shifting gears

Ok I'll take a stab.

Cars and pickups have what is called a synchronized transmission. Whatever the engine is doing matched with the speed of the car within that transmission and it will take correct gears in one throw.

Air brakes is something I will caution you with a word of very serious business in big vehicles. There are specific things to learn and understand the air brake system. I don't know how to summerize it to be useful at the moment but basically your driving a air brake vehicle is NOT like driving a car or pickup.

As far as the big trucks shifting, the transmissions are non syncronized for manuals. You have to match the engine's RPM at torque for downshifting and at high horsepower RPM for up shifting, for example a Detriot 500 would be right about 1250 for torque and 1550 or so for high horse, red line being just about 1850. There are thousands of engines and transcombos.

The next thing is that your non commercial license for a car or a pickup truck has limitations on what and how much weight you can have for a vehicle and how much or how little you can tow. In the past when I had a CDL there was no limit except no motor cycles. (I rather do horses...) Now without a CDL but with a 8500 pound vehicle I can tow something up to 5 ton and that's about all it will be with my basic car license.

You will want to get into insurance for liability and full coverage where possible. There are scenarios in which air braking systems can do fail. I had a Uhaul box last year fail the air brake (Would not build pressure past 60) test sitting at the Building that hired the vehicle to me. They took it back, gave me a smaller vehicle and cut my rate a little bit since I needed twice the time to move. I had a CDL at that time.

 

A 10-speed manual transmission with air brakes, 28-foot Penske rental truck?
I've never seen that either.
They didn't look at your driver's license?

 

you must have got some kind of commercial truck. some require a cdl, but they all show automatics. maybe it was a relic from the old days lol

Medium Duty Truck Rental - Penske Commercial Truck Rental

 

Well, we had a little single axle international dump truck. Maybe a ten ton job at best... THAT one had 10 gears but there was in addition to the usual high-low splitter, there was also a axle splitter for high and low within that drive axle. It's quite a bit of work with that one. But it did well.

 

Years ago I rented a 20 ---> 24 foot stake bed truck from a construction equipment rental yard, a Ford with a V-8. Not positive about the cubic inch displacement, but that was back in the era of end of the "Y"- block which would have been 312 ci, but I'm thinkin' it was more likely a newer generation 352 ---> 390 ci with a 4-bbl Holley. What was foreign to me about that 6-wheeler was the availability of 10 forward gears. My experience was limited to Borg-Warner and Muncie 4-speed transmissions at that time.

That rental truck was equipped with a 5-speed transmission, (really a 4-speed with compound low) and a 2-speed rear end. I don't recall Y'all Haul having 2-speed rear end equipped trucks,........ But, ........

..... now don't tell anyone I told you this, ...... that experience provided a spark which ignited a flame that eventually spread to an out-of-control desire to become a Big truck truck driver.

I wanted to thank the guys at that rental yard for their contribution to my destination and my appreciation. I figured they'd still be located on Harbor Blvd. between Ball Rd. and Katella Ave. in Anaheim, California, but to my surprise, they ain't there no more. Now it's a place named, Disneyland. There's even a dad-burned snow capped mountain where the orange groves used to be. With so many motels along Harbor Blvd, Katella Ave. and West St., (with nowhere to park a 20-odd foot stake truck, let alone a 60+ foot Big truck.) I asked an older gentleman and his lovely wife, who were sittin' on a bus bench in the warm, noon day Sun, .... HeY!
What happened around here?

The two smiled simultaneously as they looked at each other adoringly. The gentleman tenderly put his arm around his wife and gave 'er a loving squeeze as they softly bumped foreheads, rolled their heads and fixed their gaze on me. The lovely lady then replied, "What you see here, driver, is what we're told is a fine example of progress, --- in action, -- and still on-going". Her husband backed her story up with a firm, "Yup! What they tell us is it ain't over yet. Closer to the beginnin' than the end, don'tcha know."

At that point I figured I'd ask the couple if they remember the rental yard place that used to be over thar.
"Oh MY, ....... yes! Two brothers and their cousin ran that business together. Opened up back in (19)48, or was it (19)49?" Hubby rang in with, "I believe it was early (19)49, my dear. Remember the rain and them gettin' stuck in the mud when they were clearing the land so they could build"?

Do you know where they went, where they are now, I interrupted.
"Why, yes. They moved on right after selling their land to Walt. What's the name of the place they went, honey"?, the wife asked. "Ahhhhhh, wasn't it Brentwood?" he wondered. "No, ..... no, I think they called it, ...... oh, .... something hills. Betterbe Hills? Oh wait! I remember now. It's Beverly Hills. Have you ever heard of that place, driver"?, she inquired.

Oh, yeah. I've heard of the place. Kinda expensive to live there. Their reply to my comment was, "Oh, not for them". Now, that raised my curiosity. As I was about to ask for more details a uniformed chauffeur driven Rolls Royce rolled up, the uniformed chauffeur rolled out, and greeted the couple as he opened the door to the spacious rear seating area, with a wet bar. Sensing my curiosity, they both hesitated prior to climbing into the luxury of the Rolls, and explained, "back in (19)49 we sold those young men a few acres of our land. At the time we owned all the land bordered by West St., Katella Ave. down to State College Ave. and then all the way to Ball Road The State bought some of it when they put in the I-5 freeway. The State didn't want the rest of the land which was mostly all productive, and quite profitable, orange groves; which we started planting back in (19)31, little by little when we could afford to expand. What the State didn't want to purchase, Walt did, and he paid us quite handsomely, too".

From what I was seeing, I didn't doubt their story.
As the chauffeur was closing the door, the lovely lady managed a wave to me, with a suggestion that, if I haven't been there yet, I should go across the street and visit the Happiest Place On Earth.
Now, I always thought that place was the interior of the W-900. Evidently not though. The sign across the street reads, Disneyland.
But wouldn't ya know?
Big trucks
Not Allowed.

Bummers.

I don't go ANYwhere without my Big truck.
However, there are times when I digress, ----
And this is one of those times, ----
Sorrie,.................my bad.

 

As a student of history, I sometimes roll on land occupied by various things occupied by people before us sometimes going back generations.

Every time I learned of the history of the GWB and the eastern part of the 95 from that bridge and what was there before the Government rammed the road through in the name of national defense was a complete neighborhood. A entire people lived where the highway runs now. Shops, small factories, businesses, stores etc.

I try not to think about that too much.

I say this and leave you with this thought. The New Jersey Turnpike. In the 80's its pretty much 6 lanes each way before you hit the long bridges down to 4 then 2. Fast forward 4 decades or so.

Now you have 24 lanes. 36. 48 maybe by now. All of which stand still at rush hour. Pretty much down past exit 9 by now.

 

Years ago I did a brake job on a medium duty single axle International, DT466 engine with a 10 spd transmission and air brakes. It had a 24' box bed on it. It and many others was owned by the City Market in Huntington on 7th Ave. It's was around a 1991 model if my memory is correct. So yes that application may be found in a older rental truck.