I know there’s a huge following for constant-mesh gearboxes but there must be a few on here who’ve driven wagons with decent synchro boxes. So go on - what was the wagon, and what box was in it?
Sorry, only those that had three pedals and a gearlever and none of your electrickery nonsense thank you.
I liked the box in the F88, but they were expensive to repair or replace when something went wrong. I also rated the ZF “slap-across” box as fitted to Dafs, but they wouldn’t take much abuse as I found out after my boss lent mine to his mate for a weekend- it came back with the synchros completely knackered.
Good idea for a thread! My favourite synchro-boxes by far are all in DAF trucks. I never liked the ZF slap-across 16-speed box in other makes, but the four-over-four range-change version as fitted to the old DAF 95 was very satisfying to use (for a sychro anyway). In the 95XF it was almost too light, and being power-assisted I wasn’t quite so keen on the feel of it. I drove a DAF 65CF rigid a couple of times across London for Gist and surprisingly, that had an amazing 9-speed range-change in it - really nice to use (I would have liked to see how it performed in an artic).
Having said all that, my other favourite synchr-box was the Scania five-over-five 10-speed 'box as found in 142s and early 143s; but because of the dog-leg 1st and 6th position it was much nicer to use in LHD than RHD, IMHO. Robert 
ParkRoyal2100:
I know there’s a huge following for constant-mesh gearboxes but there must be a few on here who’ve driven wagons with decent synchro boxes. So go on - what was the wagon, and what box was in it?Sorry, only those that had three pedals and a gearlever and none of your electrickery nonsense thank you.
I always thought the Renault B9 box was a cracking synchro box
It was a option in the G290 and R310 and R340 models very underrated lorries in my own opinion
Synchro box eh, well I did one load in a BMC Mastiff and that seemed OK and there ends my experience of a synchromesh gearbox in a truck!
Pete.
Scania 14-speed in 3-series. Same box in 4-series but the linkage was not so good. R-series not too bad.
I’d agree with Robert if it has to be a synchro then Daf seemed to be the best and certainly the one in the 85 was memorable for it’s decent shift.While the Volvo F10 and FL10 were also a lot better than any of the Merc synchros I used.But in general to drive a truck the way a truck should be driven then the idea of synchro boxes in trucks is just ridiculous.
Volvo F12,16 speed splitter, a gear for every occasion,was it called the sr62.
jackslad:
Volvo F12,16 speed splitter, a gear for every occasion,was it called the sr62.
Probably similar/same as the one in the F10.It was a bit more awkward to use in its earlier form with the splitter control on the dash not on the gearshift.
Well it’s not the eaton 16 speed as there’s no synchro on reverse which some drivers never remember to go from another gear rather than from neutral !!
And forget that bloody merc knock across too .
windrush:
Synchro box eh, well I did one load in a BMC Mastiff and that seemed OK and there ends my experience of a synchromesh gearbox in a truck!Pete.
I had two Mastiffs, KCK 840H & LRN 550 J. My brother Andy and I mostly drove them, although others did too, including Dennis’s sheeting tutor, ‘Possy’. Both did over 200,000 miles as I remember. Can’t remember what mileage the engines did, possibly couple of hundred thousand each with rebuilds. I liked the gearboxes, easy smooth change - I also don’t recall a single problem with them, despite carrying anything up to 32 tons gross in the first two years when we were carrying round timber from Scotland and Wales to Lancashire.
John
The Daf 95 linkage is awful once it wears ,the 85 is ok both Zf16 speeds .
Dan Punchard:
The Daf 95 linkage is awful once it wears ,the 85 is ok both Zf16 speeds .
Range-change failure wasn’t unheard of either; though on long-haul you could get out of a mess by wiring it directly to the battery (but in doing so you lost your accidental low-range selection protection). Robert
Iirc the last time I was forced to drive a 95 it was 6th that was the main issue ! It was easier just to miss it out .
I’ve two favourites, one was the eight/sixteen speed box in an FL10, nowhere near as clonky as when it was fitted in its bigger F series brothers and the twelve speed box in a 3 series, in both the gearstick was perfectly positioned relative to the seating position.
Volvo 8 12 and 16 speed boxes, the ZF slap across was fine up to about 400 hp but over that I didn’t have much faith in them.
I had a 480 Turbo star with a ZF in in and every time I put my foot on the loud peddle I thought the box would get spat out from under the truck.
Jeff
My big FIAT was the man’s version with the 13spd Fuller 
My own preference was the 5 over 5 in the 112s I have driven even though the range change could be slow changing down on steep hills ,the worst was the 18 speed in a 290 GT Reno , a noisy bag of spanners 
John West:
windrush:
Synchro box eh, well I did one load in a BMC Mastiff and that seemed OK and there ends my experience of a synchromesh gearbox in a truck!Pete.
I had two Mastiffs, KCK 840H & LRN 550 J. My brother Andy and I mostly drove them, although others did too, including Dennis’s sheeting tutor, ‘Possy’. Both did over 200,000 miles as I remember. Can’t remember what mileage the engines did, possibly couple of hundred thousand each with rebuilds. I liked the gearboxes, easy smooth change - I also don’t recall a single problem with them, despite carrying anything up to 32 tons gross in the first two years when we were carrying round timber from Scotland and Wales to Lancashire.
John
So, come on Dennis, you’ve said that us ‘Barra’ lads were rough on the Mastiffs - as well as my 2, Bowater Scott ran about 20 of them, and they also had problems with the Perkins V8 - mainly because they did about 70mph! But like me, I don’t remember gearbox problems.
I loved that 5 speed box with the splitter. Even at full load, you could split it up very evenly.
What was the problem you had that they weren’t interested in?
John
