Driving a 18 speed

18 is still very much in use. And I'm not sure what you are describing but it's not an Eaton Fuller 18. I think you are describing one of the original Road Rangers with the flat round chrome shifter on top of stick. Seems like I drove a dump truck back in 70s that had one like that. 18 you will find now days will have a gray splitter on shift lever. Same black range lever as a 10/9/ others. 13 has red. Think 15 is blue but not sure. As described above same as a 9 spd except that each gear can be split in 200 rpm increments. Different variants of overdrive and dbl overdrive.
As for 10 spd you can have them all. Way too big a gap between 9/10 on overdrive models and no economy on those without. 13 is another great tranny. Most 18s are probably driven in this manner in day to day use. I rarely spilt until 4th. With heavy load would split it and then go to high range and split the rest going up. Sitting in traffic could poke along bored never touching the brake. Just splitting low range gears. 18 has amazing range. Sure the real heavy haulers here can tell lots of great tips and uses for all those "extra" gears to normal drivers. And when empty you can skip shift as you are able just like any other tranny. I drive a 12 spd Volvo I shift auto now. And it runs circles around 10 spd Eaton auto or manual. Same transmission with solenoids to handle shifting. Those extra 2 gears really let a mild company truck reach it's potential.

 

That sounds more like a 15 speed

 

Let us pray you never have to downshift on a downgrade.

You probably don't even shift according to engine sound, but by timing and feel. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you can shift per rpm, and don't forget the principle of "use it or lose it".

 

I think spicer had an 18 speed like that.

 

13sp-red splitter
15sp-blue splitter
18sp-grey splitter

A 13 w/ a split on the low side as well. I liked the 18 sp cause it reminded me of a set of sticks. You can skip around from say 6L to 5OD.

 

Could be a 18 to. It has 3 selection positions too.

 

I drove ive a truck with an 18 speed with no tach for 3 years. Drove several 359 Peterbilt's that the tach was about worthless and they had twin sticks. And a 13 was mixed in every now and then. Not sure where you come up with this tearing the transmission up thing. Just like people who say floating the gears will ruin the clutch, wrong. I'm a certified Diesel Mechanic along with a John Deere Cert. You won't tear the tranny up shifting by sound if your half way decent at it. Now if you grind every gear into oblivion yeah your gonna tear it up.

 

The hardest part I think would be the change in shift pattern from the 10 to the 9.

I never go through all 13, only really use the splitter going up a hill. I hate 10 speeds though. Would rather have a 9 or 13. That over and down thing means I have to lift up the armrest normally.

 

I have a Meritor(500 N-14 10 speed) and a Fuller(10spd 14.0L 515hp Series 60). (I have no idea what my other that other truck is.) Only thing I hate about the Meritor is I have to change gears so much on the low side and sometimes not enough on the high side.

 

Have you guys ever seen a 14spd or 16spd ?