Any old two stickers here?

I never had to do that when I drove a twin stick.......My biggest problem was getting the main stuck in between gears because I was lazy in my shifting.........All you have do is get a bar and pop it out......

They're fun but just like the RTO's....they'll be history in favor of the autoshifts...especially in Cali where stupidity is the rule of law.....

 

.especially in Cali where stupidity is the rule of law.....

Ain't THAT the truth!!!

Judi Kay

 

Thank the lord I didn't have to learn on one. I learned originally on an 82 Mack 10 spd, driving custom silage truck through the fields in Alberta. What a ride that was. The only thing close to air conditioning was the vent on the roof or the crank-down windows, all of which would result in silage all over!...
anyway, back to the topic of the thread..I sure do look up to those of you who drove those trucks for so long. It's incredible the smoothness you can put into it!

 

I drove a few B model Macks with 2 sticks but my fav was an Autocar oilfield tractor I drove in Mesquite Texas when I was 18 (1975). It had a 335 Cummins, 5x4 with a 4 speed auxiliary and a HUGE winch. Ahhhh, to be 18 and living at the Villa Inn again...... God bless those Texas women!

 

I never drove one, but I'd love to try it! Anyone still have a truck like that who wants to let me give it a shot?

 

1st few rides were all 2 sticks. Autocar 5and3. Ford9000 5 and 4. IH 5 and 4. All tandem dumps. Autocar 5 and 4 low boy hauling machinery and our broke down 5 and 3-4tandem dumps. Never knew back then if I was shifting right or not cause no one showed me shat. Figured out a few patterns that seemed to work with grinding and away I went. Old man went to work there and rode with me to see if he would work out. Hell he like to had a heart attack. Taught me about clutch release, double clutching and the right way to downshift. We called him Irish and he was a great driver who had been on the wrong end of every thing in his life.
Then we got some new trucks. They had a single stick with this weird looking round 1 inch thick chrome thing on top. Said RoadRanger. had little switches and crap. WTF is this piece of crap. And then we got to drive it and man-Heaven.

 

Blackw900- yep, drove those married 4 by 4's. I loved em. Was in the tank business. Had them in hendricksons. Ran local, union wages, home every afternoon, cold glass of beer after work 25 cents. At the end of that tank job drove a pete with five and four -- air shift --. That was an awesome trans. Loved that job and company. Union wages,ride my bicycle to work (three blocks from the shop) more 25 cent glass of beer after work. Back then city traffic ment you had to slow down to 45 or 50 before you got to cicero ave inbound on i-55 at 7 a.m. Now you stop at rt. 126 inbound at 7 a.m. And crawl to cicero ave.

Now days its a ten speed in a new kw and you don't dare sip a beer after work, someone may run into you and you'll have to go get a random drug alcahol test. Someone finds out you had a beer and it's your fault someone ran into ---you--- !!!!

Can we just go back 30 years ???? --please-- ????????????

 

forgoten art... Sometimes I see old clunckers with two sticks. I tried to drive twice...

 

First truck I drove for 3 Years all In the state of IL was a twin Stick IH 5X4 then when I had to drive teh Straight Truck it got even Better. It had a 5 speed main 2 Speed AUX and 2 Speed Rears.

 

Boy does your bit about "hanging up in the worst possible place" bring back memories!!! I used to firmly believe that the haz mat rule not allowing gear changes while crossing RR tracks was aimed at two stick trucks and people like myself!!!!!!!!
Another memory about the two sticks;
When working for a small construction co., couple of "cowboys" kept our "one mechanic" shop busy, among other things, repairing trannys....bent forks, busted clutches, etc. Drive line abuse was easily evident. Then due to work increase, our boss attended a large construction auction in Houston, TX, where he purchased three trucks, one, a Diamond Reo winch tractor with a 8v-71, and thirteen speed tranny. The other two were 9500 Jimmy dumps with a 6-71 and 5 and 4 trannys. What our mechanic LOVED about them, was that all the sticks had been cut, about a foot above the floor, and a short piece of PVC pipe was used as a sleeve to "connect" the upper and lower sticks. The thirteen speed had a small bolt horizontally welded on both the upper and lower sticks, the connecting PVC pipe could be notched to match the bolts, preventing the upper shift from rotating (pretty much holding the splitter in the same place). Those pieces of PVC were no doubt, a tremendous cost savings for our company, (per our overworked wrench). He even went so far as to keep spare pieces of the PVC, pre cut, in the locked parts room, so he could track the abusers.