"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
10/28/2014 at 10:30 • Filed to: None
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"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse)
10/28/2014 at 10:30 • Filed to: None | 1
| 9 |
Here we find a Scania gear knob showing an extra gear, left and back. This is the crawler, a super low ratio used for starting in difficult situations. Like its neighbouring gears it can be split and so you could go C Low, C High, 1 Low and so on. Having reached 3 High you'd expect to be able to proceed to C in high range, but no. Crawler is so much a crawler that this would be a downchange. We therefore have four gears in low range, three in high and we split each of these to get our 14.
Take exactly the same parts and rearrange the ratios so that what was crawler is now the usual first gear and we get 16 usable gears, an arrangement that isn't as common as it was as modern engines are more flexible.
So there we have it. Fourteen or sixteen speeds with no more or less parts.
Rock Bottom
> Cé hé sin
10/28/2014 at 12:35 |
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I love these things!
Here, have a triple-transmissioned Kenworth for your time:
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Cé hé sin
> Rock Bottom
10/28/2014 at 12:59 |
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It's the same basic idea isn't it, with levers in place of the usual switches?
I couldn't imagine the thought of driving something like that. Changing steadily up or down one or two gears at a time would be difficult enough but having to make a drastic downchange after having had to slow down unexpectedly would be enough to fry your brain.
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Rock Bottom
> Cé hé sin
10/28/2014 at 13:11 |
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I'm pretty sure you're right about the switches. I suspect these levers are from before they realized you can use an air shifter for 2-speeds... I think...
I took a ride in an old Diamond Reo once with 3 sticks and the driver was pretty damn busy! It was a backup rig at an old job and didn't get used very often, so he was pretty rusty. There was a lot of "I think this is seventh...
Sidenote: I wish we got Scanias in the US. I always thought they looked like pretty nice trucks.
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Cé hé sin
> Rock Bottom
10/28/2014 at 13:31 |
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You're not going to see the Scania name for a couple of reasons: the truck market is a very conservative one and resistant to new names and also the North American market is a specialised one in that it wants front engined trucks which aren't used much elsewhere and which Scania no longer make.
Volvo did manage to enter North America but they did that by buying Mack, thus giving them specific North American designs, and also relying on the fact that the Volvo name already had some exposure. Mercedes bought Freightliner but opted not to apply the three pointed star (as of yet!) probably because they're concerned that it might take from their upmarket image.
Having said all that VW have recently taken complete control of Scania and now have two truck companies with sales just about everywhere except North America. It's been suggested that they might rectify this by buying Paccar and then in the long term mixing and matching parts between the various units of their empire. You might then get Scania bits but not the name.
Meantime have a bus on a Scania chassis.
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Rock Bottom
> Cé hé sin
10/28/2014 at 13:57 |
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I did not know Volvo owned Mack. Learn something new every day!
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Cé hé sin
> Rock Bottom
10/28/2014 at 15:10 |
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Mack don't exactly advertise the fact and their website doesn't make any reference to their corporate ownership, whereas Volvo do list out their various subsidiaries which include Renault's truck business and the Prevost bus company from Québec. I presume that Mack's customers don't want to know that they are dealing with a company owned abroad. Looking at their website I see that Mack offer Volvo's iShift automated manual box but they use a different name to avoid putting off their clientèle.
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Rock Bottom
> Cé hé sin
10/28/2014 at 15:13 |
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On the other hand, there are a TON of Volvo tractors plying our highways, so I really don't think they bring the negativity that, say, FIAT or Vauxhall would...
Of course, most of the Volvo tractors are nice OTR rigs where the Macks are more often found doing gritty construction work. Different breeds of truckers, I suppose.
lonestranger
> Cé hé sin
10/28/2014 at 16:24 |
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You're correct about Volvo Trucks owning Mack, via Volvo's purchase of Renault Trucks in 2000. Renault had owned shares in Mack since 1979, and was sole owner since 1990.
However, that's not how Volvo Trucks entered North America. They did so when they bought out White Trucks in 1981.
There's a whole mish-mash of various brands and companies that are or were directly or indirectly related to Volvo Trucks in North America. I was going to try an explain it, but let's just say that throughout the years, Volvo sold trucks under the White, WhiteGMC, White Western Star, Autocar, and Volvo brands. For example, a WhiteGMC Autocar is simultaneously branded a Autocar, a WhiteGMC (itself a combination of two brands), and includes the trademark Volvo diagonal line in the grille.
And on the VW topic, that'd be huge if they bought Paccar. Unless I'm mistaken, VW actually already has three brands: VW Commercial Vehicles, Scania, and MAN. Paccar of course has Peterbilt, Kenworth, & DAF.
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Cé hé sin
> lonestranger
10/28/2014 at 19:03 |
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Corporate restructurings, takeovers and mergers do rather complicate things. Volvo no longer make Volvo cars, Renault no longer make Renault trucks, Lamborghini no longer make Lamborghini tractors....
VW sell their own brand trucks in South America which as I recall are designed by MAN. If, incidentally they were to buy Paccar they would then probably have to offload DAF due to EU anti monopoly restrictions.