Determinants of off-road vehicle transmission 'shift quality'

This study was conducted to determine the relationship between factors associated with a tractor transmission shift and the tractor operator's judgement of the quality of the shift. The specific objective was to measure experienced tractor operators' ratings of shift 'acceptability' as peak acceleration, peak jerk and direction of initial acceleration were varied at two levels of background vibration. A six-degree-of-freedom vehicle motion simulator in the Deere & Company Technical Center's human factors laboratory was used to simulate the background vibration and to control the experimental variables. The key results are: (1) The most important factor influencing 'shift quality' is the peak acceleration experienced during the shift. (2) Background vehicle vibration experienced by the tractor operator affects his perception of 'shift quality'. Higher background vibration masks the acceleration experienced during a shift and makes the shift more acceptable than when experienced at a low level of background vibration. (3) Peak jerk experienced during a shift has a negligible effect on 'shift quality'. (4) Upshifts and downshifts of the same peak acceleration, peak jerk, and background vibration receive the same general rating of 'shift quality'.