It would be nice to know how but 18 gears on one stick is the most anyone would reasonably have to deal with. It should be required that they at least know how to drive manual but a lot of companies are caving and buying automatic so a lot of people getting their CDL took notice and made the “problem” worse by ensuring that they aren’t even allowed to drive a 7 speed much less deal with shifting two transmissions at the same time. These twin sticks also have a lot of pointless gear ratios like for 5+4 you shift 1+1, 2+1, 1+2, 1+3, 1+4, 2+2, 2+3, 2+4, 3+2, 3+3, 3+4, 4+2, 4+3, 5+3, 5+4 where the first number is the main box and the second in the auxiliary or “brownie” and in 6+4 it’s 1+1, 1+2, 1+3, 1+4, 2+2, 2+3, 2+4, 3+2, 3+3, 3+4, 4+2, 4+3, 5+3, 6+3, 6+4. You have 20 ratios on 5+4 but you only use 14 of them and 24 on 6+4 but only use 15 of them. Give me an 18 speed any day. More used ratios hauling 155,000 pounds, fewer sticks to deal with, and you don’t have to worry about the auxiliary getting stuck or a double neutral situation. For 5+4 the 14 ratios actually used are 13.8:1, 7.94:1, 6.52:1, 5.45:1, 4.55:1, 3.74:1, 3.13:1, 2.61:1, 2.1:1, 1.76:1, 1.47:1, 1.2:1, 1:1, 0.84:1, 0.7:1. There is a lot of overlap with these. 6+4 in order if you actually shifted all 24 is 11.9:1 in 1+1, 9.29:1 in 1+2, 7.49:1 in 1+3, 6.49:1 in 2+1, 6.07:1 in 1+4, 5.06:1 in 2+2, 4.08:1 in 2+3, 3.56:1 in 3+1, 3.3:1 in 2+4, 2.78:1 in 3+2, 2.24:1 in 3+3, 1.97:1 in 4+1, 1.81 in 3+4, 1.59:1 in 5+1, 1.54:1 in 4+2, 1.34:1 in 6+1, 4+3 and 5+2 are both 1.24:1, 6+2 is 1.04:1, 4+4 is 1.004:1, 5+3 is 1:1, 6+3 is 0.84:1, 5+4 is 0.81:1, and 6+4 is 0.68:1. That’s why you skip auxiliary low everything but 1st gear, overdrive on 4, the auxiliary shifts completely on 5, and once in 6 you only have one faster ratio caused by dropping the auxiliary in 4. 11.9:1, 9.29:1, 7.49:1, 6.07:1, 5.06:1, 4.08:1, 3.3:1, 2.78:1, 2.24:1, 1.81:1, 1.54:1, 1.24:1, 1:1, 0.84:1, 0.68:1. 15 used ratios. Compared to 18 speed. Low Low 14.4:1, Low High 12.29:1, 1 Low 8.56:1, 1 High 7.3:1, 2 Low 6.05:1, 2 High 5.16:1, 3 Low 4.38:1, 3 High 3.74:1, 4 Low 3.2:1, 4 High 2.73:1, (go to high range) 5 Low 2.29:1, 5 High 1.95:1, 6 Low 1.62:1, 6 High 1.38:1, 7 Low 1.17:1, 7 High 1:1, 8 Low 0.86:1, 8 High 0.73:1. Shifting all 18 there is no overlap. You don’t have to split low range unless you’re 120,000+, you don’t have to split any of them if you’re 80,000 or less, you don’t need Low unless you’re heavy, you don’t need 1st unless you are loaded, and you can even skip 2nd and maybe* 3rd if you are bobtail. *If you skip 3rd, the same H pattern position as Low but in high range is the same ratio as 4 in Low range. Only 5 gears used if you do this but be careful because it’ll launch pretty hard and you’d be better off taking off in 3rd and shifting only 6 gears splitter high the whole way.

​@@dustinfurness2155 You didn't mention the tri plex, where with it, you have 15 gears, and all are usable. In the days those were popular, they were needed. Low horsepower/Torque ment you needed lots of gears just to get a truck moving. Personally I liked the 5+4 as you said it had a lot of unusable gears. However, with both transmissions in low gear, it was easy to move just about any load. Today, we have big horsepower and Torque so there's no need for those kinds of transmissions. I put a lot of miles on trucks with 2 shifters. Today a 10 speed can do as good a job as most 13, or 18 speeds can. For heavy haul I too would prefer either a 13, or 18. It isn't a big job to make a 13 into an 18 either.

@@bertgrau3934 Yea. There were a couple different triplex transmissions and at least one of them you’d have access to all 15 different gear ratios without doing something stupid like shifting the auxiliary to 2 then back to 1 to shift the main to 2 then after that shift the auxiliary to 2 then the main to 3 and the auxiliary to 1 to return to 1 in the main and 3 in the auxiliary. At least one of the triplex transmissions was as simple as from 1 in the main shift all 3 in the auxiliary then shift to 2 in the main and repeat all 3 in the auxiliary then 3 in the main and all 3 in the auxiliary and so on. The 5+4 “20 speed” was more like a 5+4 “18 speed” but with one set of ratios it was 2, 3, and 4 in the auxiliary (Lo, Direct, OverDrive or something to that effect) where another you’d only shift the 3rd and 4th auxiliary in the “20 speed” where the “18 speed” also consisted of at least 2 combinations but for neither of them would you actually use all 18 gears and in both of them the 2 gear positions the instructions told you not to use were within .01 of what they were in 4th gear but in one faster position in the auxiliary or something with 5 Lo Lo being something like in between 3 Lo and 3 Direct so you wouldn’t use that gear either. It wound up being for the “18 speed” use Lo Lo only in 1st gear (you could also use 2 Lo Lo before 1 Lo but that’s just too much work) and then ignore Lo Lo as you use all 3 of the other auxiliary positions in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th gear and then oops gotta skip 2 of those in 5th because they are actually slower than the gear you are shifting out of so you just leave the auxiliary in overdrive as you shift from 4th to 5th. 4+3+3+3+1 auxiliary positions each gear or the “18 speed” was really like a 14 speed with an optional 15th gear at 2 Lo Lo that was slower than 1 Lo while the 20 speed added either 1 or 2 gears depending on whether you use 5 Lo or not. 15/16 speed “20 speed” transmission. If they were to do something like put a splitter on a modern 10 speed that has 34-35% “jumps” and make that splitter a 17-17.5% reduction or increase (depending on whether they went the RTO18 or RTOO13 route) then you’d have a truly usable 20 speed. Then Spicer came up with something that’s basically a super super 10 speed with 4 splits per gear. For their 14, 16, and 18 this was fine with the 18 skipping 2 of them in 5th, the 16 skipping 2 in 4th and 5th each, and the 14 using only the slowest 2 splits in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd and all 4 in 4th and 5th. Not for the 20 though that could have easily been designed as a 4 way splitter all 5 but instead they went the way of 2 for off road and 2 for on highway for every gear with some serious overlap like 5 low on the off road was in between the highway splits for 4th gear. Obviously you wouldn’t shift that way (3 splits 1st, back to 2nd for lo lo, back to first for high, back to 2nd for the middle splits, to third for the lowest split to 2nd for the highest split back to third for the middle splits, etc) as that would be the same problem we run into trying to shift all 4 on the auxiliary in every single main gear in a 6+4 put in the proper sequence from slowest to fastest or like a modern “15 speed” where 3rd on the deep reduction was faster than 1st gear with deep reduction turned off making a modern “15 speed” a 12 speed the way the spicer “20” was actually a 12 speed and the Mack “20” was really only 16 or 17 used gears or the “24 speed 6+4” also itself could only be 15 gears double overdrive skipping auxiliary shifts from 4th gear to 6th gear before dropping the auxiliary in overdrive too or you could switch out the auxiliary and make it more like a 14 speed single overdrive with the direct drive 6 speed but where you only used two positions in the auxiliary for every single gear except 1st where you could use all 4. I looked into a lot of these gear ratios and shift patterns. Twin sticks could be configured to use all of the gear ratios or to have them overlap and cross at weird places. The spicer 20 with 4 position air splitter wasn’t really a 20 speed in the sense that the spicer 14, 16, and 18 speeds were. Then there’s the ZF transmissions that look like they are trying to copy the Eaton Fuller 18 but they did it weird like the 16 didn’t have Low so it was just 4 low, 4 high, split all 8 for 16. The 12 was the same concept but then it was 3 low and 3 high where you could have a 12+2 which is basically a 14 speed but they give you a 2 speed creeper like in the 18 speed that the 16 speed ZF leaves out. Then there’s that weird 13 speed 3 position splitter Eaton that was like shift 1-2-3 in Low, 1-2-3-4-5 in direct, and 1-2-3-4-5 in high before they switched to a 9 speed (5 low, 4 high) where you could only split the 4 gears in high range and why not split all 9 gears and suddenly 18 speed with a pattern like the ZF 16 in terms of which gears you’ll use 90% of the time plus that really slow gear that winds up being roughly 4 low split if you put the splitter in high and the range selector in high at the same time before putting the shifter stick into the Low hole or where a typical 9 speed has 4th gear in low range and high range low hole as basically the same gear ratio such that you skip one or the other leaving you with 9 instead of 10. Mack tells you to skip the last low range gear and Eaton tells you to skip the first high range gear but it seems like all of the manufacturers went the Eaton pattern when they added 13-18 to their lineups.

Looks like this one has the 15 speed tri-plex from the way he was only grabbing 3 gears on the 2nd stick

@@Retired88M I think the gentleman said somewhere in the video that it was a tri plex. I could be wrong. The thing is even if it is a 5 X 4, you would only need the 15 gears he was using.

Surprised anyone knew what an Emeryville was. 😂

I never drove an Emeryville, but I did drive a 1966 GMC Crackerbox, 238 horsepower Detroit 5 speed overdrive with a 2 speed drive axle at 2100 RPM speed was 53 MPH.

It's not bad once you get to kno0w what you're doing.

you should check out the "Twin Stick Pappy" video some time.

Lazy, one stick at a time. Ride with a guy that makes a compound shift with both hands at once sometime.

@@FerrickOxhide no need for the 2 hand speed bobtailing,,,,,,,. loaded is a different story all together!! 2 hands are a MUST!!

Exactly! I drove a DM607 SX with a 73000GVW for a while. 180 Thermodyne. First OD to second UD and second OD to third UD were shifts that had to be made. I could cheat the rest.

Most kids don't even know what a manual transmission is let alone how to drive one

I was waiting for the exhaust brake noise but it never happened!

@Empty Head It's actually pretty simple. You get the feeling after some time.

@@randomdude9269 Save for the fact that the kid trying to jack it would most likely never worked a manual, let alone a twinstick.

He’s using the clutch I never did driving one!

Not for someone who grew up in one. 😂

Screw that I drove them would rather have power steering and ac with an 18 speed manual transmission and a 625 hp Cummins engine !

I drove a 73 single axle F model Mack sleeper cab that originally had the 237 Maxidyne with the 5 speed Maxitorque . It was great to drive except when it snowed. You had to drive with a feather foot or else you’d break your traction unless your were grossed out then it would just keep digging and pulling. When the engine blew # 5’s rod out the side of the block it was replaced with an older non turbo 673 Thermodyne that you couldn’t lug down like the 237 so their solution was a Roadranger 910 ten speed to keep the RPM’s up. This was a tired piece of iron that was eventually replaced with another rebuilt 237. Now this was a nice setup. Drive it like a 5 speed getting going then split to the high side and motor down the road

U

Some drivers would shift both sticks at the same time. It would speed things up. It also made missing a gear easier as well.

almost all tractors over here in DE are 2x4

Skeeter, Back in the 50s and early 60s lots of trucks were single drive axle. In the northeast a few dump trailers had 3 axles. Could max out weight that way. I prefer a twin screw myself. I have driven a truck with a single drive axle and tag axle, really don't like those, easy to get stuck.

I don't have one to give up just what I see on youtube but I started to like the older ones but I want an actual working truck

Shouldnt have gotten one in the first place 😅 I am just toying with you

I'll take your Cascadia, and then delete the troubles ( if you know what I mean )...... I'm 6'2 and as much as I like classic rigs i couldn't work a B model Mack every day.....too cramped on the inside

It's To Bad They Make Trucks With Cheap Plastic Like The Cheap Cars They Make Today. Cascadia Has Lots Of Room But It Will Never Be A Classic Like That Awesome MACK.

@@hoost3056 Me too but am hammered down to 5-11. And the right foot turned sideways trying to work the fuel on DM's and RD's. Macks weren't bent for big guys. I drove a duplex with a 711 and a quad with a 673. No triplex.Plus everything from a Superliner down till I quit. Mack can still be a 4-letter word.

right on. bend the shafts just right and one hand will do it

My Dad did several million miles on b61s Always talked about bending the sticks to just the right spot.

That's true. I used to drive a B-61, with a 5 and a 2. It had a by guess and by golly transmission. " By guess that should be 3rd low, by golly I was right."

I had an old 69 ford. The clip that held,the sick in the top of the trans was broke. So you had to drive around with your hand on the,shifter all day. So i asked my wife to scratch my nose. She said NO. So i handed her the gearshifter. It was hilarious.

@@jerrykinnin7941 Back in the early 70s, I drove a KW cabover with a 2 stick 4 x 4. The auxiliary shift handle doubled as the cab jack handle, and just slipped over a square stub that stuck up out of the shift tower island. One day, I had a new driver with me to kind of show him the ropes. He was mesmerized by the whole 2 stick thing, so as we are wheeling down the road, I pulled the stick off the stub and handed it to him and told him he could practice with it.

😂 The first old truck I was tossed into at age 18 was an old autocar with a quad box in it. There was so much play in the sticks that I had to sit at an angle to be able to catch the far side. 😂

That's because it's a Mac Triplex marriage transmission

Hello Barnabas. In 1975, I learned to drive truck behind the wheel of a B61 with a duplex. Watching this guy shift that triplex is a pleasure. When I was a trucker, I usually shifted without the clutch (“floated the gears”) and it was great fun. I avoid doing so in my Civic because 1) The gearbox is more delicate and prone to damage if I miss a shift, and 2) It causes extra wear to the synchronizers and shortens the life of the transmission. Happy driving!

@@djgrumpygeezer1194 Hello and thanks for your answer! It's great to exchange views with people who know what they are talking about. So you already drove trucks in 1975 when I was born. It's just amazing to handle a machine at this high level and as I have no truck licence I try to get more sophisticated on motorbikes and cars (like as a substitute). It's quite a useless hobby to practice clutchless shifting and I know that synchros are nor made for it, but I'd like to learn always something more and I do it pretty rarely. I never force it in gear and if it starts grinding I clutch immediately. It's a bit of happiness when I get it :) Double clutching is the other thing I love, especially when the transmission is cold or when driving harder (with heel and tow). Thank you for the advice once again and Happy New Year!

*Etcetera* *:)* Not ectera x'D

Good call! She started-up pronto and purred the whole time like a top notch machine!

I don't miss them. Box seat , Armstrong Steering Wheel , Spring ride . I learned on one. My first trip was across interstate 80 going to JFK airport in beautiful Jamaica NY. 😂

👍👍👍 LIKE YOUR COMMENT THE COUNTRY TIGERS CANADA THE SOUND OF THAT ENGINE SO GOOD

I had the opportunity to drive the B model tandem dumps with 5x3. No air shift; no ac. Just two levers, window cranks, and wing windows. Summer time heat rolls up from the transmission cover & back from the firewall. Don't rush the 'ol girl either. The gears will line up when the rpms are right. Love 'em!

Haha! Same here, I think I was spoiled learning on a new 13 speed. I’m only 20 but I’m restoring our old b model with a 5&3 and I’m just excited.

My dad drove this truck, but with a different gear box. There's no power steering in these things! So if you're not rolling, that wheel ain't turning.

Why? Not being a smart aleck, would like to know.

@ Vincent Enk, because that was the easiest, and quickest way to shift these Ole Gals. You still had to let the RPM's drop, and let em drop into gear on their own when shifting up through, and then when down shifting, you had to bring the RPM's up to get them to drop into the next gear down. Double Clutching was required until a good driver could master the art of floating gears without using the Clutch at all, and just listen to the Engine RPM's, and let them tell you when to shift.

I learned the same way... left arm through the wheel. But mine was just a duplex... I miss shifting, but I don’t miss that old backbreaker...

SOU6900 before they became good at it they probably trashed a few gear teeth also. They learned, so can you. He lost me after the third shift though.

Once you sit in the seat and try it it comes pretty quickly

@@iancole2926 I started with an Eaton Fuller 10 spd

See I got lucky I started in a r modle mack twin stick truck

Well, he grinded a little a few times, but still is very talented!!