Tachometer. Needed or just for fun? Or a crutch?

[ClutchFork]

I often hear people who drive stick say that a tachometer is not necessary and I agree. You really don't watch it anyway, but I find it useful to know what rpms are happening at certain speeds. Kind of a nice reference at times.

What are your thoughts? Do you look at your tach all that much?

I find that when I wind it out harder I tend to glance as I shift just to see how high it went. But I also sometimes find myself looking at it at low speed as if to know when to downshift, even though you can know by feel.

I am thinking it might be a good exercise to cover the tachometer for a few days and drive without the information it provides. See how it feels. In a way, I think not having the tachometer can bring you closer to the machine.

[potownrob]

not sure if the car will run without one

[potownrob]

reminds me of the case of the deaf man and the pickup truck. someone i knew had an old (80s?) dodge ram, manual, no tach. sold it to a couple for their deaf son to drive. apparently, he did fine with it, despite no tach and having to know when to shift by other means. i know he had a light in the cabin that lit up when outside noises (firetrucks, FBI agents, etc.) intruded, so he knew to look around. maybe he also had a shift light installed??

[theholycow]

Covering it is indeed suggested as an exercise for people who feel like they're dependent on it.

For a long time there was a very strong feeling on Standardshift that tachometers are evil and should never be used. I think that's reduced a little bit lately. It's definitely not necessary but neither is it in any way a bad thing.

IMO, the tachometer is just another useful tool. Sure, you can use it like a crutch; you can also use engine noise, seat vibration, speedometer, movement of the road relative to your car, or a phone call with Miss Cleo the psychic like a crutch. As long as you're not staring at it when you should be looking at the road there's nothing wrong with using it.

The fuel gauge is a crutch; you should know how many miles you can go before you need gas. The speedometer is a crutch; at 55mph the dotted lines go by at the tempo of the song "Duke Of Earl". The turn signal indicator is a crutch; you should know when you've engaged your turn signal, ferchrissake. Same goes for the parking brake indicator, you should certainly know when you've engaged that thing. The visible red part of the door lock that tells you it's unlocked is a crutch; you should pay attention in exactly the same ways you pay attention to RPM.

Don't forget that it's a diagnostic gauge just like it is in an automatic. You can see an unstable idle in it, for example.

As for shifting, it can tell you with more precision than any other clue if your rev-match was perfect. In some cars you may never feel a 50RPM mismatch but you could see it.

I wish I had one. It's funny, all these people have them and like to talk about how unnecessary (or sometimes how evil) they are, while I'm the one willing to bear the cross of having one but I don't. I just never feel like I should be treating myself to that particular $25 luxury.

[theholycow]

I was thinking about it and realized that my previous post might have carried a tone that I didn't intend. Think Lewis Black, not Eric Cartman...while it's all true, the tone was meant in a jesty way.

A few more thoughts:

In an unfamiliar vehicle with a smooth quiet engine, someone who's not good at becoming one with a vehicle would need the tach. When I had the 2008 VW and my wife had never driven stick before, her dad started teaching her on an ancient Chevy S10 with a loud, rough 4-banger and no tachometer. When she got in the VW she kept running it up to 5000+RPM for casual, unhurried acceleration because she was depending on lots of engine noise to tell her to shift and she wasn't getting it.

Also, if your speedometer fails or goes wonky, the tachometer can help. Lately mine's been inconsistent and I've had to use GPS for accurate speed. On the flip side, even without a tachometer I can more accurately estimate my speed based on feel and being very conscious of what gear I'm in (and having no slush between the engine and that gear) than I could with automatic (even if the auto had a tach). It's not that I don't know what gear my automatic is in, I always do, but it's less in the forefront of my mind.

[ClutchFork]

Whelp, I put black contact paper over my tach last night and drove without it today. Didn't miss it one bit. Guess that indicates I am not dependent. Never had a factory tach until I bought the ranger two years ago. I always installed aftermarket tachs in most of my vehicles. It was especially interesting in the 4.9L inline six F150 where max rpm was under 4000 (unless you wanted to go way over the power band) and I had big tach that only went to 4000 so I got the whole sweep. I'll see if I can get a photo up later.

[Tups]

maybe he also had a shift light installed?? :? :D

...or just had a working speedometer?

[six]

For me, it's "just for fun." It's definitely not needed in my opinion, and I rarely, if ever, look at it while doing normal day-to-day driving. The only times I do look at it is when I glance over it to see some other gauge (speedometer, which I also rarely look at). As for fuel-gauge, unlike what THC said, I rely on that most of the time. Since I drive in widely varying traffic, no two miles are the same for me, so judging by miles alone, while it would be an okay rough estimate, will not be reliable enough.

The tach helped in the beginning when I first drove the car, to judge RPM-matching, but once I got those down, it was no longer necessary.

[ClutchFork]

My friend had a broken fuel gauge in a 1970s Chevy pickup. The fuel tank in those days was in the cab, behind the seat. So we were poor and never had a lot of fuel, but (and it was also a 3 speed collumn shifted manual!), he give it a buck with the clutch at low speed to slosh the fuel and could figure how much fuel he had left that way.

As for my 4.9L inline six that had a power band (torque peak 2000 rpm and hp peak 3400 rpm) and basically ran out of power above 4000 rpm, here is the tach I had installed in the dash, where the 4x4 controls would have gone had I that option, which I didn't.:

This tach has only terminals on the back. You got to build your own wiring harness.

Here it is in action if you can stand the jiggling camera which was held in my shift hand:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... 74pP3CDm1o

[theholycow]

I like that tach. Seems like every tach on the market is for wannabe-racers and reads 8,000-12,000 RPM. I doubt I get over 4,000 often, or maybe even at all. I don't think my engine could even reach 6,000 and I only want a small tach, so I'd want one that doesn't have excess range.

I used to be a dead-on accurate human tachometer. Just using my ears I could call RPM perfectly. Somehow I lost that skill.

[ClutchFork]

I used to be a dead-on accurate human tachometer. Just using my ears I could call RPM perfectly. Somehow I lost that skill.

Back in the days of carb-u-tator fuel delivery systems, there were pros who could tune up the engine to run 600 rpm idle by ear.

Autogauge has a nice compact tach that is 0-6000 rpm which is suitable for most street driven cars.

[tankinbeans]

reminds me of the case of the deaf man and the pickup truck. someone i knew had an old (80s?) dodge ram, manual, no tach. sold it to a couple for their deaf son to drive. apparently, he did fine with it, despite no tach and having to know when to shift by other means. i know he had a light in the cabin that lit up when outside noises (firetrucks, FBI agents, etc.) intruded, so he knew to look around. maybe he also had a shift light installed??

I've not seen other Minnesota cars on here much. Kind of strange.

[ClutchFork]

By the way, that old Dodge Ram is a great looking truck. Wonder if it is a manual and if so, if it's a column shifter. Nice wheels, plain and simple.

[tankinbeans]

If I'm shifting for mileage I glance at the tach more than usual, but I don't need it. Otherwise, I only look at the tach when I do my normal scanning of the gauges. I can drive my friend's Ranger just fine without it, primarily because it's a big, loud, sluggish 2.3 trucklet. I don't bother trying to get a bang-on accurate rev-match and opt more for the jab-smash-and-slap method.

It is helpful when I get distracted and forget to shift into fifth and look down at my speedo only to discover that I'm running close to 3k or whatever at 55 mph. Primarily, I like having the tach because it balances the dash out.

Also, as my friends and I have been trying to diagnose an erratic idle in my mom's Malibu it's been helpful to see just what the idle is doing at any given time.

[ClutchFork]

... primarily because it's a big, loud, sluggish 2.3 trucklet.

Must be an older 2.3L with the SOHC. My DOHC 2.3 is not sluggish except right off the line. You have to get above 3000 rpm or so and then it moves out nicely. Of course it is a truck and so will never compare to a car with same engine, such as a Ford Focus.