Remember the 3 speed Sturmey Archer,pedal backwards to drop a cog .
some also added a 5 speed derailier to the sturmey,peddle back to brake were good too .
Now we’re onto bicycles, I had to laugh when I came across this:
eps.campagnolo.com/
Yes, that’s right- the most expensive bike gears available are the same as the most hated lorry gearbox of all time. As you might expect, there are posts on cycling forums, which describe bikes that are unrideable due to electronic glitches:
timetriallingforum.co.uk/ind … opic=97215
It’s all there- plug a laptop into it and see if the lights come on, the gears change etc. etc. What a joke.
smokinbarrels:
fryske:
SCG in a Scammell Contractor
That’s almost the same type of gearbox we had in our Thornycroft Nubian Majors, except our gear lever was positioned below the steering wheel (where you’d find a indicator stalk). Two pedals and a fluid flywheel, great fun to drive!
SB. 0
The Self Changing Gears semi automatic box was on the column on Scammell Junior Constructors ,Constructors and Super Constructors it was changed to a floor mounting on the Contractors. The Constructor range was an eight speed box but the Contractor could have a splitter box which was a rocker pedal where the clutch pedal is usually situated which gave you sixteen gears.
cheers Johnnie
P S the Mercedes EPS was a very similar box as you only had one neutral between reverse and first and you just pushed the lever forward to change up and pulled it backwards to change down
If CAT don’t make truck engines,what engines do they put in CAT trucks.? 
shirtbox2003:
If CAT don’t make truck engines,what engines do they put in CAT trucks.?
Caterpillar of course.
cat.com/en_US/products/new/b … truck.html
What about a foden epicycle gearbox with 2 sticks, is this the one talked about earlier in the thread?
My car has a 6-speed manual 'box and is perfect for today’s roads and conditions. It got me thinking about 6 and 12 speed 'boxes.
You could get the 6 gate box the same shape as in my car (eg: David Brown as fitted to the Guy J4T).
You could get the 6 gate box with splitter on each (eg: ZF 12-speed as fitted to the Merc 1626).
You could get the 4 gate box (4-over-4) with a range-change and splitters in high range only (eg: Eaton S-type 12-speed box as fitted to the ERF ECS [- the Fuller 13 functioned in pretty much the same way but was constant-mesh and better].
You could get the 4 gate box (4-over-4) with 3 splits in each corner (eg: the 12-speed Eaton Twin-splitter as fitted to E-series ERFs).
But I’ve never heard of a 6 gate box (6-over-6) with just a range-change to give 12 gears. I’ve always assumed that this is because the range-change would occur at the point between 6th and 7th gears, which on a 4-over-4 translates into 2nd and 3rd high-range. I imagined that the thinking was that placing the range-change at that point would irritate drivers in suburban stop-start traffic.
However, would it be any more irritating than having the range-change lower down the 'box (as in a 4-over-4)? Range-change 'boxes have always been a very popular shift-system and I can’t say I’ve ever been irritated by having to operate a range-change switch (other than on older lorries when the air got low and starved the mechanism).
Perhaps I’ve missed something really obvious and there is another more glaring reason for the absence of 6-over-6 'boxes in HGVs. Over to you, chaps! Robert 
aye , a bloody good box jimbo , but it gave you a good workout in the hills . reach down beside the seat to preselect auxiliary and then up to the main stick for the change . it could raise a sweat in the derbyshire hills . though i’d died and gone to heaven when i got my first air change , cheers , dave
Any thoughts from the engineeringly inclined among you about my question: why not have a 6-over-6 range-change? See post above. Robert 
I think you could call this gearbox extinct, its lying on the side of the A42 after exploding in it’s 8 wheeler Volvo
1970commer:
I think you could call this gearbox extinct, its lying on the side of the A42 after exploding in it’s 8 wheeler Volvo
It’s a Norwegian Blue -
It’s not extinct!
It’s just resting!
John.
Which gear was the driver searching for when he found that one Rob? Had several Foden boxes explode like that, usually when a piece of chipped tooth got between the epycyclic pinions and the track ring. There would then be an empty two foot gap between the main gearbox and the propshaft where the Low-Direct-Overdrive box had previously been!! 
Pete.
I thought it was volvo syndrome when the release bearing breaks up and jams around the fly wheel and cuts the bell housing up ,but iam not 100% sure .
Dan Punchard:
I thought it was volvo syndrome when the release bearing breaks up and jams around the fly wheel and cuts the bell housing up ,but iam not 100% sure .
And the replacement gearbox from Volvo cost more than a decent second-hand tractor unit!
Retired Old ■■■■:
Dan Punchard:
I thought it was volvo syndrome when the release bearing breaks up and jams around the fly wheel and cuts the bell housing up ,but iam not 100% sure .And the replacement gearbox from Volvo cost more than a decent second-hand tractor unit!
My mate just replacing bell housing in a Volvo Dan that had done exactly that, he got the recovery job and when he got to it the gearbox was hanging down between first and second axles
What gearboxes have largely disappeared from usage today that you miss. Also what was the best and worst type of box of old? Also what was the box where you had to twist the gearknob?
Old gearbox’s, Scammell gate change must rank tops, if you didn’t know how to use this box, you were going no where.
Dave.
Eaton Twin Splitter - a gearbox to sort the men from the boys!