Sweatmachine

This is pretty rad.

2012platinum

My wife's '13 SHO has the paddle shifters on the steering wheel, and as it is a nice feature, I find it hard to use during "sporty" blast on the backroads of southern Mississippi. Seems every time I try to make a shift, the paddle I need is never next to my hand. So for me, if it was mounted on the shifter like in my f150, it would be an easier transition. That being said, I grew up driving 5spd mustangs, so having one hand on the wheel is comfortable to me. From reading your original post, you seem to be using it for more of a control feature than a "fun factor". Either way, def a cool mod you did. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Howler

While i don't think i would have much use for this mod, i certainly love the ingenuity you have!

Good Work!

scole

Man- I would REALLY like something like this instead of the +/- buttons on the transmission selector on the steering column. The SelectShift transmission is one of the reasons that I chose an F150 (for mountain driving like you) but the buttons are just awkward in use. Your mod looks pretty effective!

I also came across this video tonight:

It's a paddle shifter kit made my Mastershift for the SVT Raptor but I can't see why this wouldn't work on other F150s. Price looks like it might be steep, though.

ReactiveD

Awesome work and great idea

pfbz

I've looked at those mastershift paddles before... nice, but they are ridiculously expensive!

pfbz

Also, even small switches on the steering wheel [for me] would not be effective.

If I have to take my eyes off the road and/or use fine motor control and a fingertip to make a gear selection, useless. I want something I can easily swat at and not miss.

The next step to make mine work a bit better is to try and make a custom aluminum bracket that mounts to the column and then source some large flappy switches to mount to it, but again, my $5 solution works so damn well Im not overly motivated to make a big deal out of improving it!

nemosdad

Awesome! Your prototype looks better than most any protos I've seen. In any industry. I'd love to see a video of you in action with it. Mainly the rpm and truck attitude in "sport" mode. I know there are limiters to when the tranny will shift, regardless of intent, but I bet you know where those limits are!

pfbz

One thing that I prefer with the Ford 'manual' mode is that it will not auto upshift at redline... It will stop revving, but not automatically bump to the next gear. Many other paddle shifts I've driven will automatically upshift to the next gear even when in full manual mode. Audi's, BMW's, VW's all annoyingly upshift for me, often a fraction of a second before I hit the paddle myself resulting in a two-gear upshift.

None of the paddle shift systems I've driven, Ford included, will allow a "money shift"..., a downshift that would result in engine over-revs. It will just ignore your request rather than overrev the engine. This is much different than allowing the engine to hit/bounce the rev limiter on acceleration as described above.

pfbz

After using this system almost two years, It's worked fabulously with a couple of minor complaints...

First, the aluminum/shrink-wrap paddle extension has worked so well and been right at the perfect position that I've never bothered to make a version 2 revision. For driving around town, highway, commuting, I rarely use it. For mountain driving, snow driving, and occasional twisty-road-pretent-it's-a-sports-car driving, I use it all the time.

The weak spot in the system is the switch itself. I'm using a Radio Shack DPDT 20-Amp Momentary Switch, part 275-709. The switch isn't super robust, and I did have to swap out the first one just a few weeks ago. The switch still worked, but the return-to-center springs were starting to weaken. At a bit over $5, it's no big deal to replace it every once in a while, but I'd definitely prefer higher quality switch.

It's surprisingly hard to find a quality SPDT (or DPTDT) momentary on-off-on switch that I can attach any kind of extension to. If anybody finds a good alternative, let me know.