine's mounted on the dash and has a thumb screw to lock it in place.
 
No doubt. I'm mostly just giving you shit... but I'll admit that gearing and motor torque play a huge role in it. The Bronco with a doubler and V8 did all right. The TJ with a 4cyl would straight-up die on you if the hills got too steep. It's better with a 6cyl, but still could probably benefit from 4:1 or better in the tcase.

At a certain point, I think an auto is probably the better choice, if only because it allows you to finesse it more easily when out at the margins... but the fire risk scares me off with the kids in the back seat.
 
I have a bike brake handle on the shifter on my f150. I'll take a pic when I get home for lunch. I only use it occasionally if I need to start off on a hill without rolling back. If I'm already rolling I use the toe of my right foot on the brake and the outside of my right heel on the gas.

I have a jeep cruise servo set up to hold the throttle for winch, weld, or air compressor duty. I bump the throttle to the desired rpm with a toggle. It doesn't work smooth enough for crawling though so I added the hand throttle.
 
I don't have one I just heel toe it. I know guys with them and have driven with one but I don't think I need one.
 
If you have an e brake handle wont that do just about the same thing? I guess the e brake just locking the back tires wouldnt keep you from sliding back in extreme situations but it should help keep you from rolling back to work the clutch and gas.
 
uploadfromtaptalk1401987164817.jpg
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here's my set up.
 

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Clay, I've got a shifter & extra long "upgraded" cable somewhere here that you're welcome to if you want it?
Bought a pair years ago, installed one on Tater's CJ and planned to use mine for high idle (warm-ups, winching, etc.)
Since I have an auto and energizing the TBI "AC" circuit will bump the idle for winching... it's sitting unused since
 
I do not have one but need to add one. It is not for helping with the pedals (I can handle those fine, thank you) it is best for avoiding "bouncing" on the gas pedal while trying to get up something. It only makes the traction situation worse when the engine is speeding up and down quickly. This has hurt my climb attempts numerous times.
 
I don't have extensive experience with being stopped on an incline but, when I was, the emergency brake was sufficient. One thing you have to make sure of is that your emergency brake is adjusted correctly.
Those of you that actually use one when stopped on an incline, are you using it instead of the emergency brake?
 
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