Shifting A Set of Sticks

They make aux box with twin countershafts. It has a much higher torque rating than a single countershaft box. If you need more gears, the Mack Quadraplex has 3 countershafts. I know they have a higher torque rating but don't remember the numbers.

 

Two stick 4x4 66 cabover Kenworth 318 Detroit. 5200.00 truck drove it 150,000 miles.

 

My first was a 51 KW-220 - 4 & 3 with worm drives-I really hated not having a deep hole!

 

Threads like this make me feel like a baby and a sterring wheel holder until I remember there are in fact people that put their trucks in D and go to sleep.

 

I take great pride in the fact I learned to REALLY drive on a 70's Mack dump truck, with a kitty cat engine and a 10 speed compound. All I remember was one stick was 5 gears and the other was lo-hi and reverse. I had it in 5th reverse trying to get through some soft sand in a pit. I got the job just because I had learned to drive in NYC and this was nowhere Maine where I drove the Mack. It also had a worn out engine brake, not a jake brake, so I had to be certain that I was in the right gear before I went downhill with a load on.
It was where I also learned, on another guy's truck, to turn the jake off before you get too slow. I didn't know and he forgot to tell. End result-engine died and I was trying to turn with a load on. Lots of good memories. Also was coming around the corner and a school bus was stopped with the lights on. Was VERY busy down-shifting with the compound, trying to steer with the knee, slapping the clutch down, all that good stuff. I finally stopped right in front of the school bus, when she turned the lights out, waved and drove off. Meanwhile I was a sweaty mess, limbs shaking and my mouth screaming every profanity I knew at that driver.

Good times.....

 

Aw. I will have nightmares now. Like I used to.

But hey... THIS was trucking back then. Righteous. One of the biggest lessons my instructor Adams and Kinnerman (Spelling??) hammered and beat into me was that if you make a mistake them trucks will tell you right quick. No fooling around holding a wheel like today.

 

Even better go back to the days prior to Pallets (Invented roughly 1964)

Anyone with a motivation to make money to show up from high school classes and start throwing boxes into the trailers all along the row for the afternoon and evening.