What didn’t you like about the Comfort Shift? I drove a TGA for a short while, which had the Comfort Shift, I thought it was great! Only used it from 5th gear and up. Not long after it went downhill with the AS-Tronic…
Quite liked the slap-over 'box in the F2000, that probably was the best way to operate a ZF 'box.
Although the Comfort Shift worked very well, as a life-long double-declutcher it was not always convenient to use it in certain situations; and every time I failed to use the button on the stick and used the clutch instead the bloody thing bleeped at me and a reminder to use it flashed up. I found that both arrogant and irritating on the part its designers.
AS-Tronic I hated because I could drive more safely than it could: ie it was not always in the right gear for the situation so it put fuel economy before my safety. I used to get into trouble for over-riding it because it showed up in my diesel costs.
The slap-across was awful in the ZF because, mainly because it was too stiff. I vastly preferred four-over-four with a range-change switch. Renault’s own slap-across in the Mk 1 Magnum was rather better.
Hi ramone, Laurence dosen’t come here no more i don’t think
Larry is approaching 90 years of age either this month or next if I remember rightly so here’s hoping he is well and still enjoying a malt toddy.
It shows how much I know 
I never realised that was Renault’s own box, I took it to be ZF.
Seems I was in ignorant bliss driving my ‘Super’ Magnum then.
I’m trying to remember…it must have been the same box in my Renault R310 then eh? …again I thought it was ZF,.same as the DAF 3300s.
Oh dear in the last one, a candidate for landing flat on his back if the rope breaks. I am not critical, I used to do it that way and suffered once or twice as a result.
Well I didn’t see my grandparents’ house in Chandlers Ford, but he was a keen gardener and the smell of burning leaves always takes me back to when I was ‘helping’ him back in the '40s and '50s. I always remember him as being very fierce but later realised that his bushy eyebrows and hard stare beneath them gave a false impression. I then recalled that when he walked his arms down by his side but hands at right angles to them and always in movement were probably because he had failing sight. Hence the stare. Despite that, I loved it there.
Oops, you beat me to it, still working my way down the thread. 
Maybe you should have chucked in the double declutch thing😉
I fully agree with the AS-tronic being a right pain, it seems they finally had it under control in the end though, as I drove an early XF105 fitted with it, and I had no problems whatsoever with it.
Not sure if it was better in the MAN though then, as I believe they use different software..?
I never experienced the slap-over as being stiff, but to be honest, everything else I drove after that was either a 4 over 4, or 3 over 3 design with a range change switch.
IIRC Rob, the Renault one was called the B18 box.
The ZFs weren’t so bad in the MAN but were dreadful in Mercs. DAF used the four-over-four version of it in the 95s, which was very nice to use (and even better in the 95XF).
Renault’s B18 slap-across was indeed used in the R310 and also in the Romania Dac lorries.
As for double declutching, I still do it in my Beamer - been doing it for 56 years - no cure now.
Very far beyond all model of ZFs is the gearbox fitted on the '50s and '60s Berliets. An easy shifting pattern and lovely polished aluminium stick handle. Of course on has to double-declutch up and down. On some models, there was a second stick for the splitter.
That ‘slap-over’ box was better in some Mercs than others: not saying any were brilliant but some were so stiff across the gate your wrist would strt to hurt in traffic. No idea why they didn’t use a switch on the main lever when Jap trucks with the Eaton 9-sp did.
Why were they called ‘tilts’ anyway?
The name pre-dates the internal combustion engine. The horse & cart version of it was called a tilt. Perhaps because you could tilt the canopy back over the frame for ease of loading / unloading.
It probably IS in America! If you google tilts you get wall-to-wall pictures of US trailers doing exactly what that rigid-eight is doing!
I’d NEVER admit it here on TN, but I actually liked tilts. They were useless for doing short-haul domestic work but great for long-haul. They were practical, hugely versatile and sat well on the road. Obviously, I didn’t like total stripping down any more than anyone else did, but for normal running, loading through the side, or even better loading through the back they were fine. I even bought and operated a tilt in '93 when they going out of fashion.
Here are a couple of pictures (not mine and not my tilt) to remind you of the joys of tilting!
We had sime brand new Trailors remember them? Thet were great cimpared wuth the other stuff we used very light to strip
Though I never got near towing one, I remember the name very well because of all Euro tests TRUCK magazine did back in the 80s. Somewhere on DEAN_B’s posts are multiple scans, I’ll re-post a couple when I get a rountuit
