2020 GMC/Chevrolet Diesel Engine
“The optional engine remains the largely carryover 6.6-liter Duramax V-8 turbo-diesel—445 horses and 910 lb-ft—but is now mated to a 10-speed version of the excellent Allison automatic gearbox, up fro...
Forum Discussion
Huntindog,
What you noticed is part of a trend that started several years ago. I looked at a 1/2 ton version of a GMC Denali maybe 8 years ago and it was being built with a full time 4WD system that was related to the system being used on a lot of the "crossover" type vehicles. It was primarily a RWD system that was aimed more at performance than snow/off road traction and there were a lot of complaints from snow country owners because the system didn't react immediately when transitioning into snow and was particularly troublesome when turning from a clear road onto a snow covered surface. It was aimed more at stoplight racing than off road traction. A lot of these systems also use individual wheel brakes activated via the stability and traction control systems as a substitute for a locking or limited slip differential-another software dodge to save hardware dollars that is fine for some but not all uses.
I suspect the wide ratio range which is the norm with current 8 and 10 speed transmissions is also helping to drive move from low range in some of the light duty 4WD systems where an extremely low first gear is seen as something of a substitute for the low side of the transfer case-of course it isn't as useful for many situations but the majority of owners never take their vehicles off road and few understand the proper procedure for shifting into/out of low range with transfer cases that aren't designed for making this shift at speed and under load.
What you noticed is part of a trend that started several years ago. I looked at a 1/2 ton version of a GMC Denali maybe 8 years ago and it was being built with a full time 4WD system that was related to the system being used on a lot of the "crossover" type vehicles. It was primarily a RWD system that was aimed more at performance than snow/off road traction and there were a lot of complaints from snow country owners because the system didn't react immediately when transitioning into snow and was particularly troublesome when turning from a clear road onto a snow covered surface. It was aimed more at stoplight racing than off road traction. A lot of these systems also use individual wheel brakes activated via the stability and traction control systems as a substitute for a locking or limited slip differential-another software dodge to save hardware dollars that is fine for some but not all uses.
I suspect the wide ratio range which is the norm with current 8 and 10 speed transmissions is also helping to drive move from low range in some of the light duty 4WD systems where an extremely low first gear is seen as something of a substitute for the low side of the transfer case-of course it isn't as useful for many situations but the majority of owners never take their vehicles off road and few understand the proper procedure for shifting into/out of low range with transfer cases that aren't designed for making this shift at speed and under load.
