I’m not sure I’ve ever met anyone who has actually liked rotary automatic shift knobs. You know the kind: they’re just a round knob that you rotate to select P,R, the occasional N, your go-to D, and sometimes L, if you’re feeling saucy. They’re often placed close enough on the dashboard to get confused for the volume knob, and, really, I’ve yet to meet anyone who is genuinely excited about these things. Or so I thought! Because there seems to be a thriving arty subculture for custom rotary shift knobs, especially for RAM 1500 trucks, for reasons that are so far unfathomable to me.
This subculture seems to be thriving on Etsy, the online marketplace for craftspeople and artists and knitted vibrator cozies and bongs made from gourds and Game Boys or whatever, and it’s a very distinct category from just custom conventional shifter knobs, like for stick shift cars, which has been a thing for decades.
Why, back in the ’80s, I had this wooden tiki head shifter on my old ’71 Super Beetle:
(That’s not my ’71 Super pictured there. It’s my ’73 standard, but you get the idea.)
Those were the days! Big, heavy, unsafe chunks of wood on top of a long, spindly metal shaft that vibrated along with the whole drivetrain!
No, this is different. I’m talking about custom knobs just for rotary shifters, and in that category, the RAM 1500 rotary shifter knob options do seem to dominate. The options are, charitably, bizarre. Just look for yourself at this random sampling of options I found:
A lot of these appear to be 3D printed, but some look like they may actually be injection-molded plastic. We have horned death metal-looking skulls, ones with inane expressions like that “Dirty Hands, Clean Money” one (I suspect a “live, laugh, love” one has been made, and perhaps a “gas, grass, or ass, nobody rides for free” one as well, at least I hope). There are knobs that mimic the cylinder of a revolver, knobs masquerading as nicotine pouches, a Marine Corps example that resembles the wheel of a sailing ship, and my favorite one, the one that seems to be the bestseller: the Oreo.
You can replace your shift knob with a shockingly-detailed recreation of the famous Oreo cookie if you decided that what was missing from your experience driving a truck like this …
… was the very specific tactile sensation one gets when touching an Oreo. Now, to be fair, when it comes to cookie tactile interest, an Oreo is way up there. The embossed pattern of the cookie parts on the Oreo – which I imagine are made from a combination of coal dust, cocoa, and a sweetener/binding agent like weevil honey – has more in common with manhole cover design than cookie design, and as such is a tactile treat.
Is that why the bestselling rotary shift knob for RAM trucks is an Oreo? Because it feels good? And reminds one of a manhole cover? Oh, and there’s a golden variation, too!
Hot damn! What a world we live in!
Interestingly, this is not the only example of a dash control on a car that seems to be modeled after an Oreo. Volvo 200-series cars from the mid-’70s into the ’90s had dashboard vent knobs that sure as hell looked like an Oreo, an Oreo viewed from the side and inserted into a little slot:
Now, I don’t think this was in any way sanctioned by Nabisco’s automotive licensing arm any more than the Etsy seller’s Oreo RAM shift knobs were, but I think it’s significant to note Oreo-inspired dash controls have some precedent.
I’m still not sure I understand why, though. There are other peculiar ones, like this one, pitched as a “less aggressive” RAM shift knob, which I have contrasted here with one of the revolver-cylinder knobs, which actually does feel a bit more aggressive:
Do people find their stock RAM shifters too aggressive? I mean, this doesn’t seem that aggressive?
Maybe it’s kind of passive-aggressive?
When it comes to personalizing one’s ride, there are an astounding number of options, and that’s fantastic. This one is just a particularly baffling one. I’m glad there is an option to shift your truck with a cookie, though. It’s hard to find a problem with that, conceptually.
The Oreo is hilarious.
The rest are about what one would expect of a Ram driver. Especially an all black Dodge Ram. Surely someone has done one with the Punisher skull as well.
What? No hockey pucks, micro CDs, or “Easy” buttons?
Jason, you don’t get this?! That is why your application to become a Badassador has been denied!
Obligatory Weird Al
https://youtu.be/YbseBW-AWn4?si=CzGVX4fCguBksXOy
These are the POG slammers of car mods.
I own a ’19 Ram 1500(bought it brand new). I LOVE the rotary shifter. It clears up the left side of the steering column, making it far easier to see the whole gauge cluster. Being a tall guy, it is a minor PITA in almost all vehicles with a column mounted shifter. In my years of driving with it, I’ve grabbed the fan speed control (NOT volume button) twice. And because it’s an electric shift transmission, the couple times I tried to turn down the fan but grabbed the shift knob instead, my truck gently reminds me that it will not shift into reverse or park while I’m doing 65 mph.
Knobs generally drive Rams, so this trend is understandable.
(note: I had a Ram for years and am therefore included in this statement)
I think a combination lock face where you need to dial in your 6th grade locker combo to drive.
Or a decoder ring, solve the puzzle to be able to drive to the store for more Ovaltine.
I’m 46 and still occasionally have that dream where you get to school late and can’t remember the combination to your locker at all.
10 years after I graduated from high school I found my old combo lock in the basement (we had to supply our own). I closed my eyes and gave it a spin, and then unlocked it on the first try. Muscle memory kicked in as soon as I felt the first click.
Or if you bought the cheap locker combo locks, you could take off a timberland and whack them open. Not that I ever did that.
Yeah… a good smack with a boot is all it took to pop one of those locks. They looked impressive but were about as secure as making your pa$$word the password for your bank account.
At least when I was going to school, you could feel out one of the digits in the combo on every dial master lock at the time using a specific process and then we had a program in our TI-86 calcs that would spit out a list of possible combos. Surprised a bunch of friends (and a few others) with random crap in their locker all the time.
There might be a lock-picking lawyer reference to be had, I just can’t think of it. It’s amazing how much random info lives dormant in our heads.
Worse is the dream where you can’t find which class you’re supposed to be in and can’t find you’re locker to get the class schedule. 🙁
Rams already have a puzzle you need to solve to drive them:
Finding someone sober enough to blow into the breathalyzer interlock for you
I’m all for personalization but the look/feel of 3d printed stuff (especially fdm) tends to be not great… I’d imagine the stock molded part is a fair bit more pleasant to fondle.
What if the knob revealed something when turned. Imagine if it said “PAR” while in park. Seems totally logical. But wait! When you rotate the knob to drive it would reveal the letters “MO.” Behold! We have the MOPAR rotary shift dial! Imagine the excitement that would create. I can hear the chants now.
I’m thinking something more along the lines of a novelty pen
Fantastic idea, I thought about that too, but I was too sheepish to post it! Apparently, I’m a prude now or something.
I for one am a fan of rotary shifters, inasmuch as one can be a fan of a shifter for an automatic. I had 2 generations of Fusions – one with a traditional console PRNDL lever, and a refreshed one that swapped in a rotary knob. The knob was just as intuitive while taking up far less space. It made the cubby at the base of the center stack way more useful, as it was previously blocked by the shifter.
They can be worse though – certain ones I’ve tried (usually from Chrysler products) have virtually no feedback so it’s difficult to tell what gear you’re in. The Ford version at least has detents at each gear so you can feel how far you’ve gone.
That’s always been my argument–with good execution, they can take up less space on the dash or remove the need for a center console, and can still have a tactile nature to them.
With good execution.
The revolver shifter from “FreedomFactoryStore”… who conflated guns and freedom? One is meant for living, the other for killing; they really couldn’t be more polar opposite from one another. /John Beef’s random thought of the day
I mean, plenty of people use guns to kill animals to live. Hunting is still a thing.
Plenty of people also use guns to kill bad guys so the shooter may also live.
Sure, but in both of those scenarios, freedom ends for a living thing. I believe that was their point.
A tool can have a myriad of used obviously, but shooting someone is a fairly narrow range of outcomes.
No magic 8-ball with a “What gear are you in?” in the center? Pretend you didn’t read that while I warm up my 3-D printer…
“Grand Cherokee, what gear are you in?”
“Reply hazy, ask again later.”
I used a Victorian crystal door knob for my VW shift knob.
Ah yes. The Tungsten Edition of VW Beetles. Nice.
I was going to bring up the 240 – the first car I ever drove was my Bubbe’s, another 240 was my first car, and I’ve owned a couple more since.
Honorable mention to the ’95 Ford Contour my mom had when I was a kid and its mini Oreo for dash illumination (between the ignition switch and the climate controls: https://www.rvinyl.com/images/Ford-Contour-Dash-Kits.jpg)
Needless to say, if I ended up owning something with a rotary shift knob, I’d consider Oreoifying it.
Why have a knob at all? Alexa, shift my vehicle into drive.
Please don’t give them any ideas.
I can see it now. “Anyone want to go to the park?”
SKEEEEEEEEEETCH!!!!!!
Don’t worry, we’re well on our way to that – https://www.wired.com/story/subaru-location-tracking-vulnerabilities/
Automotive brands as IoT vendors is perhaps one of the worst ideas ever.
That will obviously go very well for the consumer.
“Would you like to start your Forester to drive to work today? Great, just send .075 BTC to…..”
This one seems like the perfect candidate for a vintage Coca-Cola bottle cap
I guess we’ve never technically met so I can’t completely disprove this, but I wish all cars used rotary shift knobs. Why? Because they’re better than any other option.
Big stupid T-handle shifters are a waste of space. Stop pretending you’re driving stick.
Column shifters can’t be automatically shifted by the vehicle to avoid rollaway accidents when you open a door without putting it in park.
Push button shifters are universally confusing AFAICT, although they’re probably the next best option.
Any shifter that has a return-to-center behavior after a movement sucks. I say this as someone who owns two fo them.
And if I still had my Ram with a rotary shifter I would be ordering an Oreo cookie for it as soon as I finish writing this comment. 🙂
I mostly agree. I went from a previous gen Ram 1500 (with this kind of shifter) to a truck with column shifter and I like them both. The Ram provided greater room and no obstacles between me and the radio, HVAC controls. It also saved my ass a couple times I had to park on a tight space and opened the door to inch in the parking spot, just to have the truck shift automatically to park.
What I hated about this solution is it’s a pain when the battery goes dead and you need to move the truck as it won’t stick out of park unless you open that lid behind the headlight switch and pull that stupid non-intuitive orange strap behind it. I mean, it’s the same for most electronic shifters but I never got used to it.
I’d say I still like the column shifter better, though as it provides better control for those rare but real situations I just mentioned. And if paired with an electronic parking brake like on my F150, manufacturers could just enable it to engage as soon as a door is opened on a low speed situation (like the rollaway situation you just described). I mean my truck doesn’t have that but the HW is there to provide the same functionality
I speak from experience when I say your battery doesn’t even have to go dead. If you can’t start the truck for any reason you can’t shift. Fortunately the tow truck guy knew exactly what to do so I didn’t have to dig through the manual to figure it out.
Not true. The column shifter on newer Ford F-150s (and maybe others) automatically move themselves to Park if you do something like turn the engine off with the shifter still in Drive.
I completely agree that all floor/center console shifters for automatic transmissions should be eliminated.
As cool as the Oreo rotary shifter is, it’s still a crappy rotary knob shifter.
In my opinion, all automatic transmission shifters should be on the column.
Then you have a mismatch between the position of the column shifter and the actual state of the transmission. That might be the worst possible user interface. I’m fairly certain that’s why the terrible return-to-center shifters exist, because as bad as they are at least they’re never “wrong”.
Umm, maybe I should have been clearer: it doesn’t just move the shifter. It shifts the transmission into Park AND moves the shifter into Park position. If the shifter moves, the transmission follows, and vice-versa; no such position mismatch ever.
Ah, interesting. Bad assumption on my part. The position mismatch was one of the reasons I had heard that column shifters were disappearing, but I guess if you motorize it then that isn’t a problem.
I feel like push buttons are better. There’s no reason for ‘PRND’ to be in that order, and with only four of them it’s not like you’re scrolling through radio stations. With well-placed, well-designed buttons (yes, you Hyundai, NOT you GMC) you can do a three-point turn much more easily by hitting ‘D’ then ‘R’ then ‘D’ instead of having to twirl a little knob repeatedly. I get that the knob mimics the old levers by allowing you to toggle through all of them, but I think that’s something we can move past too.
That may be fair. My big problem with push button systems is that they mostly seem to be designed by someone who has never driven a car before. It’s especially annoying in my Prius because it’s a hybrid of two systems – push button for Park, and a return-to-center knob for everything else. As much as I like the car, it might be the worst shifter system ever invented.
As weird as the little shift appendage is in the Prius, I do appreciate that the car’s power button also engages park. That part feels logical. I got to where I was going, and I hit the off button, and the car did its thing.
That’s not a feature unique to Priuses (Prii?) – my Ram does the same thing if you shut the key off without twiddling the knob back to P.
That makes sense; I assume all manner of vehicles with electronic shift control apparatus have to have some failsafe feature like that. From a pure laziness standpoint, I really appreciate it.
Yup, Odyssey does too. I’m guessing all the ZF transmissions do this? They all seem to require the electronic shifter.
Not so in the Gen 5. The shifter is no longer on the dash as that’s taken up by the screen (which isn’t too big and doesn’t control everything). You have to push a button for Park. It took me some getting used to, but it’s not bad.
Well said. For decades I drove cars with a simple PRNDL column shifter. It makes complete sense to be to keep that base in a rotary know for electric shifters that don’t have a linkage to the transmission. The rotary knob is the best shift method I’ve seen to date. Simple, logical, compact.
I like the “monostable” shifter in my BMW (except when I try to open the door to watch the rear wheel as I try to back it up a ramp). It goes to park when you shut off the ignition or open the door, ensuring you don’t have a runaway.
What a special kind of tasteless that ZYN one is.
I honestly think a Skoal or Copenhagen one would be retro/ironically interesting. I didn’t even know what Zyn was until just now, and it feels like bragging about chewing Nicorette.
Griz or die.
KODIAK
That revolver one needs just a single round chambered so you can truly understand the Stellantis transmission experience.
Somehow I missed this earlier and I have to say, COTD
What in the DUI is this?
*Fred Durst bursts in*
“I SHIFT MY TRUCK WITH A COOKIE, A COOKIE. SO COME AND HAVE A LOOKIE WHILE I STICK IT UP YOUR YEAH“
Very few things are more Limp Bizkit than a Ram 1500.
Somewhere, a Ram owner just punched a wall over the sheer awesomeness of this.
Worker’s comp claims investigators are about to get busy.
A bad day to be drywall.
I hate you so much right now.
COTD.
Absolutely nothing about this bothers me. Not the Ram 1500, not silly shift knobs that are no more tactless so many manual knobs, not the inspired cover of Nookie (which has me imagining Fred Durst bursting through a wall Kool-Aid style). I support all of this.
So long as he bursts through the wall in a lifted 1500, I’m onboard with your visual.
or lowered? again…either works as long as its done tastelessly.
Big ‘ol punisher skull on the back window, with the Browning Firearms deer in one of the corners. Maybe an American flag tailgate.
Speaking of punisher skulls, where’s the punisher skull shift knob? You know someone is selling them.
I had the same thought, really surprised if it’s not available.
or in the absence of that, perhaps a an ICP juggalo face?
A tattered American flag, of course. Probably with one blue stripe for the boot lickers.
Throw a thin blue line on that flag and you’re in business.
I feel like “squatted” would be the most appropriately tasteless.
Why does your Tiki look like Darth Vader?
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
The Oreo is delightful but all the other options seem right up the alley of aspiring Badassadors.
Most of them give off “I beat my spouse & children” vibes.
Also vibes of “I train fighting dogs”.
“I fight service dogs”
“Dirty Hands, Clean Money” is “Live, Laugh, Love” but for men who are behind on child support payments instead of wine-moms.
These bros don’t just owe child support, they owe it to multiple women over children who were born 2 weeks apart both named Kyle Jr.
I, for the life of me, will never comprehend the vigorous hate the rotary dial shifter creates.
I used one in a rental RAM once and found it immediately intuitive. I’m FAR more angered by the insistence to keep console shifters eating up precious interior space.
I also disagree that column shifts are the ideal vs a dash mounted knob. There’s too many moving parts. I long lost count of how many Allison column shift assemblies I’ve replaced over the years in 5 ton trucks. Inversely, I can count on one hand the number of dash mounted push button controls for the same transmission I’ve replaced.
“Oh, but I’m constantly going from forward to reverse and I can’t adapt!” Most folks had little to no issue going from the column to the console and vise-versa.
If the shifter mounted on the dash, which you only have to interact with to change direction of travel or park, is enough to kneecap your driving prowess, then you’re not the driver you think you are.
To me at least, the rotary shifter is no worse than any other electronic shifter design (it is better than many), but is decidedly inferior to anything that physically and permanently changes position for each gear.
My truck functions just fine with a large column mounted lever that moves up and down for PRNDL, this is perfection and cannot be improved.
It can, by the reduction of moving parts. As I’ve stated, I’ve replaced more column shifts than any other design. Techs of the days of YORE will tell the same tale. They’re much harder to keep properly adjusted as they wear.
I wonder how costly repair of the modern shifter components are.
Even if it’s much less frequent, is it multiple times as much?
I imagine the sudden failure of randomly not going into gear is worse than the warning of a slowly increasing sloppiness of a column lever as well, but maybe it doesn’t happen that way.
In a commercial truck, being stranded where a push button would’ve got you home is infuriating.
Back in 2015, the column was $650 ($1150 if it had a Parking pall position, for some ungodly reason) plus my labour to install. Our door rate was $120 at the time.
I’ll add that I was replacing these at around 50-70k miles. In trucks that would see 300k+ miles in their lifetime.
Without disputing the extra components part, is it possible that use case is an element of it, that delivery vehicles with frequent park/shift cycles are more likely to have column shifters?
We sold the exact same trucks with a column, console, and push button. They all did delivery work. Failure rate:
My column shifter has 300,000 miles on it and shifts perfectly fine.
The transmission, on the other hand…
Work in a fleet/rental fleet environment where the drivers do not own the trucks, and you’ll quickly find every failure point. For us, it was by FAR the column shifters.
I agree that while the rotary knob is an adequate design, the column mounted shifter is the ideal form, and it’s sort of stupid to anything else.
But if I’m going to be forced into something non-traditional, give me a knob.
I’ve had my 22′ RAM now 3 years and wish it had the column shifter. It sure is perfection, making me really miss my older trucks with the ‘normal’ shifter.
RAMs got so many circles in the area I’ve mistaken volume and temp for the gears – annoying as all heck.
I often open the door while backing up to look at tire placement etc and the RAM shuts the party down and slams it in park. WTF! It’s not uncommon to back up to see rear tires and obstacles.
I’ll probably get the revolver because the indents will be obvious by feel.
Of note – the 2500 and bigger get the column shifter. Bummer!
How about a lever on the dash like the autotragic Corvairs? Should be more reliable than the column shifters and still provide that tactical indication of where they are.
My favorite implementation of the console shifter was in the 80’s G-bodies. A high school buddy had a Monte Carlo SS with the floor shifter, which actually had a cable that ran to the steering column to move what would have been the column shifter, but they removed the stalk. It broke once, so to shift gears you had to wrap your hands around the column and rotATE IT INTO GEAR. Caps unintentional but left for emphasis.
The 2nd Gen F-bodies did this too. My buddy had a Firebird and the lever would jam, so he’d say “pull back on the lever while I grab the steering column and twist it”.
I have the rotary shifter in the Chrysler van. It took a little time to get used to it, as it was the first vehicle I’ve owned to have a non-traditional shifter. But it works just fine, and I agree, out of all the modern shifters it might be the most reasonable, intuitive, and it takes up less space than anything other than a column shift.
Compared to the stupid Nissan my in-laws have, where reverse you push forward and drive you push back, park is a button, and neutral is just sort of move it only a little bit in the opposite direction of the opposite direction you’re going? Christ that thing is a disaster. And somehow there’s worse out there.
I like them just fine, though I prefer them in addition to paddles. I mean, my Honda has a space-wasting shift knob that still only does PRNDL with no real manual options. What’s the point.
All of them are still better than push-button trannies.
Allison equipped commercial trucks have been using push button to do work for decades without issue.
No problem with them mechanically — just ergonomically in a mass-market car. They don’t save space for the headaches they create, IMO.
I mean, if they were creating headaches for the folks sitting in a cab 13 hours a day, the market would’ve demanded an alternative. So they can’t be that bad.
DCP was putting push button transmissions in cars back in the 50s. I had one in a ’59 Coronet. I’m sure there were earlier examples as well.
‘58 Edsel. Pushbuttons in the center of the steering wheel. Thankfully, they didn’t rotate w/the wheel, but now the horn button/pad (and airbag) are mandated to occupy that space.
I’m with you – the rotary knob is fine (except in the Chrysler 200 where the volume knob was almost the same size and far too close to the shift knob). My wife’s car has buttons and it took maybe ten times driving it when we first bought it for me to adapt, fewer for her because she doesn’t go back and forth between other vehicles with traditional shifters like I do.
I will back this up and say not only is the shifter NOT bad, I would venture to say it is a very good solution. It takes up no space, allowing for one of the most useful center consoles I’ve ever had in a truck.
I back into parking spots ~50% of the time (long wheelbase, backing in is preferred parking method) and don’t have to look at the dial at all, I keep my hand on it and I can feel the detents for D -> R -> P
I feel it’s superior to push-button solutions (Honda for example) because it’s intuitive to use and it saves so much space on the console or dash. Every other push button system uses so much real estate.
It’s still an electronic control, meaning when the vehicle overrides your selection (say you shut off the truck before putting it in park, it’ll automatically put transmission into park) it doesn’t have to actually move the mechanical component, unlike that goofy Ford column shifter that physically returns the shifter to park. There are 2 different Ford solutions that move the mechanical shifter BACK into the park position as an anti-rollaway feature. This to me is asinine and unnecessary to have electric motors intervene to move a mechanical-interface component.
Agreed. Once again, Allison transmissions with push button always default back to neutral on key off (air brake vehicles use a separate parking brake). It’s super convenient.
It’s the effing column shifter that literally kneecaps my driving prowess…