Curtis 1212S Manual page 34

Curtis 1212S Manual,
Rev. B
8 Fine-tuning the vehicle's response smoothness
Two additional parameters in the Drive menu—Gear Soften and Soft Start—are
available for softening and smoothing vehicle response. In most cases, these
functions can be used to provide smooth vehicle operation while still main-
taining a high degree of responsiveness.
Gear Soften and Soft Start
These two parameters can be set from 0–100%, with 100% providing a
great deal of softening and 0% eliminating the function. They have by far
the most noticeable effect on older, worn transaxles.
8-a. Make sure Gear Soften and Soft Start are set to 0%.
8-b. While driving at both high and low speeds, release the throttle to
neutral and then reapply it before coming to a complete stop. Notice
how the transaxle gears bump as you reapply the throttle.
8-c. Change the Gear Soften setting from 0% to 100% and repeat the same
exercise. Notice how the slop transition is softened, at the expense of
a small bit of nonlinearity in the acceleration rate.
8-d. Adjust Gear Soften until you find a setting you like, noting that you
probably won't notice much of a difference if you're using a brand
new, tight transaxle. Some users prefer a softened feel, while others
prefer this parameter set to zero because they want complete linearity
in response. In setting this parameter, you also may want to take into
consideration that softened slack take-up is easier on the transaxle
gears and may extend the transaxle operating life.
8-e. Soft Start is the same as Gear Soften, except it applies to accelerations
from zero speed. Note that you'll feel a transaxle bump only if the
gears are meshed in the opposite direction when torque is applied, so
you may need to nudge the vehicle backwards against the brake when
experimenting with this parameter. We recommend relatively small
values for the Soft Start parameter (typically < 40%) to avoid excessive
delay from a stop. Having separate parameters for the soft start and
gear soften functions allows you to set the Soft Start parameter lower
than the Gear Soften parameter. Setting the two parameters the same
in effect collapses them into a single parameter.
These setup and tuning procedures cover the most critical aspects of vehicle
performance. Additional parameters can be used to make further adjustments,
if necessary. However, in most cases the default values of the other parameters
prove satisfactory.
6 — VEHICLE PERFORMANCE ADJUSTMENT
31