super 10 vs. straight 10

Going to try to make this *simple* as hell, because I used to be a confused human being when it came to shifting...

Super 10 (Personally despised this transmission when I had it, but..)
Each gear position actually has two full gears there, depending on if the button is up or down. So let's say you're in 3rd gear, wanting to go to 4th. You're in 3rd and the button is down. You flip it up, come off the throttle and it upshifts to 4th. Now you wanna go 4th to 5th (different gear spot,) so you flip button back down and move shifter to next gear position (one down). Now from 5th to 6th, flip button up, come off throttle, feel the shift, you're in 6th. And so on. If you want to downshift, you flip the button (move gear shifter if necessary), rev up a coupla hundred+ RPM and it drops into next lower gear. If not, you probably didn't rev up enough, re-do and you're in.

Did I mention I frikkin hated super 10's? Climbing mountains in these pos's really sucked.

As for the difference with a 13? Different animal. (let me add, my favorite transmission). With a 13, you go thru the low side like normal, but once you get to the high side, each gear *can* be split. You actually do not *have* to split those gears. A 13 has a button AND a splitter (red button, goes forward and back instead of up and down.) The term "13 speed" is kind of a misnomer, there is no 13th gear... there is 6 low and high, 7 low and high, etc and so on... some call it 6 direct and overdrive, 7th direct and overdrive, etc.... Once you are on the high side, it works similar to a Super 10 in that on your upshifts, you flip the splitter, back off the throttle and it shifts up. Same with the downshift, flip the splitter, rev it up and it downshifts. That part resembles the Super 10 completely.

The beauty of the 13 is in the hills/mountains because when you split gears, you don't lose as many RPM's by doing a downshift. The higher the RPM climbing a hill/mountain, the more power you can maintain. The Super 10, since you're dropping whole, entire gears, loses a lot when you drop a gear climbing. That was my ##### with it, since I was running a lot of West coast when I had one.

So my plan was to make that a simple explanation. I think I failed.

 

The super ten speed has a splitter like a 13 speed, but no range selector. If you ever drove a medium duty 5 speed with a two-speed axle, they shift almost the same way, you split each gear all the way to the top speed.

Personally, I'd choose the standard 10 speed transmission, but some people love the super 10 for some reason. Might was well get a 13 speed and be done with it, but you takes what you gets.

That's no joke. I hate the super ten. Whoever dreamed that up should be horsewhipped. OK around town for P&D but thats about it cause most outfits that use these POS trannys use lower HP motors too.

I don't think the Super 10 will handle as much torque and HP as a standard 10 speed either. Biggest mistake in trucking since the triple nickles!!!

Have you driven and auto-shift? I did, for a short while thankfully. Took all year to get up to speed on the on-ramps. The guys that drive em regular say they are tricky in the snow and ice, but I didn't drive one in winter weather so I cant say. You couldn't pay me to buy one for my own rig that's for sure.

Not all of us!

 

Horsewhipped and forced to climb long grades all day long. Only thing worse would be a full automatic.

 

i have a super 10 with a 600 cat 2050 tq mr haney tune pulls great no need to drop a gear run the pa turn pike in high gear gross around 85000 plus at times it's no 13 but not as weak as some ppl think

 

easy explained on the super 10, take a 13 and drop the low side, just pre-tend your on the high side of a 13 and split the gears

 

yea super 10 is a very easy trans to shift i can shift mine as fast if not faster than any trans out there if i want to shift fast i go in and out on the split been doing it for 5 years no problems yet

 

IMHO, there is only one thing wrong with many of these explanations. So many talk of splitting gears with a super 10. With a super 10 the RPM drop is the same with each gear change. You really aren't splitting anything. You are selecting two different, full gears, with the stick in the same hole.

The reason it is called splitting gears on a 13 is because you are splitting the gear ratio/range. Instead of a 500 RPM drop you get about a 250 RPM drop. That is the defintion of splitting to me. If you shift the stick only you move a full gear and don't split gears.

Just some food for thought.

After some thought, I guess you could argue that if you shifted the super 10 without moving the lever, then you would not be splitting it. Still who can haul a load with that kind of gear spacing.

 

My Lightning (super 10's lightweight brother) has been giving me headaches thanks to communication problems between the ecm, transmission and speed sensor. Freightliner can't seem to figure it out. I ended up running a trailer from El Paso to McAllen with no cruise and stuck in 9th gear half the time!

 

Well, you'd be hauling an empty load, of course!

 

Thanks to all for posting. I was going from Houston to Dallas this weekend to look at a truck with one of these transmissions. To many electronics. We currently have a automated manual (ZF/meritor 12 speed) that has not work right in 2 years. Driver has to shift with the dash button/lever and is very limited on power in the first 6 gears. There is a short in either the traction control, abs, transmission, or ecm that $4,000.00 and out of service for 2 weeks that could not be found.