I think your boss is confusing your truck with this vehicle…
Hi everyone,
many thanks to everyone who had something to say with regard to my post. Just a quick update, for the last two weeks I have been driving everywhere in low split. At the moment I am just waiting for them to see how much more fuel the vehicle uses driving it this way. I have told my overall manager that I’m putting unnecessary strain on the engine and gearbox and asked him if he would like to put the request in writing to me. Isn’t it funny how some people just don’t have the strength of their convictions or the balls to put it in writing. I even contacted MAN truck and bus for a definitive answer and shock horror!! got a reply. Thanks to the member who confirmed what i believed to be correct and that is, empty lorry 3 low or 2 high and loaded 2 low to start. this information is the same as was given to me from MAN. I didn’t think I was going mental, but that would be up for debate, it is just so wrong when someone who doesn’t have any relevant experience think they know what they are on about and try to undermine you. Once again, thanks to everyone who had an input and I am still considering the chin him and move on option.
Just a thought here, whilst i doubt you will cause damage doing things his way, there might be some traceable figures that actually put you in the wrong if anything does go wrong with the vehicle, unless you are using high split at cruising speeds you will be using higher than necessary revs and more fuel.
I would be inclined to email your manager explaining how you are now driving, and why…under instruction from him…you can put this politely as if you’ve come on board to his way of thinking.
It doesn’t matter if he ignores it, in a way it will be better for you if he does, you will have a provable record of raising the issue officially and putting the onus back to he should another broom appear or something goes wrong months down the line…as its stands at the moment you have changed the way you drive and there is no record of why and he can easily deny all.
If I’ve read this right all your boss is saying.
4th high driving along place the split into the Low ( ready ) position,
If this is the case then its fine as the low range only come into play when the clutch is dipped ( all he’s saying is you’ve put the vehicle in a condition where you need only to dip the clutch and not have to move your hand off the wheel.
It’s similar to the old Volvo 16 speed 'box where the splitter is sometimes called an overdrive, in other words you have an eight speed and the overdrive operates on all of them, but it is set up so that the high split is “Half” a gear to give you sixteen equally spaced ratios.
There’s nothing clever about the setup, you drive as you would expect, most times I found that you only need the high split, or overdrive, on the top four gears (High range) when loaded, (On level ground of course). As long as you keep the rev counter in the green band, that’s all there is to it!
Years ago when I was doing the m/e, a young fella from Brum had the same motor as me, a 290 Volvo with the sixteen speed 'box
in, and every time we pulled away from stationary, I left him behind even though I was running at gross,(32 tons in those days), and he only had about 4 tons on.
When he asked me why he couldn’t keep up with me, I asked him how he was driving, an he said how he had been told by his transport manager to use every gear, all sixteen of them at all times!
Most of his time was spent changing gear than actually accelerating, and he must have been getting through some diesel as well.
A bit of instruction soon put him right.
He soon learned how to leave me standing!
Beats me how some desk jockeys seem to know so much when some of them haven’t even got a licence!
The gear ratios are set by the manufacturer to deliver the power efficiently to the wheels, This includes using the splitter. I have a similar gearbox in my stralis and if I didn’t use the splitter I would not be able to keep the needle in the green band, especially when going uphill. If I was you I would ask the TM to explain why exactly he wants you to drive the lorry that way because he is either completely clueless or else he knows something we don’t.
Drive it like you stole it …
As I read this, and to be honest it’s probably the most pointless instruction I’ve ever heard from a tm but anyway, the way I would take it would be go up through the gears in any way you want until you hit 16, or 8high and then flick down the switch ready to change to 15 or 8low the next time the clutch is pressed.
So your on the cc at 90k with the switch flicked down but still in top gear.
I can’t for the life of me see the reasoning behind this but it’s the only thing I can think of because surely no tm would advise you to run around all day in a gear lower than needed, with engine spinning faster than needed and thus burning more fuel.
Hiya …i don’t get this question…how many times have you driven this truck Dave.
dose the TM want you to go up through the box in low gears then just go into high at
the last change. you could go low first 4 gears split high range still using low for the next 4
and just use high gear for the last change, it dosen’t make sense but is that what the TM wants.
he can’t want you to stay in low all the time this will ■■■■ up the amount of fuel you use.
i would start off in 2nd high low range and use everything she had when loaded. mine was a
knock through split on my Daf like on the early Merc,s.
John
Why was this specced is it also used as a wag and drag or is it hilly round you as if gears are an issue seems weird your tm didn’t spec an auto or even an unsplit manual.
Sorry if this has been stated and haven’t spotted it.