Saw an interesting transmission system in use.

PackRatTDI · May 22, 2007

I went with my dad and students/staff on a trip to Mexico. For a couple of days we rode in a charter bus, an Irizar Century with a Scania chassis. The transmission was a Scania fully syncronized 7 speed with what is called "Comfort Shift". It's an electropneumatic gearshift system with a automotive like shift knob mounted on a box attached to the drivers seat with a cable containing airlines and electric cables to connect it with the transmission, meaning there is no direct link between the transmission and the gearshift.

Here's an example:

Every time the driver shifted, you could hear the air system from the shift box, which sounded like when you make a range change in a 10 speed. Anyways, the most interesting part is that the transmission will not shift until the clutch is depressed. The driver can preselect his shift, then when he's ready, hit the clutch, thereby shifting the transmission. Consequently there is no way that the transmission could be knocked out of gear, or in gear when the bus was parked and the transmission was in neutral. In fact he showed us while underway by rowing through several gears at highway speed. Nothing happened without the clutch being depressed.

Volvo offers a similar system, called "Easy Gear Shift". I wonder if these kinds of shifting systems had been offered in the US if that would have made manual transmissions more popular in motorcoach service. Now they've completely dissapeared as an option, it's all automatic.

sano · May 22, 2007

Neat! Thanks for sharing!

driver4015 · Mar 13, 2008

sounds better than the 5x5x4 I used to drive,Hauled logs in the summer and heavy equiptment when the woods were down.

Scott0101 · Sep 15, 2018

PackRatTDI said: ↑

I went with my dad and students/staff on a trip to Mexico. For a couple of days we rode in a charter bus, an Irizar Century with a Scania chassis. The transmission was a Scania fully syncronized 7 speed with what is called "Comfort Shift". It's an electropneumatic gearshift system with a automotive like shift knob mounted on a box attached to the drivers seat with a cable containing airlines and electric cables to connect it with the transmission, meaning there is no direct link between the transmission and the gearshift.

Here's an example:

Every time the driver shifted, you could hear the air system from the shift box, which sounded like when you make a range change in a 10 speed. Anyways, the most interesting part is that the transmission will not shift until the clutch is depressed. The driver can preselect his shift, then when he's ready, hit the clutch, thereby shifting the transmission. Consequently there is no way that the transmission could be knocked out of gear, or in gear when the bus was parked and the transmission was in neutral. In fact he showed us while underway by rowing through several gears at highway speed. Nothing happened without the clutch being depressed.

Volvo offers a similar system, called "Easy Gear Shift". I wonder if these kinds of shifting systems had been offered in the US if that would have made manual transmissions more popular in motorcoach service. Now they've completely dissapeared as an option, it's all automatic.
Click to expand...

mhyn · Sep 16, 2018

I have seen that ComfortShift on MAN trucks 5 years ago in Russia. Another eurojunk.

kranky1 · Sep 16, 2018

PackRatTDI said: ↑

I went with my dad and students/staff on a trip to Mexico. For a couple of days we rode in a charter bus, an Irizar Century with a Scania chassis. The transmission was a Scania fully syncronized 7 speed with what is called "Comfort Shift". It's an electropneumatic gearshift system with a automotive like shift knob mounted on a box attached to the drivers seat with a cable containing airlines and electric cables to connect it with the transmission, meaning there is no direct link between the transmission and the gearshift.

Here's an example:

Every time the driver shifted, you could hear the air system from the shift box, which sounded like when you make a range change in a 10 speed. Anyways, the most interesting part is that the transmission will not shift until the clutch is depressed. The driver can preselect his shift, then when he's ready, hit the clutch, thereby shifting the transmission. Consequently there is no way that the transmission could be knocked out of gear, or in gear when the bus was parked and the transmission was in neutral. In fact he showed us while underway by rowing through several gears at highway speed. Nothing happened without the clutch being depressed.

Volvo offers a similar system, called "Easy Gear Shift". I wonder if these kinds of shifting systems had been offered in the US if that would have made manual transmissions more popular in motorcoach service. Now they've completely dissapeared as an option, it's all automatic.
Click to expand...

It may be worth noting that there is also no way to put it in a gear if the black box full of wonderful technology doesn’t complete a shift. Sorry, things controlled by boxes with wrist sized bundles of wire coming out of them have no place on our highways. It used to be pretty simple, if you couldn’t drive the truck, you didn’t get to be a truck driver. I personally felt a lot safer on the road when the trucks themselves kept unsuitable individuals out of them. It used to be the no-minds in cars, now my biggest fear is the other trucks.

RDTrucking · Sep 16, 2018

Some day in the not so far away future someone is going to make the post “saw an interesting transmission system in use” and they will be talking about a manual trans.

Russian Rabbit · Sep 17, 2018

i saw, and actually drove and "interesting" transmission all last week.

This transmission actually backed up exactly when and how i wanted to with no lag or jerkiness (and without damaging kingpins). It also moved forward and accelerated exactly when and how i wanted, smoothly without jerking.

Eaton Roadranger 10 speed, i think it was................................

Russian Rabbit · Sep 17, 2018

P.S.
Not pro or anti-manual, i just found this during research:
Fuller Advantage Transmission

x1Heavy · Sep 17, 2018

PackRatTDI said: ↑

I went with my dad and students/staff on a trip to Mexico. For a couple of days we rode in a charter bus, an Irizar Century with a Scania chassis. The transmission was a Scania fully syncronized 7 speed with what is called "Comfort Shift". It's an electropneumatic gearshift system with a automotive like shift knob mounted on a box attached to the drivers seat with a cable containing airlines and electric cables to connect it with the transmission, meaning there is no direct link between the transmission and the gearshift.

Here's an example:

Every time the driver shifted, you could hear the air system from the shift box, which sounded like when you make a range change in a 10 speed. Anyways, the most interesting part is that the transmission will not shift until the clutch is depressed. The driver can preselect his shift, then when he's ready, hit the clutch, thereby shifting the transmission. Consequently there is no way that the transmission could be knocked out of gear, or in gear when the bus was parked and the transmission was in neutral. In fact he showed us while underway by rowing through several gears at highway speed. Nothing happened without the clutch being depressed.

Volvo offers a similar system, called "Easy Gear Shift". I wonder if these kinds of shifting systems had been offered in the US if that would have made manual transmissions more popular in motorcoach service. Now they've completely dissapeared as an option, it's all automatic.
Click to expand...

UGH.

Most of the buses Ive driven have that long rod going all the way back to that blessed transmission. You can gain quite a bit of knowledge of what the driver is thinking by what he does with the #### thing versus the overall situation (Deep snow, grades and his engine power situation at that moment)

If I can sleep on a bus (Which is really really rare, that is the bus driver you want to keep forever)

This fly by wire stuff is interesting. But all those gears. Ugh. Why not stick to 3 or 4 really big tall gears and wait a minute until the engine gets up there enough to shift them.

All these modern shifting leads me to one thought. They don't want engines to turn worth a ####. No more 2300 RPM, No more 1200 to 1600, they would make it one RPM if they could all day long with no power to get up and go and no pull to get over anything. SHEESH.

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