Manual Tranmissions

[Jerome Stanek]

I learned how to drive a stick shift when I was 12 we had an old Chevy dump truck that we had to push start as the battery was dead and we only used it about 4 times a year. I could put it in gear and push start it with the tractor then jump off the tractor and jump in the truck and put it in gear and start it then take it out of gear and stop the tractor.

[Steve Demuth]

Parking lots are not generally optimized for long vehicles, too. That can be the length of the spaces, but more importantly, many parking lots have almost the minimum width for the traffic aisles that are not friendly to trucks that have really big turning radiuses. Even the very popular F150/RAM1500/Silverado/Tundra luxury rides can struggle in parking lots because of this.

And heaven help you if you have to park in a parking garage and a few of your fellow tenants think a crew cab F-350 is the ideal vehicle for commuting.

[Steve Demuth]

I learned to drive the ultimate manual transmissions as a kid. Tractors with 4, 6, 8, and 12 speeds. You know you can shift a tractor with an unsynchronized transmission on the go? Run them through the gears so to speak. Not the ones with the hand clutch though. To many moving parts there. Also the 730 John Deere had very defined "gates" the gear shift was guided through. So you picked your gear and went with. That progressed to vehicles with 3 on the tree and 4 on the floor. Gravel roads and drifting the corners went hand in hand. Many people these days don't have any idea what to do if the rear of the vehicle were to slide. With almost everything but pickups being front wheel drive not many know what sliding around a corner feels like.

You're making my age show here. I could shift our Farmall Super M from 3rd to 4th to 5th on the go. When we replaced that with an IH 656, with a very similar 5 speed transmission (plus a planetary "Torque amplifier" for high/low shift on the go) that was no longer possible. The tranny was just too tight. But the John Deere A - you had to bring that to an absolute dead stop, and even then you might not be able to get to the gear you wanted short of getting out of your seat to exert more force on the (short) shift lever in the odd-ball pattern box. Miserable shift mechanisms on those old 2 cylinder Deeres.

[Mike Soaper]

I learned how to drive a stick shift when I was 12 we had an old Chevy dump truck that we had to push start as the battery was dead and we only used it about 4 times a year. I could put it in gear and push start it with the tractor then jump off the tractor and jump in the truck and put it in gear and start it then take it out of gear and stop the tractor.

yikes! sounds like fun.

My uncle had an Avery tractor, I still remember the whine of the gear box in high gear.

[Brian Elfert]

Parking lots are not generally optimized for long vehicles, too. That can be the length of the spaces, but more importantly, many parking lots have almost the minimum width for the traffic aisles that are not friendly to trucks that have really big turning radiuses. Even the very popular F150/RAM1500/Silverado/Tundra luxury rides can struggle in parking lots because of this.

I have noticed that some home improvement stores have parking lots with wider and longer spaces to cater to the larger vehicles a lot of their customers drive. It seems like a home improvement store that isn't part of a shopping center is more more likely to have large parking spots. I didn't really notice if the aisles seemed wider or not not.

[Brian Elfert]

You're making my age show here. I could shift our Farmall Super M from 3rd to 4th to 5th on the go. When we replaced that with an IH 656, with a very similar 5 speed transmission (plus a planetary "Torque amplifier" for high/low shift on the go) that was no longer possible. The tranny was just too tight. But the John Deere A - you had to bring that to an absolute dead stop, and even then you might not be able to get to the gear you wanted short of getting out of your seat to exert more force on the (short) shift lever in the odd-ball pattern box. Miserable shift mechanisms on those old 2 cylinder Deeres.

My parents had a cheap riding mower with a manual transmission when I was a kid. I hated that thing. The "clutch" was really just an idler pulley that pushed against the drive belt to keep it tight. The transmission was more of a speed selector than a typical manual transmission. You couldn't actually change speeds without stopping if I recall correctly. The throttle basically stayed at full bore if cutting grass.

[Bill Dufour]

I did learn in high school, before I needed to really know, that it is easiest to sit on the rear bumper to push start a car. Get it moving then turn around and add speed. A good thing to know now at my gae. Sitting to start the push puts no strain on the back or arms.
Bil lD

[Kev Williams]

You haven't lived until you've driven a semi with a 5 over 4 split stick transmissions
5o4.jpg

-- not sure what the 3rd stick is for, some sort of 2-speed splitter I guess.
Not sure about the shift pattern shown, considering there's no "R" on it

[Erik Loza]

So, is that basically five forward gears, times four? In other words, twenty forward gears? Always wondered about big rigs.

Erik

You haven't lived until you've driven a semi with a 5 over 4 split stick transmissions
5o4.jpg

[Bill Dufour]

My rototiller has two speeds with a two speed transaxle so they call it 8 speeds since it has reverse.
Bil lD

[Jerome Stanek]

And heaven help you if you have to park in a parking garage and a few of your fellow tenants think a crew cab F-350 is the ideal vehicle for commuting.

I drove a crew cab dually into a parking garage in Chicago that I thought the company said they used all the time. It was the wrong one and I had to get it out just had to really be careful as I only had about 1 to 2 inches to play with the 2 guys that were with me couldn't believe that I got out and did not hit anything.

[Jerome Stanek]

yikes! sounds like fun.

My uncle had an Avery tractor, I still remember the whine of the gear box in high gear.

I guess when your young and dumb you do stupid stuff.

[Michael Weber]

I can NEVER find my 03 Tacoma in a parking lot because of all the other huge trucks, SUV’s and even large cars sticking out past and above it. Same for my Prius. Life is tough for some of us

[mike stenson]

I can NEVER find my 03 Tacoma in a parking lot because of all the other huge trucks, SUV’s and even large cars sticking out past and above it. Same for my Prius. Life is tough for some of us

Both your cars would seriously hide my mx5.

[Steve Demuth]

I can NEVER find my 03 Tacoma in a parking lot because of all the other huge trucks, SUV’s and even large cars sticking out past and above it. Same for my Prius. Life is tough for some of us

Yup. Despite my having started this thread ranting about my inability to find a manual transmission pickup, my commute car, back in the days when I commuted, was a Prius. Getting it in and out of the garage where many of my colleagues, being Minnesota farm boys at heart, thought they needed a full size pickup to commute, could be a challenge. Fortunately my employer reserved specific slots for compacts, so there was some design support for the smaller vehicles.