Is there a big difference driving a 9 or 10 speed?

I am driving a 10 speed regularly, but used to drive 9 speeds exclusively, it's somewhat easier to go back to a 9 from a ten, but lugging the motor skipping 6th gear soon cures you of missing 6th..

A 9 speed is the same as a 13 speed without the splitter, same pattern of shifting, I prefer a 9 over a 10, but if I had to drive a 10 and had a choice, it would be a Super 10. It's faster to shift than a straight 10. I don't have a choice, the company has 7 10 speeds,none of them Super 10s, and is about 80% 13 and 18 speeds. It's much easier to drive a 13 in hilly terrain with heavy loads than it is to drive a 10 speed.

 

8LL has low range on the low side only, is used for off road. It has a toggle switch on the floor beside or behind the stick. I have only seen them in dump trucks and some vocational tractors. The coop I drove at when I started had one in an International tandem with a grain box and 6-71 Detroit (238 hp 2 stroke)It's a great trans for the purpose but not for OTR.

I drove Volvos elsewhere, they were old ones, some had White GMC on them. One had the original 9 speed replaced with a 10 speed OD, the speedometer was way off. They had troubles from poor placement of switches and controls, the air valves were too close to the light switch and would pop it loose, the newer ones had two light switches installed from the factory to correct this instead of moving the works. It was hard to troubleshoot.

I still cant stand any Volvo.

 

I just love troubleshooting, and with an FLD I can usually figure it out, not so with a Volvo, I really hate sitting waiting for service to show up and sitting there forever after they do finally get there, I still don't like Volvo, if I wouldn't own one, I wouldn't want to drive one. Those fuses for trailer lights are an enormous pain, especially for those ugly, spread axle trailers I usually pull. Add chicken crap to road salt and you will see what I mean.

But to each his own.

 

Wait until you drive a 15 spd.

 

I hear 15 speeds are really fun, but how about a 6x4. Back in the 70's, the hot setup was an air 4x4, I haven't see one of those in close to 30 years, though.

The common belief, and it is a mis-conception, is that a 13 speed will go faster than a 9 or a 10, it doesn't save much money leaving the splitter disconnected on a 13 speed, but it makes insurance companies and owners breathe easier thinking they slowed someone down. It makes no sense to me , it hurts fuel mileage and a splitter allows faster shifting because of less rpm difference between gears, as well as being faster to shift anyway. My present truck is governed out at 75 and it's a 10 speed geared way tall. The 13 speed I drove for awhile was governed out at 70, actually it wasn't going 70, and it would do that in the top 3 gears with the 13 speed. Both of those trucks would go over a hundred without over-speeding the motor.

The fastest truck I ever drove, had a 9 speed with a 460 Cummins with nothing governed out. That truck was wild, it would lock in the cruise at 80 and it had much more, from talking to others that drove it. It was a 93 FLD 120 with a small flattop sleeper. It ran 1825 rpm at 80mph in 9th.