Back to the daily grind today. Definitely next year Marc.

 

I'm at EMT.

I got into a small accident yesterday. Took a tow hitch square to the bumper. Rear-ended someone at 35mph, and he was stopped. I didn't quite realize traffic was stopped, I thought it was slowing. Looked over to merge and when I looked forward again, wham. The other car didn't fair too well, but that tow hitch saved him.

Oops.

 

outch trey! hopefully the other people are not sleaze bags and try to toss you under the proverbial bus. stuff happens! but it looks like the bumper fared well!!

to me its kinda sketchy these days, a simple accident and people wig out and get weird.... i keep toying with the idea of somehow (not sure how) moving my DL address and truck registration to a PO box of some sort.... while there may be issues, i also value not being staled or some knucklehead showing up to my door with friends....

 

Glad you were not hurt Trey. Accidents are no fun. (I am sure you know that already considering how many you see on the job.)

Jim

 

More battle scars for the F250 Trey. Glad you're ok.

 

County seat of Buffalo County, thus the statue.

The home of my favorite filter manufacturer.

Remember, it's pronounced "car-knee" (as I was once reminded by a towns-person).

Pop

 

Sean,
I take it you drove right through N. Platte along the 80.
Did you stop in at the UP yard, Golden Spike Tower, since you were so close?
If not, you missed a great place for train lovers.

 

He wasn't too bad. He didn't even get my info, so he will have to get it from the police report if he wants to file a claim.

Unfortunately, at least in CA, your registration has to be a brick and mortar address. Your license does not.

 

Thx for the tip, will watch out for that next time Bob.

 

Lemme see if I get this:


Middle stick has all the gears
Right stick with the skull has hi/low
Left stick has another hi/low (in the differential?) used through all the gears?
I counted 13 shifts.

Is he clutching for each shift? Doesn't seem like it.

 

How was it, then, that my last "involvement" had the same P.O. Box on his registration as his license and insurance card?

Is special arrangement made for LEO and LEO-retired? That guy had to be eighty years old.

Pop

 

That is a lot of shifting. Seems odd to have the levers so long. And to have to take both hands off the wheel to shift doesn't seem safe to me.

Jim

 

if i remember right the big trucks the trans are not syncro'd and as long as your speed and rpm work out you can shift between gears with no clutch. after the trans wears in a tad they shift like butter!

that trans is a 13 speed with the air controls removed and replaced by mechanical control sticks that still control the air actuators internal to the transmission.. from the factory the stick would look like the picture below.

now in my opinion its cool, but wayyy to much work. back in da day you had "twin stick" trucks and the 2nd stick actually controlled a divorced 4 speed trans that was behind the trans bolted to the engine. because they did not have transmissions like that 13spd back in da day.

in more modern transmissions like the 13 spd in the video all that was condensed into one transmission and one stick. dads 2015 work truck is a 13spd, pictures following are from the cab of said 2015 peterbilt.


now on a 18spd trans its the same shifter but the "split" is also done in the low range too. but thats a nutta story.

the black lever on the front of the shifter controls the high and low range ( 1 -4 in lo and 5-8 in hi), while the red lever controls the direct/over drive (the split of 5th - 8th).


here is a picture of the shift pattern



now if we start off with a load and are grossing 78k lbs we put the clutch on and shift to LO let the clutch out, then we shift to "1st" then "2nd" then "3rd" then "4th"... at this point while still with your foot on the fuel you flip the black lever up and with the red lever down you let off the fuel move the lever from 4th to 5th and then throttle back into it... and now the transmission is on "5th low/direct"

now here is where it gets funky, "5th low/direct" is wound out with your foot on the throttle you move the red lever up and left off the throttle and the trans will shift (without moving the stick) to "5th high/overdrive" then you roll back onto the throttle, once "5th high/overdrive" is wound out while you still have your foot on the throttle you flip the red lever back down let off the throttle and move the stick to "6th low/direct" then roll back on the throttle, then we move the red lever back up and then let off the throttle and the trans shifts to "6th high/overdrive" without moving the stick and you once again roll back on the throttle. now we want to goto 7th same thing with foot on throttle we move the red lever down and then let off the throttle move the stick to "7th low/direct" and roll back onto the throttle, then with foot on throttle you move the red lever up let off the throttle then roll back onto the throttle and now your in "7th high/overdrive", with your foot still on the throttle move the red lever down then let off the throttle and move the stick to "8th low/direct" and roll back onto the throttle, and last but not least with foot still on throttle you move red lever up back off the throttle then roll back onto the throttle and the trans is now in "8th high/overdrive"

LO-1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th low-5th high-6th low-6th high-7th low-7th high-8th low-8th high... if your keeping count that 13 forward speeds... now this all seems like ALOT to do while driving but once you know how the harness the beast its simple, and if your really in tune you can skip gears depending on load. you don't always start out in the "basement gears" if your empty... hell in dads truck if you don't have the trailers on you can start in 3rd or 4th.... and in drag racing he says you put it in 6th and dump the clutch.. haha

in a 10 speed trans there in no lever and just the lack hi/lo lever, in 13spd, 15spd, and 18spd trans there is a red lever and it will have 2 positions.



its not "that bad" to me in terms of safe... its just alot of extra work. not a truck for the 405 at rush hour that's for sure!

hopefully i dont blow everyone mind too much! im 40 min into typing this post haha!

 

Thx Justin, very helpful!

 

18 speed...