Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hi..

Im not sure if I'm postiong this in the right place..

But I have been trying to figure out and get a proper undestanding of the Altimeter..

Might there be anyone that could perhaps explain how it works, as it baffles me..

I have read up on it and I cant seem to find a laymans explanation on how it works...

What I would like to try and do is, set it to the current altitude of where i am right now. And thats the part that I'm not to sure about.

I have a '98 model Paj, 2.8 turbo diesel, LWB, facelift i think...

Thank you in advance

Jimmy

The altimeter is quite simple - it's a basic barometer which translates air pressure to altitude. The same way an aircraft altimeter works.

As your altitude increases, air pressure decreases. The altimeter is measuring this decrease in pressure.

But because of local atmospheric conditions air pressure will vary for the same height over time. Because of this your altimeter needs to be calibrated to a reference height. So, lets assume you are at sea level, you'll see your altimeter will vary from around -20 to +20 m or so. But because you know you're at sea level you will always reset the altimeter to zero.

Now you travel inland over your altimeter will change because of the variation in air pressure. I drive to Joburg and I get to my folk's place and my altimeter shows 1590m. Close, but no cigar because I know my folks place is at 1650m. This is because of the local variation in atmospheric pressure (it's actually quite low, so maybe there's weather on the way ) So I need to reset my altimeter to the known local altitude of 1650m.

One way to easily get to grips with this is get a watch with a combo altimeter and barometer - it's quite fun to observe the interplay

EDIT:- Sorry, I didn't answer your last question. If you turn the knob at the bottom left of the altimeter that will turn the dial. You dial in the height you know you are at. It's in 100m intervals

My advice would be to get the correct altitude of a few places you stop at regularly. Your driveway at home and parking at the office are some obvious choices. Get into the habit of correcting the altimeter every time you get into the car. At least that way the altimeter has reasonable accuracy most of the time.

On a long overland holiday you could determine the altitude of your overnight stays in advance and then keep the altimeter accurate on a day to day basis.

Since you are not likely to attempt a night landing on an aircraft carrier with your Pajero, is the only use of the altimeter one of mild entertainment on the long road. It can sometimes help to explain "odd" fuel consumption on a new route. The best example I can think of is the road between Aus and Luderitz. There is a huge elevation difference between those two towns although it doesn't really feel that way, but the consumption goes haywire.

Hi,

Can the Altimeter on a Gen 3 also be adjusted?

Hi..

Thank you VERY much... this makes a lot more sense now...

Just one more question though,

On the altimeter itself, it has two sets of numbers, the outer set that range from like 800 to 1500 for example and then the inner set of numbers that are from 0 to 35. What do these now mean...

Like what I don't get is, If I am at 1600 meters above sea level what do I set to get it to that as the highest the meter goes is 1500.

I know that these question may seem a little dumb, but I'm really new to this. so if I can get to grips with that now I'm good...

Thanks again