MAX Update No. 62: Throttle Management

Reader Contribution by Staff
article image

I got an e-mail from a guy building his own MAX, asking about how I hooked up the throttle — which turned out not to be quite as trivial as I thought it would be back in Twenty Ought Seven, when this project began.

The problem is, diesels don’t usually have throttles, and this Kubota is no exception. Oh sure, we call it a throttle, but it’s not. We tend to call anything that controls power a “throttle” — my gosh, airline pilots call their jet engine power controls “throttles” and boy is that a misnomer on a jet. Throttles are usually found on spark ignition engines, such as the gasoline engines that motivate our automobiles, but throttles are not a terribly efficient way to regulate engine power output, and one of the reasons that diesel engines are more efficient than gas engines is diesels don’t have throttles.

Maybe Webster’s can give us a clue here. Ah yes…

Throttle \Throt”tle\, v. i.

–1. To have the throat obstructed so as to be in danger of suffocation; to choke; to suffocate.

Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368