mechanical gauges or electrical?

[RYAN COHEE]

I,ll be running the same for sure...

[SPONSOR]

Membership in the largest desert racing community has its advantages - Participate in Forum Discussions - Send and Receive Private Messages - Maintain Public Photo Albums - Access to Groups - User Profile in our Social Network - Increased Access to more Sub Forums - Reduced Online Advertisements Join our community today

[g king]

I have had a few problems with the Autometer gauges that have the stepper motor inside, I would never use them on my own vehicle. Livorsi is pretty much the only gauge I will use or recommend

[martein]

I have had a few problems with the Autometer gauges that have the stepper motor inside, I would never use them on my own vehicle. Livorsi is pretty much the only gauge I will use or recommend

You are still going to have the same problem reading Livorsi gauges as you do any other guage other than the elites. When the terrain gets rough or you are trying to focus on the gps to get your driver through a technical section at speed they are just much more difficult to read. You are going to see a 2" diameter glowing red circle out of the corner of your eye even if you are watching your mirrors or concentrating on another issue

[g king]

I agree, gauges are difficult to read, I have spent alot of time in the right seat of many different teams, and yes having a gauge that changes color would help draw your attention over to gauge when there is a problem. But if the gauge is not reliable then it's a roll of the dice. I have about five autometer gauges sitting on my shelf that have bad stepper motors, I plan on sending them in and having them fixed when I get around to in. Livorsi gauges, I have found are of higher quality than the autometer, even though they don't have cool options. Oil psi is the most overlooked gauge on any dashboard, because you can quickly glance over and you have psi, then back to GPS, then back to oil. What nobody is watching is the quick little spikes or little sweeps, that indicate low oil level. A good quality oil switch (Hobbs) can alert you to problems before you realize what the gauge is doing. get a switch that has a higher psi rating, one that turns off at 25-30 psi. It might be on when you are at idle or low rpm, but will be off when you are at race speed. Then if you see a flicker of light when you are at speed and you are glued to the GPS, you can then be sure to change focus. Water temp is much more linear, and you can glance over and see if your running at the right temp, or if it is climbing. Water temp also has it's down side, if you loose your coolant all of a sudden, sometimes the gauge reads normal, because there is no coolant around the sender, once again a good quality psi switch (Hobbs) can alert you to sudden loss of coolant psi, indicating a leak. This is just my 2-cents.

[martein]

I agree, gauges are difficult to read, I have spent alot of time in the right seat of many different teams, and yes having a gauge that changes color would help draw your attention over to gauge when there is a problem. But if the gauge is not reliable then it's a roll of the dice. I have about five autometer gauges sitting on my shelf that have bad stepper motors, I plan on sending them in and having them fixed when I get around to in. Livorsi gauges, I have found are of higher quality than the autometer, even though they don't have cool options. Oil psi is the most overlooked gauge on any dashboard, because you can quickly glance over and you have psi, then back to GPS, then back to oil. What nobody is watching is the quick little spikes or little sweeps, that indicate low oil level. A good quality oil switch (Hobbs) can alert you to problems before you realize what the gauge is doing. get a switch that has a higher psi rating, one that turns off at 25-30 psi. It might be on when you are at idle or low rpm, but will be off when you are at race speed. Then if you see a flicker of light when you are at speed and you are glued to the GPS, you can then be sure to change focus. Water temp is much more linear, and you can glance over and see if your running at the right temp, or if it is climbing. Water temp also has it's down side, if you loose your coolant all of a sudden, sometimes the gauge reads normal, because there is no coolant around the sender, once again a good quality psi switch (Hobbs) can alert you to sudden loss of coolant psi, indicating a leak. This is just my 2-cents.

are you having stepper motor problems with the elite series?

[g king]

one of the gauges I have is an elite, and the rest are the standard new style autometer. You can tell the new style with the stepper motor by looking at the plug in on the back. The stepper style have a rectangle plug with predetermined wire lengths

[martein]

one of the gauges I have is an elite, and the rest are the standard new style autometer. You can tell the new style with the stepper motor by looking at the plug in on the back. The stepper style have a rectangle plug with predetermined wire lengths

Maybe we have been lucky. What I do know is the elites are voltage sensitive. If you under power them they won't fire up when you start the car

[g king]

I like it when you turn on the ignition and one gauge pegs and stays there, and another can only muster enough power to get a quarter the way up and just vibrate, yea, I am not sold on them

[martein]

I like it when you turn on the ignition and one gauge pegs and stays there, and another can only muster enough power to get a quarter the way up and just vibrate, yea, I am not sold on them

We have found that if we turn the ignition on and wait for all of the guages to start up and cycle before cranking the engine the guages don't have any problems. If we just jump in flip the ignition and crank it over we will have some that start some that don't and some that start but are stuck on one reading.

[Zambo]

I just ordered the following two gauges from my pre runner. I'll let y'all know how they work out. Speedhut lets you customize the gauges, for instance I got mine with trans temp instead of fuel level and I got turn signals and high beam indicator added to the speedo. $600 for everything.

http://www.speedhut.com/custom_gauge...number-896.htm

http://www.speedhut.com/custom_gauge...number-939.htm