Eaton Fuller 10spd Arrgh!

Don't forget smell. It might come in handy going down a hill if you get a whiff of brakes. Or a seal going bad on a turbo.

 

The 1959 B Model Mack with two sticks in the video is owned by "Freightrain". He works in a machine shop, and uses the Mack to pull a 48' gooseneck hauling his '64 Galaxie station wagon drag car.

Two transmissions were the solution for providing enough ratios, given that diesels have a short operating rpm range. Multi-speed axles were another solution. Although everything is in one box with your 10-speed Roadranger, a range shifter is another way to multiply the ratios available in the front of the transmission.

The B model in the video has a Triplex (5x3) married transmission, the transmissions are bolted together with no driveshaft between them. It is a five speed main with a three speed auxiliary. The Tri refers to the auxillary, if it was a two speed it would be a Duplex and a four speed is a Quadraplex.

In this truck the lever closest to the driver is the three speed.
You shift one two three, then upshift one gear on the main trans. Then back to first on the aux. then repeat the procedure through all the gears.
If the main is a direct drive it is 15 speeds, if it is an overdrive then it is only 13 as you don't shift the aux. back to first once in fifth gear on the main.

 

gwhitson,

LOL - man, reading your post, I thought it was me! I'm a recent CDL grad, and had the problems you are talking about in school. Even up-shifting was hit-or-miss for me.

I think PART of the problem is that in school, I was driving 5 different trucks. Others on here have said, even 'identical' trucks will have different shift points.

Downshifting in school.. let's not talk about that.

I've been on the road for 3 weeks with a trainer... same truck every day. Upshifting is not a problem- period. Unless you count last night when I got busy and shifted while crossing a RR track I didn't even realize was there.

Downshifting has been a nightmare for me. 30+ years of driving manual transmission cars has given me a set of reflexes that are all wrong for this job.. and overcoming them is a bear.

However, lots of practice in the past weeks - heavy loads in mountains and the like. I actually have gone entire days without a peep from the tranny

I agree (surprise) with those who say 'feel it' and 'listen'. The truck I've been driving is a Pete 378 with a Cummins somethingorother..no indicator on the tach, so you don't have a real visual clue telling you when to shift, either.

I love the newspaper/picket fence analogy - that is SO right on! Keep it gentle and you'll feel it - and nobody will ever hear it grind.

I think I would have preferred your school in this respect, though - they want you to downshift as you come to a stop. We were taught to brake until the tractor started to.. well.. tractor. Labor and fight you, THEN clutch in and finish your stop. The rigs we were driving, you could go all the way down to about 5mph that way.

The company I work for, however, wants the downshift as you go - which, while harder, I think makes more sense.

I still tend to bury the clutch when I get rattled, but I'm getting better at it every day. I still push it too deep, most of the time, but not so deep as to mess up the shifting - it's just wasted effort on my part.

What does all this rambling mean? Not much, really, other than - keep your head on - it WILL come to you.

 

argh - yeah, I can see that being a problem. Asking the other students - or even instructors, what you missed never recovers everything.

 

My biggest problem was that I did not know that I had a sweet spot or how to find it. I did not know that I had a 500 RPM window for shifting. My problem was downshifting. It was hit or miss to say the least. Once I figured out that I reved 500 RPM after clutch in Gear in N, it would fall in gear no matter what gear. I could down shift all the way into first gear from 8th doing this.

I blew my first downshift on my CDL test big time. I tried down shifting going down a hill and missed the gear. Finially recovered in 4th after considerable braking I didn't miss a gear the rest of the test or have any other traffic infractions so she passed me.

One day the Light bulb will come on and all of this will fall in place. Stay patient and you will do fine.

 

What helped me with downshifting was using speed. At 45 mph it'll drop into 7th. At 35 6th, at 25 5th, at somewhere between 15 to 20 4th, and so on.


So if you're in the big hole, come down to 45 mph and c n rev c and drop into the lower gear, it'll go in every time.

 

I drove a gas Dodge 10 wheel dump with a 5&4 years ago, I remember it must have sounded ugly from the sidewalk.

 

Everyone has given some great info, but I will throw in my .02 from a new driver. Upshifting wasnt ever a big problem for me, but downshifting? Well lets say I compared it to brain surgery. I could never get the RPMs right for it to go into gear, grinding, cussing, frustration, the whole 9 yards. We were out on the range on our own, so we asked an instructor to help us. He got in the drivers seat and told us to watch his foot movements while listening to the motor. After he showed us, we all got much better with it. Just be patient(which it sounds like you are) and take your time. As was said, you have about a 400RPM window to get it into gear. You need to wait a split second before you go for the next gear.
My practice with downshifting is to rev it slower, but shift faster if that makes any sense.
As everyone has said, there will be one day where youll get in that truck and everything will fall into place mentally. Patience and practice will make it happen. Good luck!