Hi there!

I have an '88 F600, with a 14 ft. box on the back. All opinions on the truck aside (yes, it has Lucas-Girling brakes), I'm new to driving such a beast and don't have too much experience with manual transmissions in general. I'm looking for some advice on the best way to drive it, both loaded and unloaded.

It has a 5 speed Eaton Fuller transmission, (reverse is front left), and 6.6 New Holland Engine. It also has a single speed rear. I'm know better than to expect this thing to go very fast; I just expect it to chug along till I get it where I'm going.

My understanding is as follows, please correct me if I'm wrong:

Starting in 2nd is just fine when not on an incline. If I'm on an uphill grade (especially when loaded down), I should be starting in 1st.

I should be looking to switch gears at about 2000 rpm.

Do I need to worry about downshifting on hills (especially at highway speeds)? What should I do different based on how much I'm hauling?

*Update* I believe I'm also having a fuel issue. The truck is having trouble climbing hills, no matter what gear it is in. I just the truck recently, and it had diesel in the tank. I have no idea how long it's been in there, so I'm going to drain some off the bottom as a first step.

The air cleaner is super clean, looks almost new. I have also changed the fuel filters.

And advice is surely appreciated.

 

ok i can hellp you will need to double clutch that transmission. to do so this is how its done,
press in clutch move stick from 2nd to N, release clutch, depress clutch move stick into 3rd relase clutch
downshift will help slow you down and cause less wear on brakes, and with what you have i would downshift

 

Welcome to FTE.

Does this truck have a two speed rear axle? If so, it should have a switch on the shifter with a red button.

As for the "double clutching" above, that's for down shifts and you rev the engine between clutching to try to match the revs to the road speed in the lower gear. With wide ratios, that can be a good trick. Use caution trying to downshift going down hill. You can easily gain too much speed trying to do the downshift, and not be able to engage the lower gear, or, if you do engage it, overspeed the engine. I would take extra care until you drive it enough to know your gear spacing and rpms in each gear etc, so you can easily match the engine speed when downshifting.

 

First, WELCOME to FTE!

Reminds me of a story my machinist once told me about a school bus company in New Jersey he did some engines for... Mechanic couldn't figure out what was wrong with the FT engines that caused so many wrist-pin, piston, and connecting rod failures.

Turns out the bus drivers were used to different trannies (gears too close on the shifter) or some other combo, and were downshifting too far and over revving the engines

 

Right, I forgot to mention, it has a single speed rear, with which I am very intimate, since we just swapped a broken axle. An interesting side note...

Before replacing the axle (and to get the old one off), we drained the differential through the bung, in preparation for opening it up for inspection. Three bolts and a washer, all chewed up like they had been bouncing around the diff poured out...

I was positive that the differential had suffered damage since the bolts were the same size as the bearing cap capscrews... removed the third member and... no visible damage to the ring gear or anything else. HA.

Where did those bolts come from? I have no idea. I mean really, who left those in there?

This is the big reason I'm looking for great advice on driving, since the last guy who got behind the wheel, well... the axle cracked. Boo.

Thanks for the welcomes!