Why can't American trucks have synchronized transmissions?

usually owners operate truck till it dies on road.

The last time I fix Astronic, it was on 2004 Peterbilt, bad clutch was so worn that transmission brake was toasted, transmission was overheated and input shaft speed sensor was damaged (sold with tranny modul, do not ask me where did I get spare one), clutch servo was with hole scratched with clutch pushrod and filled with water and mud, of course corroded inside.... there was 800 k miles on odo and all parts was stock, never been regreazed....

 

anyway, gentelmen, you see how different is technology of electronics. Really I hate work with BGA (ball grid array) and I consider BGA to be not the best solution for transmission becouse of hard vibration. And it is true, on early ZF transmissions I had bad Flash chips, now I got damaged with vibration and thermal stress BGA sloldering.

Classical SMD terminals are soft and do not crack, BGA is very solid thing....

 

i have question related to fuller gearboxes and other road rangers

so question is where is gear knob on gearbox is it only on top of it and on middle ( i saw some images)

i notice that almost all us trucks have narrow cabs and that gear knob is in the middle of cab is that related to gearbox?

reason why i ask this is next : in period of late 70s 80s and until 1991 scania used to install fuller gearbox in Australia ( by request because scania gearboxes have only 10gears at that moment)

i have never seen interior picture from this one

some of trucks are converted latter ( some of them because of cheaper parts of gearbox and some for driving schools )

so scania with T cab( conventional) have wider cab than us trucks and if gearknob must be in middle of cab that would be tricky to drive you will almost need to stand up from seat when shifting


thanks in advance

 

The unswer is simple. The shift stick is not the straight stick, it is bent. so no problem, belive me

 

Pablo i once saw video of 2435 sk with fuller gearbox and since mercedes engines are "heavy-footed" while downshift at 1000rpm he need 1700rpm on N to get something like 1200 in lower gear

so i think for mercedes it is better to have syncro

 

For Mercedes SK, too old EDC unit, newer PLD engines with ADM units work well with any transmission.

 

A lot of the COE with manuals run a cable arrangement on the shifter, or linkages.

the conventional hood trucks usually have a stick into the gearbox direct, although this is usually bent should the ideal location not be directly above the box.

 

I can easily shift without the clutch in my truck but I can't do it in my car (which obviously has synchronized gears) so I'll take nonsynchronized gears in the truck any day. My knee couldn't take it if I had the use the clutch all the time.

 

Good lord, man, you are only 46! What are you gonna do when you reach 60?

 

All European COE trucks now are with clutch servo, so it is really easy to depress clutch, esier in your car.

But clutch servo: additional clutch cylinder, hidrolic line, air line.... more parts, more $$$ for all this stuff.

I used to add clutch servo on VN and it was easy becouse Volvo use hidrolic clutch control. Internationals and Freightliners are with linkage clutch control, so conversion is more expencive.