Eaton Splitter box

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
21

switchlogic:
It’s loved by drivers who like to pretend lorry driving is hard

Nothing to do with it being a hard job Luke. I, like many others and I’m sure yourself get satisfaction from doing a job well, no matter what the job is. It just so happens that achieving smooth changes with a twin splitter made me content. That may sound a bit sad but hey, whatever gets you through the night brother!

As an aside I once left the yard on a Monday morning and within 5 miles my clutch cable snapped (Sed Ak Strato), for a nanosecond I considered returning to the yard for repairs but as I was doing a fantastically routed job starting in Wick and ending up in Newquay the thought of them taking it off me made me press on. One week with no clutch, piece of ■■■■ tbh, although I doubt I could’ve done it with any other gearbox.

22

switchlogic:
It’s loved by drivers who like to pretend lorry driving is hard

That’s Not really true ,it’s loved by drivers because it makes the job easy .

23

The absolute worst thing was trying to change down a gear going down a steep hill.
Like into a cornwall quarry .

The youngsters probably dont realise you had to keep the motor on the boil , otherwise your pathetic air compressor would pump less air than you were using and you would run out of air and brakes .

Your left eye never left the air guage whilst your right eye stared ahead in terror .

Total nightmare coming off the brakes to hit some revs to engage a lower gear , to generate some air to brake with .

On my auto scania i dont even think there is an air guage . never looked .

24

I think Luke is right. It’s held up by older drivers, as a holy grail, to tell newer drivers they’re not real drivers. It’s like the old neighbour in home alone, tales told to scare the kids

25

boredwivdrivin:
The absolute worst thing was trying to change down a gear going down a steep hill.
Like into a cornwall quarry .

The youngsters probably dont realise you had to keep the motor on the boil , otherwise your pathetic air compressor would pump less air than you were using and you would run out of air and brakes .

Your left eye never left the air guage whilst your right eye stared ahead in terror .

Total nightmare coming off the brakes to hit some revs to engage a lower gear , to generate some air to brake with .

On my auto scania i dont even think there is an air guage . never looked .

The easy way is with a jake to bring the revs down and only using the foot brake momentarily before changing

26

OVLOV JAY:
I think Luke is right. It’s held up by older drivers, as a holy grail, to tell newer drivers they’re not real drivers. It’s like the old neighbour in home alone, tales told to scare the kids

To me the fuller crash box is harder .

27

Dan Punchard:

OVLOV JAY:
I think Luke is right. It’s held up by older drivers, as a holy grail, to tell newer drivers they’re not real drivers. It’s like the old neighbour in home alone, tales told to scare the kids

To me the fuller crash box is harder .

I was brought up on a 13 speed fuller, I found them a piece of ■■■■ never used the clutch except for setting off from a standing start. but differing with you, I thought the Eaton t/s was less easy but a lot easier than a Spicer box.
The worst I had was a David Brown full crash in an old Atki.

28

Yes I did briefly own a spicer 10 speed ,we soon parted .

29

If you had a jake brake you musta been doing naughties for the boss !
We certainly never had em .
Think they were optional extras that costed several shillings

30

The royal we is the boss ,for anyone who wants a jake head you can get them from £200 from scrap yards for most ■■■■■■■ & cat .

31

OVLOV JAY:
I think Luke is right. It’s held up by older drivers, as a holy grail, to tell newer drivers they’re not real drivers. It’s like the old neighbour in home alone, tales told to scare the kids

I put them in the same category as drivers who call 6 gears 12 in the hope car drivers will gaze upon them in hushed reverence at the skill required to handle 12 gears

32

I wasn’t a proper driver, never had either a twin splitter or a Jake brake to play with… :cry:

Pete.

33

switchlogic:
It’s loved by drivers who like to pretend lorry driving is hard

I think that all depends on the individual who is behind the wheel. Some actually find driving a lorry quite hard as I discovered during my training years but in reality it is really quite easy.(especially these days)
It is the same with the Eaton Twin Splitter. Easy when you know how. The problem was not many drivers were properly shown how to use it. I was one who was shown by another driver and unfortunately he did not know all the correct methods.
I would imagine most are self taught. Some crack it and some cannot fathom it!
I only learned how to use it properly after seeing a video which we used to show during a training module.

34

Sturmey Archer 3 speed.
Solid and reliable. .

35

Suedehead:
Sturmey Archer 3 speed.
Solid and reliable. .

Still got the equivalent on me Batavus bicycle, proper seat too not one designed to split yer tackle.

36

I seen one once with a deralier set grafted on ,anyone know which gear on a strumey is direct ? Could it be 1 St gear ?

37

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wow

38

I had an Eaton splitter box fitted to a Seddon Atkinson. To me, they do nothing that a modern range change box does. Roads are a lot busier now, with lots of roundabouts and junctions where you just pile on the power and go, without faffing around with matching revs etc. I got to drive my first auto box on a truck a few days ago, a Volvo i-shift and it was real relaxing just being able to focus on the traffic flow and chill out.

Yesterday I had a Scania range change manual box (poxy crap), today I had a Daf range change manual box which was a delight to use. Last week I had a straight six speed Mercedes box, where all the gears literally fell into place. Go back to Eaton boxes? As they say, I rather stick wasps up my ■■■. Some things are best kept in the past, where they belong.

39

I’ve driven one a few times once in a foden and a daf 85 but drove a lot of 13 speed fullers in fodens a couple of old MANs and an old Iveco tipper and prefered the fuller. However I much prefer the I shift I drive now. ■■■■■■■■ To all that it’s not proper driving proper driving is getting your lorry there and back in one peice and the stuff in the back in one peice.
No doubt even older drivers who used things like fodens own 12 speed with the auxiliary gear change on the seperate steering wheel lever will say twin splitter peice of cake any idiot can drive that.
Times change and I bet many drivers from years ago would jump at a new volvo fh compared to an AEC mandator if you had a time machine

40

kr79:
I’ve driven one a few times once in a foden and a daf 85 but drove a lot of 13 speed fullers in fodens a couple of old MANs and an old Iveco tipper and prefered the fuller. However I much prefer the I shift I drive now. ■■■■■■■■ To all that it’s not proper driving proper driving is getting your lorry there and back in one peice and the stuff in the back in one peice.
No doubt even older drivers who used things like fodens own 12 speed with the auxiliary gear change on the seperate steering wheel lever will say twin splitter peice of cake any idiot can drive that.
Times change and I bet many drivers from years ago would jump at a new volvo fh compared to an AEC mandator if you had a time machine

No i wouldn’t go back to a Mandator, but i’d go back to a ■■■■■■■■ Eaton/Fuller, Rockwell combo in a Sed Ack 401 tomorrow.
And yes, the Foden 12 speed was my first artic box, Christ talk about a baptism of fire, wouldn’t go back to that box with the air range shift on the steering column (solid steel bolted to chassis in S39, that was a rough drive) but when they moved the ranger to the gear lever, especially in S80 form and with power steering and air assisted clutch, it was a lovely box to use.

I think where some people found the TwinSplit horrible was when fitted with an unsuitable engine, ie one that didn’t rev up or rev down quickly, and many workshops of the time didn’t know about (or couldn’t be arsed) keeping clutch brakes on Fullers adjusted correctly so getting a gear from stationary could be a jarring experience.
Someone mentioned the Spicer Splitter above, i drove one many times in a Roadtrain behind an E290 ■■■■■■■■ i found it fine, but again that might have been the combination.

No, i don’t like the modern auto boxes, though i agree Volvo’s is the best of the lot by a country mile, pity they’ve decided to go silly and put an electric parking brake etc on their vehicles, i liked driving the older stuff because you, the driver, were completely and exclusively in control of the vehicle and not just attending the steering wheel and applying the brakes.
Not so much to take pride in any more, and every move to dumb the job down makes it ever easier for those who wouldn’t have wanted to drive lorries previously when the whole job itself was graft to do so now, hence more licence holders less pay.

Each to their own, i wouldn’t expect the younger drivers who haven’t been there to have quite the same feelings about it, rightly so, apart from one or two self adoring egos they’ll have their own complaints in years to come when drivers do even less and the job has been further dumbed/cheapened.

Hmm, been an interesting drive down memory lane this thread, i expected sour grapes from the usual egos who weren’t there and we’re seldom disappointed on that front, but generally a bit of good natured reminiscing.