Just had to come back to correct my mistaken memory! That Venturer had a 15 speed, same as the military “Leyland”, (so it said on the front)! Crusaders. Came to me as I was upshifting the soulless electronic box on the Claas. From memory bottom 5 were super low low. Chris, (Gardner 240) will know, his memory is better than mine…
Robert that E series in Calor colours looks like one of my old ones, I am going to look for the reg numbers tonight…Loved those E series, a real lorry, and personally I liked that cab. I ran quite a few of them, some on Geest Bananas were contracted on 175000 miles per year, and in 5 years never let me down, including the little one with a 10 litre in it!
All went back to Beeches and then on to Malcolm Harrison, lovely lorries, …shame about the company! And all were 9 speeds…
Back to the ranch, and a day with soulless electronic gear changes
robert1952:
I think those of us who were fortunate enough to have experienced all those all constant-mesh 'boxes are undoubtedly the richer for it! Robert
Not all constant mesh boxes were as fluid as a Fuller though, the DB 6spd was ok, but the example I had was behind a 6LXC so it was never in one slot for long, surprising how many times you can downshift in a 6spd box
The Leylands I’ve driven had the in house 6spd in a Clydesdale, which was ok, a 10spd Spicer in a Roadtrain, which wasn’t and a Twin Splitter in a Perkins (Rolls) powered Roadtrain
I had a short spell on a Foden S80 8wheeler with the Foden box and from front bumper to rear mudflap that was a hateful thing
Two ZF 12spd Dafs, one a 2800, the other a pitifully slow 2300 and both were horrible to change gear. A sister 2300 had a range change 8spd, don’t know who made it, but it was like a hot knife through butter and allowed the weedy little Daf to punch well above its weight
Twin Splitters in a Hino (like stirring a bucket of bolts with a broom handle) an MAN (always a good installation of Mr Fuller’s cogs) and once the SAMT junk went in the skip, a 520 Eurostar that was capable of going from a stop to cruising altitude using only the high split and four gearstick movements such was its grunt
The best of them all had to be the 18spd behind the CAT in a Peterbilt, the stick cane straight out the top of the box and the changes were as crisp as can be
Picked up my new lorry today, it has a constant mesh box too, although it’s an I don’t shift anymore, technology does it all for me
Just in case anyone is wondering what the rearmost lift-switch is on that Guy Big-J gear-knob, it operates the clutch-brake. Apparently, ‘push’ clutches had their clutch-brakes operated by pushing the clutch pedal to the bottom of its travel, but ‘pull’ clutches had their clutch-brakes operated by a switch on the knob, as in the picture. I only ever used the clutch-operated ones. If my description here is iffy, someone jump in and refine it!
Newmercman, you’re right there about some good and some bad constant-mesh boxes. I could never get on with the Spicer. And the installation of the Twin-splitter was so different on the Strato as compared with the Eurostar that it might as well have come from two different planets! Cheers. Robert
kr79:
Not a clue but it’s definitely a gear and was handy at times.as.it.saved dropping back in to low range
I think the factory would probably have been worried about the torque applied between crawler and the high range gear train.I didn’t even bother because I thought that the factory had locked it out in high anyway.While it would be interesting to find out what the exact actual ratio step that high range crawler would have provided between 3rd and 4th.It’s my guess that the step provided wouldn’t have been worth the aggravation of what seemed to be being described of going from 3rd into high range crawler then back into low range again for fourth even without the possible excessive torque applied to the high range gear train issues.
I only ever used it coming down the box myself as the lowest powered motor drove with a fuller was a Leyland constructor 3027 which I’m sure had the 265 rolls in it and it was often enough to keep you going.
The only other constant mesh boxes than the 9/13 speed fuller I’ve used is the twin split and the Spicer 10 speed some of the earlier Leyland constructors had which I wasn’t a fan of.
robert1952:
Just in case anyone is wondering what the rearmost lift-switch is on that Guy Big-J gear-knob, it operates the clutch-brake. Apparently, ‘push’ clutches had their clutch-brakes operated by pushing the clutch pedal to the bottom of its travel, but ‘pull’ clutches had their clutch-brakes operated by a switch on the knob, as in the picture. I only ever used the clutch-operated ones. If my description here is iffy, someone jump in and refine it!
Newmercman, you’re right there about some good and some bad constant-mesh boxes. I could never get on with the Spicer. And the installation of the Twin-splitter was so different on the Strato as compared with the Eurostar that it might as well have come from two different planets! Cheers. Robert
0
On offend fitted with fuller boxes I found the driving style had to be adapted depending on what engine was fitted. The ■■■■■■■ let the revs die very quick so was a very fast change but you had to slot it in at the right time where the cat engine there was a much wider rev band where it would let it go in to gear
Constructors we used had 3 different box’s the best being the Fuller, others had the Spicer 10speed and later ones had the ZF 8 speed with the range across the gate which were awful.
The best application of the 9 speed I drove was a LHD Landtrain in Guy motors plant, it had the stick direct in the top of the box but made the W change pattern become an M pattern with first gear away from you bottom right but a very slick change with the stick direct and no linkage.
It has been mentiuoned earlier in this threat that 9-speed Fuller was retro-fitted into AEC Mandators. It was actually a factory fitted optional gearbox for the last couple of years of Mandator production circa 1975 to 1977.
robert1952:
Just in case anyone is wondering what the rearmost lift-switch is on that Guy Big-J gear-knob, it operates the clutch-brake. Apparently, ‘push’ clutches had their clutch-brakes operated by pushing the clutch pedal to the bottom of its travel, but ‘pull’ clutches had their clutch-brakes operated by a switch on the knob, as in the picture. I only ever used the clutch-operated ones. If my description here is iffy, someone jump in and refine it!
Newmercman, you’re right there about some good and some bad constant-mesh boxes. I could never get on with the Spicer. And the installation of the Twin-splitter was so different on the Strato as compared with the Eurostar that it might as well have come from two different planets! Cheers. Robert
0
On offend fitted with fuller boxes I found the driving style had to be adapted depending on what engine was fitted. The ■■■■■■■ let the revs die very quick so was a very fast change but you had to slot it in at the right time where the cat engine there was a much wider rev band where it would let it go in to gear
You make a very important point here, because it made all the difference to the way you approached hazards and roundabouts, not to mention upshifts going uphill. I believe Gardner revs were slow to die. Robert
gingerfold:
It has been mentiuoned earlier in this threat that 9-speed Fuller was retro-fitted into AEC Mandators. It was actually a factory fitted optional gearbox for the last couple of years of Mandator production circa 1975 to 1977.
Thanks for that snippet. I didn’t know that. Robert
newmercman:
Robert is right about needing the clutch to split the early 13spd Fullers, I think FIAT were the last to adopt clutchless splits. Pat Kennet did an article about the various boxes and I remember the bit about the clutch being in there too, so that confirms it.
My own experience of the 9spd has been in a Transcon, 400 Sed Ak, C series ERF (range change was a switch on top of the gearknob like an overdrive on a Triumph or Rover) a DKSE Daf and I’m sure the Berliet TR305 had a 9 in it, but it may have been a Roadranger, it was a long time ago.
On my 18spd high range high split crawler was a taller gear then low split 4th, can’t see how it could cause any damage using it, the shafts are the same, just a few more teeth on the cogs, although gearboxes are not my specialist subject, so I may have that wrong
I’ve learnt something new about the 13-speeders today from this post. It’s interesting to see that it evolved somewhere between the '70s and '80s. I’d have liked to have used a later one. Robert
And this one is a Libya-Truck (basically an Iveco) EuroTrakker with a Fuller 9-speed 'box that is probably a Chinese look-alike, but I don’t know for sure. Robert
ianto:
I had a B reg Leyland Constructor 2421 with a TLII and that had a Fuller 9speed box i think it was an RTX box not an RTO.The Leyland was a long wheelbase flat
That RTX had more teeth to mesh and was a pretty sophisticated piece of equiptment! Robert
Trev_H:
Constructors we used had 3 different box’s the best being the Fuller, others had the Spicer 10speed and later ones had the ZF 8 speed with the range across the gate which were awful.
The best application of the 9 speed I drove was a LHD Landtrain in Guy motors plant, it had the stick direct in the top of the box but made the W change pattern become an M pattern with first gear away from you bottom right but a very slick change with the stick direct and no linkage.
Now I would have enjoyed that Landtrain you describe - it would probably be even more comfy in LHD form!? Robert
