Report: Cars are vulnerable to wireless hacking

[happyslug]

48. I drove Reo-Diamond M35s, the GMCs were either WWII Surplus or M135s.

The WWII 2 1/2 ton truck was the most produced vehicle of WWII, out numbering even Jeep. It was a GMC medium duty truck with four wheel drive installed in the Factory. My unit used them to till the 1970s but they were long gone by the time I entered the National Guard in 1981.

Now, after WWII, the US Army had a plan. The Army was going to replace all of its GMC WWII 2 1/2 ton truck with an 2 1/2 ton GMC produced truck with an Automatic Transmission. This automatic transmission started out as the GM's infamous 2 speed automatic but the Army wanted it upgraded to a three speed. In the interim the Army decided to leave most of the WWII trucks in the Theatres they were in and replace them on an interim basis with Rio-Diamond 2 1/2 ton trucks till the GMC with an Automatic Transmission. The Post war Rio-Diamond were designated the M35, the GMC with Automatic Transmission the M135.

Development of the M135 took a while, but 1950 it was ready and since the Korean War was ongoing at that time period, they were shipped to replace the old WWII era GMC trucks and the M35s already sent to Korea.

In Korea the M135 was hated. The M135s could NOT keep up with the WWII GMC or the M35s, both of which had manual transmissions, thus had to be put in special convoys isolated from the older Trucks. Worse do to its slow speeds on hills the Troops kept rejecting them, demanding M35s or even worn out WWII era GM trucks. The M135s were withdrawn from the Regular forces and then given to various other countries and the US National Guard. The "Interim design" M35 stayed in production till the 1980s (While be converted from a Gasoline Engine Trucks to an Diesel with a Standard Transmission starting in the early 1960s, then in the 1990s into a Diesel with Automatic Transmissions, this time an US Army developed six speed Automatic Transmission).

In the 1980s I drove one of the last M35 with a Gasoline Engine. It had been built in 1947, according to the Data Plate on the Truck. It drove and felt like it was much lighter then the Diesel Versions (and it was lighter) and tended to have better traction in the mud but it needed constant care do to its age, but when it ran it ran well. I was out of the National Guard when the Regular Army started to upgrade the M35s to one with a six speed Automatic Transmissions so I never drove a M35 with an automatic transmission. All the Diesels, even the ones with manual transmissions, had to have larger and more powerful engines then the earlier gasoline job do to Diesel lower torque at low speed.

What Norway received or purchased is unknown to me. It is mountainous so I doubt it was the M135s. It may have been old WWII era 2 1/2 ton trucks (these were NEVER given a designation other then 2 1/2 truck) but I suspect M35s. Either Diesels or Gasoline converted to Diesel.

As to Europe going to Automatics, from what I have read it is to the newer "Automatic Manual Transmissions" not US type Automatics. "Automatic Manual Transmissions" use a computer to shift the gears instead of a person doing so, thus in theory as efficient as a manual transmission. I use the term "In theory" for such computers programs are based on certain assumptions that do not always apply to all locations. Thus they will go into to high a gear in mountainous terrain for the program is based on a more balance terrain then one finds in the Mountains or on the Plains. On the plains they may stay in to low a gear for to long a period.

In my Chevrolet Cruse Eco, I generally get 40 miles to the gallon EXCEPT if I have to go to my County Seat, which is on top of Allegheny Mountain. Now Allegheny Mountain is NOT that tall of a mountain, but I generally see my milage goes down below 40 mpg when I make trips up the mountain to my County Seat.

On the other hand, when I visited my Niece in Colorado last year, in one stretch of milage between the Appalachian mountains where I live and the Rocky mountain where she lives, I did better then 50 mpg for a 500 miles stretch of highway. It was Plaint, almost as flat as the ocean. I bring this up for this is the problem with the "Automatic Manual Transmissions", it is NOT geared for almost exclusive use in Mountains OR exclusive use on the Plains. As a driver with a manual you can adjust your driving to reflect the terrain, the computer MUST assume that the car is traveling in something not quite mountains but also not quite the plains. Some computers can adjust to reflect what it had to do in the past, but most can not and even if they can, it takes them a while to adjust from one set of "Normal" to another set of "Normal" Conditions. Thus I am staying with manual transmission, till I can not get one any more.