Quote:
Originally Posted by Orangetxguy
....did you ever drive the 5 & 4's?? They were common in Mack's...
:rock:
The first 10 years or so of my career that's all I drove was B model & early DM macks with the 5x4 quadruplex transmission. At that time I was working in the hills of CT and NY state driving dump trucks & moving heavy equipment with a RGN lowbed.
In those working conditions, and with the limited horsepower those old trucks had, you got good at split shifting the quad box with 2 hands real quick, cause the operating range of the engine was 1500 to 2100 rpm's,and you
could not lug those engines down or they'd self destruct.
After a little practice I got so I could do 2 hand downshifts & upshifts just as smooth as an automatic.
Actually that's where the screen name "Splitshifter" came from - it was my CB handle back in the 70's.
IMHO, the quadruplex was the greatest transmission ever produced.
It's too bad that Mack didn't see fit to design a triple countershaft version of it to handle the high torque of todays engines.
If I had a choice of driving a truck with a "modern" transmission (9, 10, 13, or 18 speed Fuller), or a truck with a quadruplex 5x4, I'd take the quadruplex anyday. 8)