Shifting a 5 and 4 tranny....

thrashingcows

thrashingcows

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Got to watching a bunch of twin and triple stick shifting vids on youtube this morning. Amazing shifting and driving by these guys! I was confused as to exactly what shifters were doing what, in each gear box...until I came across this vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCQj68cdb88

Man I sure feel spoiled, and a little ashamed, with the trannies we commercial truckers have today. ;) :) Sure they are nice, but really compared with the set-ups from yesteryear...they are like shifting a fully synchronized 5 speed in a car.
 
There will be two guys here who actually worked with that Setup I guess.
 
I wouldnt know where to start with a triple stick. Never even saw one with my own eyes.
Double stick? In the early seventies.Yes. I was a stupid rookie so it didn't know it was supposed to be hard.
Come the mid-seventies it was all various models of RoadRangers.
Come the new millennium, they kept trying to throw Allison's at me but I absolutely refused.

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So Stan are those guys skipping gears because I have never seen anyone hit every gear they seem like they are skipping because empty or bobtail, I know what to skip in my 15 SPD when empty.
I would like to try one once.
 
commando1 said:
I wouldnt know where to start with a triple stick. Never even saw one with my own eyes.
Double stick? In the early seventies.Yes. I was a stupid rookie so it didn't know it was supposed to be hard.
Come the mid-seventies it was all various models of RoadRangers.
Come the new millennium, they kept trying to throw Allison's at me but I absolutely refused.

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We have a freight grinder with a DD15 in front, and an Allison behind it. When we got it they had these meeting to try to convince us that this is the best thing since sliced bread. The company management was eating up everything the salesmen where claiming about fuel economy etc.

Well after a year they have run a fuel usage report and guess what....it has the worst fuel economy out of all our company trucks. We told them it would be this way, but we were just being "negative".

We also have a bunch of iShift Volvo trucks with D13's, and one lowly frieghtliner with a pre EGR Cat motor and a good old Eaton 18 spd. Guess which truck gets the best fuel economy. ;)
 
70bigblockdodge said:
So Stan are those guys skipping gears because I have never seen anyone hit every gear they seem like they are skipping because empty or bobtail, I know what to skip in my 15 SPD when empty.
I would like to try one once.
Click to expand...
That guy with the three shifters lost me at his first shift.
I have no idea what he was doing or not doing!
I found the extensions really stupid on several levels.

The thing I came to learn about the 5x4 Quadraplex (A car) was when I was empty, I drove it like it was a five speed. I was 19 and just trying not to look like a fool.
The 5X2 Duplex (Mack, of course) I drove later on was simply a split shift RR only another stick instead of a lever. I still hated it.

But like I said, it was all 10 speeds from there on, except for the occasional 13 speed. A rental once came in with an 18 speed once. I got in it and got out of it. I was in no mood spending a week trying to figure that one out.

I never understood the logic of the two different 10 speed RR's.
Five, click, then five more OR..
Splitting each of the five.
What pissed the ever living crap out of me were the scum the schools were churning out. They'd learn on one of the RR's and given the other style, they didn't know to shift it. Pathetic. Now, I've noticed that there are scumbags right out of the company schools (Swift being the worst example) have never seen a manual tranny.

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I alwayz thought ah 4X5 2 stick 20 spd. Spicer waz fun. Miss just one hole and start over and I don't think the design engineerz at Spice ever found out about synchromesh widgitz in transmissionz!!!!!!!!! Anybody ever have the mis-fortune of climbing into anything after being told it waz ah 13 spd. and find out after you got out onto the street and into the 2nd set it waz ah 13 UNDER DRIVE? Home office in Montreal back in the early 80's decided that we'z guyz in Detroit needed 2 ole' coe corn binderz with that set up, whata POS. 2 guyz that liked pullin' doublez 'cuz they made .01 more per mile then the rest of us won that duty.
 
So the guy in the video that is linked is skipping gears, I hope so or I'm lost, makes my 15 look like an auto. The only real purpose I have ever seen for a 18 is to be able to triple over them to cope with big rear end gears which with 475-600 HP common place I really don't see the need for unless you are constantly hauling over size/weight. I think some of these trans over 13 are just for look at me. I put a 13 in this truck and it broke so back went the 15 I will put a 13 back in when I stretch it.
 
Out here in BC most of the Super B train haulers run 18's. This due to the 140K gross weight, and all the mountains we have to climb up and down. Personally I love the 18, would rather shift one of those any day of the week. :)
 
We call'em "Doubles" in the U.S.
What length trailers are used on the doubles?

So, you're pretty slick with an 18speed, huh?
Like I said, I gave it a try with 100k. Went once around the yard looking like a school graduate and said Nope, I have my pride. Lol

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commando1 said:
We call'em "Doubles" in the U.S.
What length trailers are used on the doubles?

So, you're pretty slick with an 18speed, huh?
Like I said, I gave it a try with 100k. Went once around the yard looking like a school graduate and said Nope, I have my pride. Lol

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These guys are just down the road from me....but same style of trailers.

745716.7907rc.jpg


Usually the trailers are split up 60 feet of deck space. So a 32' A-trailer will have a 28' B-trailer. I pulled this configuration for a lot a years. Recently the company has gone to 30' x 30'. Most combo's can't exceed about 82' , total tractor and trailer length.

Well I've been shifting 18's most of my life...so I'm not too bad I guess....;) :)
 
Figure that Road Train in a dead end. Oh Boy. ;)
 
Like I said 18 for big rearends and or weights not particularly hard to drive just overkill for east of the Mississippi legal 80,000lb
 
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