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Tall shifters

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Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,325
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
I found the FR(O) style 10 speed could be a bear to shift depending on which one you got. RT(O) 9 speeds and their variants seemed to just swallow up a shift so much easier, like the spaces between the teeth are bigger or something. I think TS said the FRO was some kind of Euro thing which would explain why they had to make it harder.

I used to shift with some sort of "light touch" sort of grip until my wrist started really bothering. After a couple hundred shifts a day. Holding the palm knob in the palm really was a lot more ergonomic.
 
W

Welder Dave

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
12,562
Location
Canada
You can't mention Ed "Big Daddy" Roth without including perhaps his most famous car. It had a tall stick for steering, gas, braking and shifting.

I think good shifting just comes with spending more time in the drivers seat. I got a dump truck with a 9 speed and had never drove a tandem before. Looked online how to shift and after some problems at first kind of figured it out. Biggest problem was not realizing the lower gears needed to be shifted at only about 1200 RPM's. Shifting is easier once you get some speed and you can get a 2nd chance if you miss a shift. In high range you can shift around 1600 RPM's. I'm sure if I took a driver course would be very beneficial but I just use the truck on my own property.

Ed Roth's Beatnik Bandit - Kustomrama
 
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Truck Shop

Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
17,027
Location
WWW.
Birken Vogt said:
I found the FR(O) style 10 speed could be a bear to shift depending on which one you got. RT(O) 9 speeds and their variants seemed to just swallow up a shift so much easier, like the spaces between the teeth are bigger or something. I think TS said the FRO was some kind of Euro thing which would explain why they had to make it harder.

I used to shift with some sort of "light touch" sort of grip until my wrist started really bothering. After a couple hundred shifts a day. Holding the palm knob in the palm really was a lot more ergonomic.
Click to expand...

The FRO series are a Metric box and use a different rear fork set up for low and high range. Plus its uses a pre-machined one size blocking washer between gears on the front main shaft. The old RTO series
used a blocking washer that came in several thicknesses to set coaxial clearance between gears on the main shaft, and on assembly that clearance was usually set on the high tolerance side. Where with
the FRO-RTLO later low inertia transmission the blocking is the same thickness on every gear on the main shaft and tend to run a little tighter a little less slop. But some rough shifting transmission can be
related to how tight the shift bar housing is also. many things make for a sour shifting gear box.
 
92U 3406

92U 3406

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2017
Messages
3,172
Location
Western Canuckistan
Occupation
Wrench Bender
Truck Shop said:
But some rough shifting transmission can be
related to how tight the shift bar housing is also. many things make for a sour shifting gear box.
Click to expand...

Like shift forks worn to 2/3's their original thickness and rusted up interlock pins. My RTO-15615 was horrible to shift because of that. Hopefully it runs a little nicer with that all fixed.
 
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