Not sure of Steve's reasoning but for myself there would be quite a few times I would use 2-Low.

For instance: Stop-Go-Stop traffic, towing off-road over crappy terrain, pulling log/stumps/anything, teaching someone how to drive a manual trans, if I ever Valet my truck (hahahaahaha like that would happen)

Especially with having tall gears with larger tires, I'm currently running 35"s and 3.73s with my goal being 37"s with 3.54.

 

Twin stick linkages are also just more solid than a single stick, especially as the linkage and shift rails wear. I used to have an old CJ5 and I couldn't shift from 4H to 2H without the lever popping back one more position into N. That'll never be an issue with a twin stick.

Edit: Oh, and you don't need a twin stick to have 2wd-low, just shift into 4lo but don't lock your hubs (anyone who would think of doing a twin stick conversion doesn't have automatic hubs).

 

Ah! I could see for using 2low in a tow rig now that I think about it. I can definitely relate to the trans case lever jumping out of gear. I'm about to rebuild the TC on my Bronco & that is one of the lessor reasons.

 

I don't have twin sticks on my truck, but here's another possible benefit to having them: causing a potential car thief to move on! I've seen on the news that many (probably most) car thieves don't know how to drive stick shifts. If they look in the window and see a bunch of different levers sticking out of the floor, they might move on to an easier target. On my '97 Dodge/Cummins 4X4, I have a 5-speed transmission. On the shift lever, I have a push-pull switch for the exhaust brake, and I also have a second push-pull switch for a Gear Vendors overdrive. That overdrive unit crapped out years ago, and I had it removed. I never got around to removing the switch, but I thought I'd just leave it there, because some thief looking in the window might see those two bright red ***** attached to the shift lever and go "Forget it!"

 

Twin stick is to be able to drive home or to get parts in FWD IF something should happen out in the boonies. Well, that and I like to have total control over the vehicle and this gives me more control.

Had a buddy drive his '75 home from a "light" wheeling trip in FWD after blowing out a u-joint & that settled it for me on the conversion.


*edit* Just realized there was a half a page of further replies to the twin stick deal I didn't even see before posting. Still, my answer was not covered, although the posts above give some decent excuses to do it.



Time for a long overdue, but again very minimal update...

I am always amazed that a month or more has somehow gone by between my posts now. Makes me feel even worse about the lack of progress when I see a real timeline on it.

This e-brake thing while seemingly simple now had been bugging me & taking some real time to figure out. I was nervous about cable length before & therefore I wanted to droop the truck fully out to see the limit on how far these things would have to stretch if the ish hit the fan. Reality of it is, due to having to keep the shocks under the bed, this thing will be strapped about 6-8" short of actual full droop!
When I had it drooped out I realized that through the susp. cycle the shocks would get close to the cables, so I put the shock hoop in, put the shocks in & looked at that too. Always more work that you never plan on for something "simple"!

Anyway, it's taken a few weeks to make the minimal progress you'll see in the next few photos, but hey, at least it's pretty much out of my hair now & I can move forward.
I put the rear end back on it's wheels today, so I can move forward with other BS - like finally finishing up the fuel tank & related plumbing. I've ordered some fuel filters so as to get that rolling.

Ok, now the fun part - pics...

As I said I was worried about cable length. The stock cables from the rear are bolted & kept at the top of the center section by a metal tab that also holds the brake line. I could get more cable forward by moving this, so I cut that tab.



The brake line holder went back in place on top of the center section.


I then made a bracket out of my current favorite - stainless, to drop the cable towards the pinion on the rear. Since I won't be using the VSS I used this bolt & just made my bracket wrap the sensor. This little bracket bought me some decent cable length!



With the axle at full droop & the new bracket holding the shorter cable, I was able to see how far forward I could pull the cables.
The next step was to figure out a bracket to hold the cables. Turns out the darn cab mount was right in the way!!! What to do??? Use the thing! Took me a while to think of that option believe it or not.

Now I forgot to take pics before I started, but there were 2 unused holes in the cab mount that I just drilled out larger, for the cable.



A bit more drilling and a few coats of paint to fight off the rust netted this:



Here's the cables mostly run through & the bracket on them.



The next deal was figuring out if the stock cable was long enough to reach this rear section with the cable retention bracket on. This took a few tries & looking at it. I had even marked the cab to drill new holes so as to drop the pedal lower in the cab to gain some cable length, but hatred for drilling new holes in things had me look at it just "1 more time" (I had already looked at this darn setup 50 times I think). I'm glad I did as I was able to see it would work!!!
With that decided the drill came out to mount the cable bracket on the frame. Yes I was trying to use any existing holes for this in any way I could, but no luck there.




With that mostly out of the way (I still have to zip tie the cables at the rear a bit) I can move on to something else finally!

 

Nice work, sir! Because progress is progress, right?

 

Never cease to amaze.... Period lol sharp as always...

 

Lookin' good! Keep it up 'cause you're still ahead of a few of my projects & with infinitely better quality.

 

"quote" Time for a long overdue, but again very minimal update...

I am always amazed that a month or more has somehow gone by between my posts now. Makes me feel even worse about the lack of progress when I see a real timeline on it.

I feel your pain.. life can throw lots of delays at you, plus all the unexpected stuff on the truck. Great work as always

 

Throw us a bone man! It's been too damn long!

 

Regarding that stainless steel supply thing.

People are always throwing away gas grills. If nothing else, a small screwdriver will snag the doors in a hurry. Some of the back panels you can just pull right off of some of the cheapo grills.

 

I'm currently an intern with Cooper Tire R&D and had quite a bit a free time this summer. I spent 10 hours over the course of a week reading this whole thread. Wow is all I have to say. Keep up the amazing work and you'll eventually get there. Hope to see an update sometime soon.

 

Good words of advice! Thanks for the read (not even my thread! haha). Its good motivation that people are reading these threads and want to see more updates!

Maybe I'll go work on my truck now....

 

What the hell man! You drop off the face of the earth?

 

Sorry guys! Life's been a bit busy. As was said a few posts up time just dissapears & before you know it 7 or so months have gone by from your last post...
Thanks for keeping the faith though, as this thing drags on.

And a side note - you guys should feel good... My poor thread on cumminsforum.com has been dead for over 2 years. I keep telling myself I'll update it & catch up, but the more time goes on the harder that will be. I'm thinking I'll just link them here.

Anyway, after spending MONTHS of my free time making this huge (and admittedly nice) shed to get some stuff out of the garage so I can hopefully get the wife's car in there I have finally found a bit of "free" time to press forward on this. That and I finally got enough motivation to pry my **** off the couch at night & head out into the cold & dark & sit on the concrete under the crew. My work time on the crew usually starts after 9-10 PM. Have I said lately I miss the comforts of a shop?? Making noise at night with the little one & wife sleeping is a no-go, so I have to try & sneak that in during the day somehow & have stuff ready to be in stealth mode at night. This stretches out my already slow timeline.

But on to the good stuff! Slight progress has been made over the past week or so. It's very minimal, but hey - anything moving forward is good! Gotta get the pics into photosuckit & I'll get them up here. Hopefully by the end of the day. We'll see...