The Renault B9 and B18 were a Renault box, Renault changed to ZF Ecosplits in 2003ish, it was the same time that they dropped the Berliet hub-reduction axle for a single reduction. I’m not aware that it was a ZF design, if it was it definitely wasn’t an Ecosplit, it would have been the 5S110 as used in Mercedes1632 for example, but that wouldn’t have had anything like the torque capacity that the R series and early Magnums were putting through them.
What are you talking about Jeff?
You’re in 3rd or hi 1st to put it another way, you preselect low (preselect means a couple of seconds, not a couple of miles), release the accelerator and move the stick through neutral and into second position, you now have the main box in 2nd position and the splitter will have dropped into a false neutral, you then reapply the accelerator the revs will immediately rise and using this system of a notch, circlip and spring, which I’m now going to try and find a picture of for you, the splitter will drop into low position. All in a couple of seconds, silently and as long as you’re not too ham-footed on the throttle smoothly.
I think SDU summed it up yesterday you shouldn’t comment on things you’ve never done so shushhhhh
What are you talking about Jeff?
Now there’s a question that could be directed to so many of his posts.Most in fact
Off Facebook.
The Part Nobody Talks About
This isn’t to scare anyone.
This isn’t to make the job look dark.
This is just the truth that sits in the background of every mile we drive.
Some drivers never make it home.
Some go because of a split-second mistake somewhere miles away from anyone who loves them.
Some go because a car pulled out and didn’t see 44 tonnes of weight behind them.
Some because the body just couldn’t take the hours, the stress, the sleep deprivation anymore.
Some because they were pushing through pain instead of stopping — like we all do sometimes.
Heart attacks in lay-bys.
Strokes behind the wheel.
Falling asleep for half a second — that’s all it takes.
And most of the time, when a trucker dies…
it doesn’t make the news.
No headlines.
No tribute.
Just a note in a group chat passed from driver to driver:
“Did you hear about the lad from…?”
Then silence.
And the road rolls on.
We don’t talk about it — but we feel it.
Because we know:
We drive big.
We carry weight.
We’re responsible for lives, loads, machines and momentum.
So look after yourself, lad.
Take the break, even when the planner sighs.
Get checked out, even when you think “it’s just tiredness.”
Pull over when your eyes burn.
Stop pretending you’re unbreakable.
Your life is worth more than the job, even if the job is your pride.
And to the ones who never made it home:
We haven’t forgotten you.
The road remembers.
We remember.
Every sunrise.
Every mile marker.
Every quiet roll through the night.
Rest easy, drivers.
We’ll carry it from here.
#ukvanman #truckerslife #neverforgotten #hgvdriver #lifeontheroad ![]()
So much truth there Oily, but by the grace of you preferred deity…
£360K
!! scary money ! Any idea who the bodybuilder was ? Looks like an adjustable roof. Probably talking £200K for the container.
Last brand new outfit we put on the road (chassis / cab from main dealer flat body and container from George Hallowell at Morpeth) was 1986 and we probably got change out of £40K
Kylie Minogue ……. “I should be so lucky”
That’s how i remember them coming out of Trinity at Holcombe obviously sheeted first.They used Peel Brow or Bury Rd??? both steep hills running side by side.Atkis ERFs mainly with 180 Gardners going up Peel Brow was a sight to see. It was a busy place now a housing estate
Milnthorpe cant remember the name but Bewick will know its in his manor ![]()
Good one Oily.
Every time there’s a big push on where I work (and we’re coming into the annual “birth of the baby jebus” onslaught right now), I remind myself and anyone who cares to listen that it’s just freight. No-one will die if “it” doesn’t get “there” when “they” want it to, so don’t kill yourself for it.
@parkroyal2100 It’s better to get it there late, than spread it across the road.
Houghtons Parkhouse Coachworks started by the late Johnny Houghton with his bag of tools on a shop bike ! Run now by his Son Michael .
Now that picture means happy days for me. A Mk 1 Atki, in yellow not red, a slightly longer trailer and not necessarily the same loading location, but a typical load of Bowaters reels, neatly loaded, soon to be neatly sheeted and securely roped and off on another adventure maybe to a new to me place near wherever it was destined for. I just loved the life, criss crossing the country sleeping in comfy digs, suffering in the other kind and often in relative comfort across that old 150.
Can you believe it youngsters? I got £15 NO money and dinner bed and breakfast could be had for a tenner?
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Parkhouse Coachworks ! we had one of theirs bought second hand,
The gear train shift from 3rd to 4th is two totally different gear train shifts.The splitter box is a different synchronised gear train to the unsynchronised constant mesh dog and gear set.
Also there is obviously a conflict in the definition of pre selection of split shifts, between the solely clutch actuated DAF, Eco Split, ZF, Merc, Spicer etc types v this weird oddball of preselect and torque sensing which isn’t really preselect other than by necessity of having to be sort of ‘pre selected’ in the case of combined full shifts and split shifts like 3rd to 4th or for that matter 5th to 6th on a torque sensing 13 speed.
But the without the clutch full constant mesh shifts should still be double de clutched, or also in this case the option of clutch actuated transmission braked upshifts, not floated either way in either case.
Just because the splitter gear train can be shifted without the clutch doesn’t mean the constant mesh gear train can/should be.That’s why full shifts combined with split shifts need to be clutch actuated and ‘pre selected’ splits.
Obviously not preselected or even preselectable in the usual sense of the word.Because any accelerator input change will automatically trigger a split shift.As you said only combined with full shifts and within seconds not minutes.
The splitter on a twinsplitter does not contain any synchronised rings, unlike the splitter in a Roadranger. It uses a sensor, block system, which I tongue in cheek called notch, circlip and spring, this is an Eaton patent.
If you wish to educate yourself Google “Eaton twin splitter design diagram”, it will keep you quiet for several hours.
Your expectation of how a twinsplitter works and indeed should be driven is entirely erroneous, because you are trying to make it fit into how other splitter boxes work, and it’s different. YouTube is full of videos of people showing how it’s done.



