Eaton Fuller 10spd Arrgh!

I did that too and got slapped in back of my head. The old timer told me if I was to blow a front tire it would break my arm. This was of course before power steering and back in the early 70's. When I was in the U.S. Navy Seabees we had 5X4's ( in non tactical road tractors) up until the mid 80's. I guess they did that because of the strength of those tranny's. They matched them to screamin jimmy's and I was lucky because I already had experience with them. But MAN you could pull a grade when loaded up with heavy equipment.

 

That is exactly right too.....We run a '71 Ford 9000 dump every once in a while when we need gravel or dirt moved with a weak 3116 Cat and a 5x4....I got used to an old triplex many moons ago in a B model that I played with and tried that trick in that Ford and that wallowing rascal like to have dislocated my shoulder.It has high flotations on the front and uneven pavement is very exciting.I can't imagine blowing a steer fully loaded and my arm through the wheel spokes.

 

Well we never though of it we were just shifting gears...and making that load move.

 

I'm the same way...I do a lot of crap and don't think about it,but that hard jerk on my arm and shoulder schooled me pretty good.

 

But did we have fun.. And I just weight 125lbs. The old timers would look at me and think I could never do it. I always had fun backing. I had to keep those wheels a moving, It made moving that large steering wheel a lot easier.

 

I remember visiting my grandpa in Memphis when I was fairly young .He talked my mom into letting me spend the day riding with him in an old s/a B model pulling a real short round nosed s/a trailer...noisy,hot,smelling like hot grease and oil and a stop light every block.He had a cigar clinched in his teeth all day long with a pissed off look everytime he had to stop and restart.He reached through the wheel too and cussed every breath.I kept my mouth shut and stared at that sick green dash all that day and when we got out of the truck that night,he was grandpa again.Sometimes those good ol' days weren't so good for some.

 

And they talk about stress. Some day someone is going to check out the stress on us drivers.. I see you Grandpa got out of his mood quickly.. that is good when you can leave all behind you.

 

Yeah..he was a good old man for the most part,but I've never met another human being on this planet who could string more cuss words together in a row than him if he was messing with that Mack and the women folk wasn't around...It was almost poetic the way he did it and he had a flair for throwing a grunt/screech in the middle of it and you would think the stream was over and without drawing a breath his voice would rise 10 octaves and he would blurt another 25 cuss words out behind that.And that was only washing the windsheild,you should have heard him if he was really working on it.

 

I picked up shifting pretty easily. Actually, when I "figured" it out I was out on the range by myself. The range is a 5 mile course.

This is what I do and it has worked on the 9-spd, 13-spd, etc. NOTE: These trucks always had a 400RPM drop between gears.

Low Range: Shift out at 1500RPM and in at 1100RPM.

High Range: Shift out at 1900RPM and in at 1500RPM.

If you are doing a double down, let's say you need to slow down to make a right turn and you were at highway speed. I take my foot off the gas, let the RPMs drop to 1500, then bump the RPM to 1900 and take 7th gear. Apply the brakes and drop the RPM (while in gear) to 1000 and then bump the RPM back up to 1800, kick it into 5th, repeat this and drop into 3rd gear... you are in control and can take the turn safely.

All of the trucks have gone into gear nice and smooth at 1500 when in high range. Low range you can pretty much go into any gear under 12MPH if you find the correct RPM.

Oh, and I am in week 6 of 8 at the local tech college. It's been a blast so far. Today I logged 210 miles in a 13-speed. That baby was fun going up and down the hills along the Mississippi in SE Minnesota!

 

5 miles sounds like a really nice range.GOOD LUCK.