Originally Posted by zukota

Gauges.

The 2 people I convinced to go gauges over Monitor have no complaints. The one I couldn't wishes he would have bought gauges.

Gauges are a much more efficient way to monitor "things" without reading and distracting yourself from the road. It's really a form of anomaly detection, you only need to see when the needle is outside of it's normal range - very easy to do at a subconscious level.

Originally Posted by nickg

my personal experience has been this, while some say mech gauges are more accurate, I dissagree. I ran both at the same time and found no variance worth mentioning.
Gauges are NOT more effective. When you have mechanical gauges you have to watch the gauges NOT the road, and why should you need to stare at gauges anyway? what if the pressure drops during the minuite your not watching a gauge? there are times you MIGHT catch an anolomy, but that would only occur if you happen to be staring at the gauge when it happens, take an EGT gauge, you would have to stare at it when at WOT towing or passing or dealing with any adverse driving conditions just to make sure you dont exceed any dangerous temps, with a monitored system it will beep, and automatically defuel your truck so that you stay in the "safe" zone all without having to watch a gauge or adjust your foot on the throttle

benifit of monitored systems is you set a perdetermined value, and drive, no need to watch the display, it will beep to alert you there is an issue. you can concetrate on what needs to be done on the road, NOT whats sitting on your dash, The only time the monitored set up is a distraction to the driver is if he is trying to mess with the monitor when driving, of which there is no reason to be adjusting parameters when driving.


only my opinion, but after having both systems, there is no way a set of gauges can ever be more effective at monitoring engine performance.

of the guys that have run both, I highly doubt the reason they switch either way is because the gauges are the best means of keeping tabs on your engine, its usually cause they like the looks of gauges better.

Originally Posted by DodgenIt

True, It may take the brain longer to process the 4 numbers rather then a needle position.. but if you have the alarms set so you dont have to look AT ALL untill one alarm goes off, then the digital wins the ease contest.

Originally Posted by DodgenIt

IMO... Digital gauge monitering/ Alarms/ Multiple gauge choices/ on the fly HP increases, ALL rolled up into 1 small box, is a pretty darn good way to go in my eyes.