My worst encounter of a gearbox was The Turner box in a KM Bedford, I could never understand why the were fitted on their side, The one I had was a right Tw t in the winter it used to freeze up in the turret , I only ran it for 10 month & got shod of it, Regards Larry.
andrew.s:
best syncro-zf 16 speed fitted to a daf cf,great installation,easy to use,very positive action.
the eight speeds in the cf’s are quite pleasant to use aswell.
worst -same box but in a hino-cable linkage,so like stirring a bag of spanners,very heavy shift,and a bloody slap across range change.truly awful.
Just saw your comment re cable linkage, that would explain at least part of the problem. I know Isuzu used cable linkages in their mid-90s trucks and the box was horrible on them too.
[zb]
anorak:ParkRoyal2100:
But the worst (in my past) have all been Jap trucks - Isuzu, Mitsubishi and especially Hino (which is odd since they’re owned by Toyota), though I reserve a special place in hell for Isuzu JCRs with a 5-speed box and 2-speed axle.Why can’t the Japs make lorries? They do everything else to a high standard, but the best thing you hear on this forum about them is “basic but it works”.
It’s a question I frequently ask myself. But fleet managers like them cos they’re cheap to buy and as far as I’m told fairly cheap to maintain, and fairly rugged (read: “basic”). THere is a perception in some parts that Euro trucks are expensive and complex and won’t take the punishment, which is cobblers - there’s plenty of them in Africa and S. America. Whatever. The cabs on Jap wagons are slowly getting better but IMO they’re still a decade behind Euro stuff when it comes to how easy they are to use and the quality of materials, not that I’m saying everything made by Merc, Volvo, DAF, Scania etc is perfect.
Worst synchro box was a Volvo 12spd cable change in an FH16-610, awful bloody thing, no feel to it and it was as stiff as a board.
Best synchro was the 12spd Scania box in a LHD 144, like a hot knife through butter that was.
I’ve driven 12 & 16spd Volvos and 10 & 12spd Scanias in both LHD & RHD and the cack handers always had the better gearchange. The 10spd Scanias especially.
The ZF ecosplit 16spd was also a nasty notchy affair, as was the Renault B18.
A few have mentioned 9/13spd Fuller boxes & twin splitters, errr they ain’t synchro boxes!
the worst syncro box i drove was a brand new fl10 8x4 . the gearchange was stiff and notchy , made my arm ache at the end of the day . to make it worse i had just come off an erf with a twin splitter .
Lawrence Dunbar:
My worst encounter of a gearbox was The Turner box in a KM Bedford,
If my experience was anything to go by, it wasn’t exactly adequate in the TM either.
always found the ZF 16 speed in a Daf CF to be very user friendly , did have a batch that would leave you in 3-4 , 7-8 only , you kind of lost half the box.They did get sorted eventually though.
fairly confusing were early merc 1619’s on ferrymasters , had a reverse gate 8 speed with a switch , later changed to reverse gate slap across.
worse one was a ZF 8 speed slap across in an early production k reg iveco-ford eurocargo, it seemed to constantly jam somewhere between low and high, spent most of its time at the dealer. In fact one time they actually managed to ‘lose’ it in their own yard.
I know lots hate them but i like the simple slap-over 8 speed in Mercs Axor, though the ability of the 430 engine to lug right down to 800rpm and still pull cleanly would have made any manual box appear decent as few gearchanges are needed and nothing need be rushed in order to keep in the narrow power bands of some vehicles, satans automated manual box ruins it completely.
Another vote too for the 16 speed ZF as fitted to DAF CF, another otherwise good little motor that is ruined when fitted with the auto option.
Not a lot to choose between Volvo and Scania simple 8 speed rangers though i found the Scania would baulk less, earlier Scania splitters were OK, not a fan of the later Scania 12 speed 3 over 3 thingy, but it wiould have made a decent constant mesh IMO.
All our fleet are auto now, hateful things that you still need to drive in manual if you want to get the best from them especially in traffic or at junctions or hill climbing/descending or err anywhere really, ie smooth uninterrupted progress and decent economy without the revs going off the scale…not Volvo as you’ve probably guessed.
Juddian:
I know lots hate them but i like the simple slap-over 8 speed in Mercs Axor, though the ability of the 430 engine to lug right down to 800rpm and still pull cleanly would have made any manual box appear decent as few gearchanges are needed and nothing need be rushed in order to keep in the narrow power bands of some vehicles, satans automated manual box ruins it completely.
All our fleet are auto now, hateful things that you still need to drive in manual if you want to get the best from them especially in traffic or at junctions or hill climbing/descending or err anywhere really, ie smooth uninterrupted progress and decent economy without the revs going off the scale…not Volvo as you’ve probably guessed.
Don’t start me on autos… [zb]'n hate the things, though to be fair I’ve never got behind the wheel of a Volvo with an I-shift.
Re your comment about the 8-sp Merc, I don’t really hate it as such, I just think it’s an unnecessary retrograde step when a simple switch does the job in other makes, and it makes the range swap slower than it need be. All that said, and even though the one I’ve been put on has taken a flogging over the years (I joined this mob 2 weeks ago so it ain’t my fault, honest) the engine still has some real guts in it. Both the Merc and the Hino (both 6-leggers) are nominally 280bhp but the Merc walks all over the Jap crap because the Hino has absolutely no torque at all.