Question for the old timers

Thing I noticed right off in video, is that he doesn't drive this truck often enough! He was tickling the gears in rather than snicking them in like he would if he had the timing down pat.

Not knocking him, we all know every truck feels a bit different, and to drive a two-stroke always throws your timing off for a couple hours minimum.

As for the double - clutching, it's really no different than driving any tranny. The places you'd cover the clutch in a modern truck, you'd do the same here. Rarely a full double, just usually released enough to ensure it would come out of gear without hanging up and screwing up your timing. Probably used that technique more with the older trucks, just because they didn't have the grunt to recover from a botched shift like today's engines do.

As some of the other guys mentioned, it wasn't uncommon in tough terrain to get stuck grinding up a grade in one gear if you screwed up your run at the bottom and had to start from a stop while on the hill.

 

That makes sense, thanks!

 

The truck in my avatar, my '72 small window 359 had armstrong steering and I went to the rail yards in Chicago. For the most part, I liked it for running down the road. Has a much more positive feel ( heaven help you in a steer blowout, however) than power. I think it had center point steering, which was a bit easier. As expected, backing in was a chore. In tight places, I'd have to request a dock that had an open dock on either side, because you just couldn't swing it in, like power. Most places were cool about it, especially after they saw the truck, which I always kept clean. Once I backed in a dock, I couldn't get out of. THAT was no fun. I drove a Mack with air assist steering. It was better, but you'd use all the air backing in and have to wait sometimes. They took a lot of air to operate.

 

Worn out air assist steering, maybe the best herding cats simulator that exists!

 

Yeah, a funky setup. It was an air cylinder mounted on the steer axle, and then connected to the tie rod. I'm sure a DOT inspector would have to call their boss on that one. I actually liked it. Gave the feel of manual running down the road, but you're right, backing in, it was pssssh, pssst, pssht out the 2 way valve, and didn't take long to use up the air, then the brakes lock.

 

Even the only auto I have driven, used the jake when shifting when it needed to.

I have never heard that one, I do not know what it was called and sure never drove one, but Mack built a 3 stick rig at one time.

I did have an old rl model west coast mack with air assist.

anybody remember having a switch on the dash to turn off the steer axle brakes??

 

Those were generally a Brownie
stuck behind any of the various Mack two-stick setups. (Duplex, Triplex, Quadraplex) Mostly
done for extra overdrive.

I drove a few different trucks from 70s when I first started. Even those were mostly without switch.

 

A lot of the ones from the 70, up until 79, did not even have steer axle brakes to start with, it was optional.

The only one I drove with the switch was a fancy, for the time 85 or 6 ex hood 359. I want to say the switch was labeled, wet road and dry road.