A transmission manly enough

Well, my Kenworth had 13-speeds, and if I got another semi I'd want to have a 6x4 (24-speed 2-stick) transmission. But I like it! :)
 
Needs a split shift.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Well, my Kenworth had 13-speeds, and if I got another semi I'd want to have a 6x4 (24-speed 2-stick) transmission. But I like it! :)
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Maybe 2 of them!
 
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8 in my Jeep grand Cherokee seem like just the right amount.
 
If am recalling correctly, Mitsubishi used to have a twin stick, late 70s.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Having driven the Kenworth, I honestly don't understand why they don't employ splitters in more cars. I guess because most people have a hard enough time discerning the difference between "Reverse" and "Drive."
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The first time I saw a split shift was in an old flatbed and the high-low selector was a push-pull knob mounted on the stick next to and just below the shift knob. The driver would flick it up and down with the pinky finger.

This was before I was old enough to drive, so I may have some of the details wrong.
 
I ran a warehouse once, and nobody would respect me until I learned to drive one of the tractors. I picked a new '83 KW, with the 13-speed. It wasn't too difficult to learn to shift, but it was a bit hairy backing it into the warehouse (another rite of passage.) Since then I've had no desire to shift any vehicle that weighs more than two tons.
 
asicer said:
The first time I saw a split shift was in an old flatbed and the high-low selector was a push-pull knob mounted on the stick next to and just below the shift knob. The driver would flick it up and down with the pinky finger.

This was before I was old enough to drive, so I may have some of the details wrong.
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That sounds like a 2-speed rear end, which was another variation on the idea (an earlier one at that).
 
Ted DuPuis said:
That sounds like a 2-speed rear end, which was another variation on the idea (an earlier one at that).
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Drove a similar truck for a nursery/landscape company in high school. I believe it was something like a 1980 Ford F-600 flat bed dump truck. Had the 5-spd stick with a two-speed rear end controlled by the hi-lo selector mounted below the shift knob. You just reached with your middle/index fingers to pull or push the switch as needed. I usually skipped 1st gear altogether as it was just a granny gear, even in hi.
 
Nah, this is a real shift pattern.

I still can't hit the 9-8 downshift every time after all these years of practice, though.

12.jpg
 
I surprised myself a while back...hopped on my uncle’s JD 4020 (8 forward, 2 reverse) and dropped it into reverse with muscle memory that hadn’t been used for 20 years.
 
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The old M35 deuce and a half trucks had a pretty funky shift pattern. It was a five speed with a high range/ low range Johnson bar lever.

Pic_M35A2shiftpattern.jpg


Normally, you would just drive in high range, but if you were bogged in mud, or just needed a real slow granny gear for say loading it on a rail car, etc... you would put it in low range.

Some guys would even drive them like a two stick transmission, where you would go through the five gears in low range, shift back to fourth, put it in high range, and re-do fourth and fifth.
 
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That first photo, aside from the shift pattern, is from a roughly 2000 Audi TT. Not sure how much earlier/later was identical. 6 speed was the most you could get.
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
It's a slightly modified Spicer 1420 20-speed, shoehorned into an old White 3000 COE Sleeper I keep around for some reason.


10-07-2011-14.JPG


White-COE-1-e1518125925820-630x438.jpg
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I want first dibs if you ever decide to get rid of that thing. It looks awesome!
 
Zeldman said:
That is the coolest truck ever..!!!!

Modernize the front and rear axles with modern brakes, a little paint and have the coolest 5th wheel RV puller in the country.!!!
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Just sell it to me and I'll add it to the project list...
 
ElPaso Pilot said:
It's a slightly modified Spicer 1420 20-speed, shoehorned into an old White 3000 COE Sleeper I keep around for some reason.


10-07-2011-14.JPG


White-COE-1-e1518125925820-630x438.jpg
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I think I'd wreck trying to read the shift pattern. How needs cell phones to be distracted when you have a transmission like that?

Cool truck, BTW.
 
Bill Jennings said:
I think I'd wreck trying to read the shift pattern. How needs cell phones to be distracted when you have a transmission like that?

Cool truck, BTW.
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I have a feeling there's a lot of missed shifts from 4-5 being accidentally dumped into 11/12th gear. What a mess!
 
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Bill Jennings said:
I think I'd wreck trying to read the shift pattern. How needs cell phones to be distracted when you have a transmission like that?

Cool truck, BTW.
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OK, Bill.

I need to confess to a fellow Mooney driver.

That isn't a real shift pattern. And that isn't my truck. But I couldn't resist when you asked if it was real. :oops:

However, I wouldn't be opposed to partnering with Ted to collaborate on that project!
 
Juliet Hotel said:
What's behind you is not important.
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I was telling my kids that, too. They were playing Gran Turismo and kept on hitting the button to look behind them.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I want first dibs if you ever decide to get rid of that thing. It looks awesome!
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I knew it!

As soon as I saw that truck, I thought to myself, "Ted is going to want this, and he's going to want it bad."

And I don't blame him.
 
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At some point, objects can be fugly enough to be beautiful, I guess.
 
Then there are those of us secure enough in our masculinity to let the damn machine shift itself.
 
Chip Sylverne said:
Then there are those of us secure enough in our masculinity to let the damn machine shift itself.
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There are those of us picky enough that the damn machine doesn't shift into the right gear at the right time, or shifts out of the right gear when we prefer to stay in it . . . .
 
Hank S said:
There are those of us picky enough that the damn machine doesn't shift into the right gear at the right time, or shifts out of the right gear when we prefer to stay in it . . . .
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I can always tell when I've got one of those picky drivers working for me because the fuel economy of the truck I put him in will suck compared to my better drivers and compared to my other 'picky' drivers that I've forced to drive automatics.
 
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