Well, as you might have guessed i have lost one of those things 
Two days in a row i hade a chance driving two manual artics.
So the first one was a daf cf 3over3 splitter, 64 plated.
tbh i thought seeing a modern manual unit was like seeing a dinosaur. But well, here it is and i have to drive it. A quick review of the gearboxes thread on this forum and google on splitter makes me more or less comfortable with the theory.
I was not sure if you can do a range change and a split change ay the same time but it appears the answer is yes, you can.
Drivers around were very excited about seeing a manual artic and everyone wanted to get in the cab and ātouch the stickā 
The mechanics of changing the gears is easy and does not take more than a couple of minutes to feel comfortable. The difficult thing for me was / is making the gear choice in your head. Obviously the sequence is different depending on how heavy the load is. I have seen someone suggesting going 1h-3l for some reason i did not like it and used 1h-2h-3h making the full use of the splitter in the upper range. Tbh honest i cant remember why i was uncomfortable with 1h-3l.
But going down the gears is a bit more difficult for me. My brain is not fast enough on deciding which gear i want to be in and quite often the final decision was made too late as the speed had already changed.
My next day was full of joy as well as i got a daf xf with 4over4 now with a splitter as well.Basically i faced similar problems with decision making.
My personal feelings on the subject are a bit complicated though. On one hand i liked the ability to put the truck in the gear i want and more importantly not guessing when the bloody autobox decides to pull out. On the other hand i am still not very good in deciding quickly on the gear i want to be in going down or pulling out.
But the thing that annoyed the hell of me is the mechanics of the gearbox on these particular units. I have driven a rigid cf with a straight six gearbox and it was a peice of cake to change the gears: short movements of the stick, youvare always sure that the gear has engaged and that it is the right one. On these x over x gear boxes the distance thebstick travelsbis tremendeous, i had to lean forward all the time and the overall feel was like you are pushing the stick in a jelly: has ot engaged? If yes what gear? too often i kicked the wrong one - normally 1 instead of 3 on the 4over4. Not sure i explained properly though
The other thing is that pulling out is soooooo slow for me, it took me ages to pick some speed up, autobis doimg that way faster.
So unfortunatlybi cannot conclude that i lost my virginity. I know how ot works, i can do it, bit i can do it quite poorly, lets be honest.
Ps am i the only one finding dafs both manual and auto very bouncy?
. Started using 2nd instead (not a great load on). The splitter isnāt hugely important unless youāve got a lot on the back. Iāve mostly used it with low gears for keeping up with traffic (when the traffic is slower than your truck then something is wrongā¦).
. Mad as hatters.
