Designing Dash Gauges

[RJ]

Here's an idea for gauges - both analog & digital together:

http://www.glowshiftdirect.com/MaxTow-Truck-Gauge-Series.aspx

FWIW & HTH. . .

[Seangie]

George -

At Arcadia I saw a great simple layout for a dashboard.  It was a pretty natural wood dash with a water temp , air pressure, tach and oil pressure gauges and dead center in the middle of the gauges was a Garmin GPS screen for speed and map.  It was very simple and put more focus on the dash woodwork which I thought was well done. 

Just an Idea to keep it simple.  Currently I have the same gauges working less the tach.  But my dash is a mess right now  

I'd go with the same setup on the primary part of the dash and maybe have a secondary dash with smaller gauges for the additional stuff.

If I could keep all the info on a single 10" digital flat panel then that's what I'd do

-Sean

[Boomer]

RE the differential temp sender.  You will have to drill and tap a sender hole in the diff housing (below oil level).  The only other option is in the drain plug at the bottom.  If you go that way you will probably knock it off and burn up your diff, not the way to go.  Never seen more than the fill and drain plugs on a heavy rear end.
Simple job to drill and tap, both my buses I went that way.  I also check my diff temp with an IR gun every couple hours when under way.

[HB of CJ]

Lots of stuff to cover here.  First off, what do you want?  What would you like?  Not quite the same.  What format?  Old "retro" SW analog?  Cable connected tack and speedo?  Something more modern but traditional?

Gages or meters?  Dials or electronical readouts?  Many small cluttered round gages?  How how about just one big state of the art digital with 100 features, all programmable with near infinite variety and customization?

Consider separating the Chassis stuff from the House needs?  Close by, but non confusable.  Yep ... do you drive at night?  Is that important?  Do you want to keep it KISS or do you want all the bells and whistles and do dads?  More ...

Hot or cold weather?  Air suspension or leaf spring?   What engine and tranny?  Does make a difference.  My feeble point here is that perhaps it may be best to just sit down and dream a bit?   Big decisions for sure regarding this.

Little things become important.  We tried to select gage values that centered the needle up and down at normal operating levels or amounts.  Easier to "eye sweep the cockpit".  You are going to have great fun with all of this.  HB of CJ (old coot)