Added: 4 years ago
From: rigjockey423
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  • Hi, I have been driving over the road for nearly 25 years. I remember these twins sticks. In later years they were almost exclusively Mack. The twin stick that I had driven at the time had one stick, Left Stick, as the shifter. The other stick, Right Stick, was a range finder. If anyone has driven a Super 10 transmission of today then you'll know how the right stick was used. Some models were designed as the Right Stick controlled a 2 speed rear instead.

  • My Grandfather used to drive trucks like this. The first truck my dad hauled a load of coal in was a twin stick tandem. Ive yet to drive one of these. We have an old B model mack with twin sticks. Im gonna have to try it.

  • Damn this brings back memories Ya had to wear your hat cocked and a pencil stuck over your ear and a cigarette hanging from your mouth.....You didnt use a clutch to start off from a RAD light.....you just tapped the throttle and snapped the first stick into low and off you go.....2 A,M on a brisk morning running down Route 1-9 through Jersey.....god damn I'd give a million bucks to do that again,,fuc this weenie world of airconditioned automatic trucks.gimmee a MACK...or my wheelchair dammit

  • @TherealDeltaEcho

    You said it! Happy Thanksgiving and day after,too.

  • That's way too much work for me, give me a good old Eaton Fuller 10 speed or a 13 speed road ranger.

  • this guy is a trunk driving fool good job 

  • I drove something similar for a concrete company in Portland, OR... the mixers were all Macks and some were double sticks... I think we called them "brownie boxes"... tough to learn but once you get it, can be a lot of fun... best part about driving a big truck is the shifting... man I miss driving truck!!!

  • what i learned to shift in....and drive a big truck..love those old bulldogs

  • I think I'll stick (no pun intended) with an automatic!

  • i have a john deere 1020 and it has 2 sticks and it takes a little getting used 2 to drive it if yo've only driven something with one stick

  • Positive Ground Mack's ??? Insultate the radio real good.. Must never have chance to touch the Positive ground metal on the truck.. Then wire lead's hot Post. and Ground to ground side of battery.. Even antenna must be protected from Positive grounded system..

    Lot of old Euild 50 ton's was Positive Ground systems too..

    Many people just down the truck few days update it and rewire it to a Neg - ground system ..save mountain's of ongoing headaches later..

    Quadroplex keep you shifting..

  • It looks like one stick gives you your gears and the other gives you low, medium and high box. Like modern trucks but with no fancie electrics.

  • Why would you have 2 sticks anyway?. I mean on a 4x4 truck/car it sorta makes sense as one of them controls which tires gets power etc.

  • @TNFSDK read the rest of the coments please

  • @TNFSDK The twin sticks came out before the air splitter did in the 60's.

  • @powerstroker0622 Thanks for the info :)

  • @TNFSDK your welcome

  • @TNFSDK shut your mouth retard, if you dont even know what this is why are you watching it?

  • @beefcake108 How about you STFU please. Perhaps I actually asked out of curiosity and wanting to learn something, which I have thanks to @powerstroker0622 and @59Mack .

    But I guess your just a damned hick who has no better to do then being a retard youself and hound others for the curiosity and desire to actually learn something new ;)

  • @TNFSDK high and low range... when men were men and trucks were trucks

  • @TNFSDK what your talking about is the transfer case, in a semi, it is the range lever (hi range,low range) we still have high and low range, but it is now done with a lever hooked to an electronic or air solenoid. we also ahve 13 and 18 speeds (along w/ a 15 speedd deep reduction) which requires a splitter

  • @TNFSDK It also makes sense that you would read up on the topic before commenting.

  • @TNFSDK if you look at 18 wheeler transmissions today they have what looks like a trigger on the shifter that is for switching from low to high well they didnt have that technology back then so you had to do it manually so you would have a main box with 5 speeds in it and a aux. (the second stick ) so you would go through5 in your main box then throw it in neutral shift gears in the aux box and keep on going thats what they mean withlike 5 and 4 (20) speed you had a 5 spd mainand 4 aux

  • Shit... No wonder all the old timers had absolute GUNS for arms.

  • Buying, restoring and mastering a quadroplex B81 with a 711 Thermodyne is definately towards the top of my bucket list. Until then, my '92 Ram with a 4 speed auto is the most diesel excitement I'll experience! Very nice driving here, though.

  • @spartus09 thanks but that is not me behind the wheel pf this one email 59 mack on here it is his rig

  • ill rather drive an internatiol than a scania

  • looks like a real pain in the ass to work two sticks,lol.I`m plum give out just watching

  • 5 y 4 lo mejor que hay

  • not trying to sound like an idiot. but is twin stick shifting somewhat the early stage split shift tranny's ? just an actual gear patern instead of an air shift button ? for example would there be a twin stick version of an eaton 8 speed with lo and lo lo since technically theres 18 forward gears if you start in low range and use low gear in each range ? or am I just totally lost.

  • @FordF666

    Yes, the two sticks were the predesessor to the air shifted trannys of today(like the RR13 spd). In this truck the left stick is the compound(3 splits) and the right stick is the main(5spd). You don't have to use all gears and since I'm bobtailing I skip along. The compound is just an H pattern( kinda a backwards small "h"), the main is a std 5 spd pattern.

    You start in 1st LO, then 1st Direct, then 1st OD, then 2nd LO, 2nd direct, 2nd OD, and so forth.

  • would a truck driver send me an email on this vid and give me a straight forward answer as far as all twin sticks please.

  • @jbyrd0861

    Unfortunately the aren't all the same. This truck is a 5x3 and you can use all the gears. Some 5x4 have repetitive gears and you skip and a few others you use all. The pattern on the compounds are much all the same, but the 5 spd main box can be a bit tricky as back in the day sometimes 5th was up to the left! You can't throw them all into one general statement and say they shift all the same.

  • i think i see a patern. other than that id say you were moving two sticks to random locations :)

  • My instructor at the truck driving school I go to said everyone he knew that had driven one of these had broken their left wrist at least once if not more from the steering wheel jerking at their wrist as they shifted when they hit a big pothole or something.

  • now that skill

  • This is the first time I heard of twin sticks...

  • It would take me a lot of practice to drive a twin stick. I've had guys tell me about driving them a long time ago, but this is the first time I've seen one being driven.

  • y is their 2 shifters things

  • @TheWindowdog Are you a kid?

  • @nathan12111 ya

  • @TheWindowdog , because there are two transmissions, one stick for each box.

  • how come he doesn't use clutch?in old European lorries we had unsynchro boxes and I've seen twin sticks as well.but you had to press the clutch twice and if you down shifted you had to revs it up between the gears.now, I drive IVECO Stralis 500 it is boring but you get used to it.Automatic gearbox,cruise control,Speed limiter,power steering,ABS/EBS,ASR,hardly noticeable if you go up or down hill :-) my gross weight is usually 45ton

  • @AllkoDH

    Well, double-clutching is the best and really the only effective way to do shift gears for most, but many of the most expierenced drivers do know how to do it without clutch.:)

  • You can make a negative ground radio work in a positive ground system IF you isolate the radio completely from the cab and then hook it up like it was meant to be hooked up. If the case touches the truck frame and makes a connection, it let the smoke out of the wires. ;) Easiest way is to make a wood mounting bracket for the radio.

  • @t3o14. the only scania motor used was in '64 which was the first mack v-8 255 hp.

    @rig jockey, how did you get a cobra radio to work on positive ground?

    @bembeler american trucks are a lot bigger, heavier and have much more horsepower. this was the hot setup to manage 73,000 pounds in the eastern part of the US. our hills were short and steep. when you heading into a hill you downshift the front trans and leave the back box alone until you got power to hold it.

    learned on a b-81 in 1963.

  • @PHONEMIKEEEEE sorry mate it is not my rig ask 59mack

  • @PHONEMIKEEEEE

    The truck is converted to neg. ground.

  • wow, I used to drive one of those.. Nobody showed me how at first, just figured it out. I had to act like I knew what I was doing cause all these old timers were watching. Loved the truck though

  • real men drive real trucks,end of story.!not european fag machines,they never have built a good truck and never will.be told.its the truth live with it.

  • Wait a minute.. Americans are lazy because "all of us drive automatics." But then, eurotrash talkers see this video and make fun of our trucks because of unsynced boxes and twin sticks. So who's REALLY lazy? Besides, we DO have automatic rigs for the lazy boys.

  • Synchronizers are usually made from brass, while the gears of forged steel. if you're talking about taking a transmission 100's of thousands of miles, you really don't want brass in there. that would be why most truck transmissions are non-synchronous, for lighter, less expensive, and more reliable transmissions.

  • I love this video I learned to drive on a B model just like this one back in the 70's have driven Mack's all through the years.I now have a 2002 CH613 that I pull a gasoline tanker wouldn't have anything else.The one thing about a Mack either you love em or you despise em

  • cant beat the old two-box macks man. beautiful sound.

  • I think they are awesome. I wonder how many of these fancy expensive Euro transmissions will still be in one piece on 40 or 50 years, that is if the green nazis don't ban diesels even in collector trucks like this. Yeah 2 stick might have been tedious but it's a piece of American trucking history, it is/was a skill, and these American engineers had to do something right in order for even a few of these boxes to still be around in restored/collector trucks right?

  • damn! 2 hours of shifting before you get it to highway speed.. a day in this mean truck your clutch leg must hurt :) nice going

  • @Fixxer86 you dont use a clutch!

  • euro trash! peckerheads

  • just hope to god u dont have an ol screamin detroit in that, u miss a gear and then ur motor runs backwards! pretty neat shit happens then! *oil out the air cleaners* lol

  • Arms would be sore at the end of the day!

  • @Pushbutton3

    And just try to pantomime doing this..even without expierence [as I note in Shifting twin stick 1987 Peterbilt.

  • this guy looks like a wannabe. if you are gonna slip your arm through the steering wheel and "shift old school" then you should shift both levers at the same time instead of just pretending to be cool and grab the wheel with your right hand so you can shift with your left through the steering wheel. maybe someone who doesn't know any better will be impressed, but you can't BS me

  • that is a quadbox

  • It's a triplex. And I know this how??? It's my truck.

  • GREAT,,WHAT A LOST ART !!!!

  • Clutch? We don need no steenkin clutch! You use the clutch to get it going from a stop. LOL

  • And I thought I had it tough driving my Dodge diesel 6 speed while drinking a coffee. No need for a cup holder in that truck.

  • i drove one of those, at my old work we had one with a winch on the back,

  • I ask myself the same question. Why two Sticks? It looks pretty cool, but I think its the same thing like with many other things americans constructed, they are just not that good like european ingeneers. In Europe we have 12 gears as standard, for many decades now, but a european truck is much better to shift. We also just have synchronized transmissions here, the americans not, till today (If thats wrong pls tell it, but I just know them unsynchronized)

  • yes be that as it it may this was how it was done in the 50's i have siad it before and i will say it again if really want you can go back in time and invent the roadranger trans or convince every north american truck manufacter to use euro transmissions. sorry but that is the way it was and whining about it will not change a thing.

  • @rigjockey423

    Good point,. that's all that they HAD back then!

  • @rigjockey423 the europeans have their soft synchro gearboxes because they cant drive a crash box. same as all the other automated crap in their truck. all they do is attend a steering wheel.

  • @Bembeler This truck is 51 years old. Twin sticks were use before air shift transmissions. Unsynchronized transmissions are better in heavy trucks. Synchronizers to shift, squat to pee.

  • fucking freak truck..omg..scania power european power..whati is that shit.?? come on kids to my scania which has easier shift.. :P and goes like crazy..scania r620 power.!!!

  • please see my answer just above your post.

  • I can't understand what you mean, i think you write a strange english?

  • @t3o14 ive got a scania aswell, but a real mans truck is a mack, the euro trucks are 4 poofters

  • @t3o14 when this huge powerfull american iron horse roars by your little toy dont come crying to us beacuse the mack spun you out and ripped your axles out.

  • can someone tell me if it is hard to learn how to shift and drive one of these trucks im just 15 years old and curious.

  • im 14 and wan2 know the same thing it seems hard but if you got use to it i bet it would be easy.

  • right i love the turbos in the big diesels

  • On a quadbox? Not so much. It just takes time, patience, and concentration. You have to manage your rpms, double clutch on every shift, and know by heart the shifting pattern. So it can get confusing. driving truck, once you get the basic concept, isn't hard at all. ;)

  • oh thanks man can u explain to me what double clutching is and what it does please i appreciate you taking time answer my questions thank you

  • @454sskilla: Double Clutching is the process of Depressing the clutch, pulling the shifter out of gear into neutral, letting the clutch out, then depressing it again, to put it back into gear. Highly reccomended to do on large trucks with heavy loads. :)

  • This is really awesome. Explain to someone who doesn't know: why two shifters? How does it work?

  • Ok, the simple layout.

    One shifter had 5 gears(just like a car). The other shifter is used to "split" each gear(2,3,4 times depending).

    A truck doesn't have the RPM range a car motor does, so it needs more gears to accelerate a heavy load.

    On todays truck an air solenoid does the job of the second shifter. Just flip a switch on the shifter and it splits the gear for you using air pressure.

  • Oh Thanks! Good explanation...

  • I had a 59 Mack with a 5x4 and a non turbo charged "Thermo-Dyne" . (in 1975-79) I could click thru the 15 usable gears and not touch a tooth. But I usually touched one or two teeth. Make me jealous watching,... I always said I would get another one someday

  • That is just beautiful! This cat is a driver! Listen to him take that dog for a walk. I got goosebumps.

  • elbows or forearms.

  • I took my CDL in 1993 on a 1970 R-model with the same trans,it had a 236 or 237 engine, I had to start the test on a hill, I reached through the steering wheel just like you, and started shifting away, the girl that was giving the test asked what the hell are you doing, you have to put at least one hand on the wheel, I looked over at her and said, if I do, we will never get up this hill. I think I passed the test on just how I shifted. I could make that truck sound like an automatic.

  • never seen a guy use two hands to drive one.guys ive seen and drive with (even me) all use there elbows to shift the second box.

  • I used to drive one of those... we had one back in 1987.. single axle and i loved it. No one else wanted to drive it. couldnt go over 55 with it but was fun around town and for short hauls...

  • Ain't pussy footin' in the ol' days.A man had to work to make his livin'.No kiddin'.

  • i wanna see that downshifting. Can't imagine myself driving that though. I'll take my 18 anyday

  • For you young CDL holders out there with fancy walk-in sleepers, air-conditioning, power-steering, and cruise-controls. This is the way it used to be. Imagine downhills on a steep grade with about 80K in the rain and dark, decending a hill you've never been on before, utilizing this type of tranny. This one really was'nt that bad. This one was known as a Duplex. There was also Tri-plex, and even what was known as a Quadro-plex. That's 4 seperate shift sticks for you un-initiated out there.

  • while I agree with you i hate to bust your bubble but the transmission is a triplex. the duplex triplex and quadruplex all had two sticks, the only difference I am aware of is the number of gears available on the aux box

  • I though this truck had a quad box? I've seen this video on other channels and they said it had a 5x4. Low low is almost never used.

  • @rigjockey423 the duplex is a 2 speed aux, the triplex is a 3 speed, and the quadruplex is a 4 speed aux box

  • @MattytheDem yes thank you I already knew that this transmission is a triplex if you do not belive me then please ask 59 mack as it is his rig.

  • Oops. Never let the facts get in the way of a good rant...Young drivers don't have it easy at all. Those new fangled 18 speeds must have 18 sticks....

  • what the fuk!!!!! it takes a real man 2 drive this bitch>>>>>>

  • Wow that is INSANE

  • Now this is Truckin' , love it.....

  • Back in the sixties it must have tough enough,but with todays traffic it would be insane.I would imagine you would be very fatigued by the the end of the day.

  • Yeah it does wear you out , and those old trucks are loud too

  • Huh? What?? Can't hear ya....LOL!!

    Yes, it does wear on you after awhile. I've been driving this truck on the weekends for 8 yrs now.

  • So that's how a 210HP truck could do 90!

  • I cut my eye teeth on a quadroplex.

  • wow! That is damn cool. Too bad there isn't a tutorial explaing what gears are being gone through. Nowadays that would be considered dangerous. Two hands on the sticks and none on the wheel. ha ha. now i see what the old guys mean when they say us new ones don't know how to drive a real truck. thanks for the clip

  • i like it.. never had the chance but would like to..... thats so cool...

  • Man...and back in the day ....they did this DRUNK!

  • @TompComp and on pills so they could drive for days straight!

  • @TompComp That takes godly skill

  • @TompComp

    Only if they wished to be arrested.

  • Woa that looks complicated. I'll stick to my 5 speed thank you very much!

  • Sweet! Takes some practice to master I'll bet. Does anybody know which stick is the main trans and which one is the auxilliary?

  • Left stick is aux, right stick is main

  • That's right!

  • stupid comment.... must be european.!!!!

  • Oh yes!!!

    And im proud of it!!!

  • lmfao!!! zing

  • @mikes47jeep It was okay they had good quality Benzedrine back then and the average person was a responsible adult to start with.

  • wow, that guy is a real driver. I bet they made these deliberately tricky to drive so not just any tom dick or harry could be a truck driver

  • They weren't built tricky, there just wasn't anything else available yet. Once they made air splitters, two sticks went away.

  • Yeah, but the comment about not just anyone could be a truck driver DOES hold some MERIT!! :)

  • That is true, but it wasn't cause they built the tranny to keep people out of trucks.

  • Good point.

  • is it like a 3 speed with under/overdrive?

  • Yes.  Under-direct-Overdrive

  • Nice ! Hand through the wheel and shifting ...Just like anything else , you get used to it after awhile !

  • thats the same exact kinda truck my dad learned how 2 drive with

  • if you look at it you can drive it .i understand it i see the pattern i can drive it .!!!!

  • a funny thought came over me how about if they took all those easy transoutof trucks and put those back in how many transmissions and rear ends would be on the ground or all the teeth stripped out ...lol

  • Wouldn't it actually be easier if you mated the sticks together welding an extension arc so that you free one hand keeping it on the wheel???

  • you cant weld the shifters together they have different shift patterns.

  • If I had the chance, then I'd most likely be interested in learning how to drive one of these... but unfortunately there just dinosaurs.

  • WOW,,, That is REAL truckin there. Just like NotherBlackMotoGuy said, I too would be grinding through the gears.

    If I had to work a set up like that, all the gears in that transmission would me nice and smooth by the time I got done junking that transmission out.

    There is a fine art to Double Stick Shifting in my book.

  • real trucker right there that shit looks complicated i would be grinding gears like hell

  • reminds me on driving my automatic scooter ;)

  • thanks but i will just stay with my Muncie M-22

  • looks harder than driving a GMC 7500 with the spliter box on it but the spliter box lets you go through 4 of the speeds on the main transmission then you throw it into the next range takes a while to get up to speed but once your there you dont wanna have to stop

  • My uncle used to drive for Dufferin Concrete in Toronto Ontario and he used to tell me how he shifted the B Model Macks. His was a tractor trailer and he said he used too have to swing his arm under the wheel...Thanks for the memories for my uncle...

  • Sorry his truck he drove was a B51 Mack Tractor

  • i watched this video about 7 times and i finally figured out the pattern than 59 mack is explaining, its really not as chaotic as i originally thought! IT LOOKS FUN!!!

  • How exactly does that work?...I thought one stick was 1-5 and the second maybe 4-9... ya know, normal shift pattern, but I see in between every 3-4 gears, he grabs both sticks...?

  • The stick nearest driver is the compound. It splits each of the main gears(other stick) 3 times.

    1st (lo-direct-hi), 2nd(lo-direct-hi), etc.

  • jesus thank god for hi low rearends. no affence.

  • Thank god for the maxi-torque transmissions!

  • looks dangerous

  • Looks fun!

  • ya it does!!!

  • those things are bitches to drive

  • that looks hard

  • lol whats the deal with truck drivers and flannel? i think my old man has the same one haha. i run heavy machines and i dont think i own one flannel. carrharts are a different story tho9 lol

  • Well how about that know i know i was shifting my B61T correctly. . .

    AMX

  • He's got it about 99% correct. I started on a B model Mack 35 years ago. Trust me IT AIN'T EASY

  • Good video. That is what i stared in 7 years ago, A 1984 R Mack with a 300 Mack and a 5+4. It was a hell of a lot of fun to drive once i got the swing of it, and like rigjockey said, it seperates the hair dressers from the truck drivers. I was one of two out of 13 drivers that worked there that could run the truck.

  • That confirms what I suspected of certain of Mack's customers: Some DID want the TRQ-7220 QuadBox behind any of several turbo-supercharged sixes in the 14-litre class. Thanks for the example.

  • this is what I learned on in 1983, it was old then. Now if it has wheel I can drive it.

  • Very nicely done.

  • what do u mean they couldnt have been used on highways? when that truck was built driver comfort was the last thing in mind

  • Yeah, I learned on an Eaton Fuller transmission, Never drove one of these but drivers that did always told me that you did have to reach one arm through the steering wheel

  • wtf?

  • i know right? why would a manufacturer even design something this impractical. hats off to who the hell ever that can drive these beasts but you wouldnt catch me driving one. for whomever that can answer this.. does it have two transmissions? or is it for high and low on each gear.. seriously how do these things work?? and why? i know they dont actually expect people to drive these on public highways, last question: how are you supposed to get a blowjob from a lot lizzard while driving?? haha
  • For the last question: Maybe you can have her shift one stick...

  • it was hi tech for the day the mack has one gear box with two sticks left stick is your splitter and right stick is your main gears as late as 1987 peterbilt was still building them with two transmissions and two sticks if an owner wanted it that way and lots of heavy haul oilfield trucks are still speced with them so yes you can run it up and down the road . As the saying goes it used to separate the hair dressers from the truck drivers

  • why not a switch like we had in britain since the sixties?

  • Awe man how true your comment is! I'd like to see some of these You Tube big ego trucker wanabe's who drive the latest fancy equipment run something like this! (I'm refering to 3 drivers in particular here on youtube) All 3 of them would be crying for Mommy after the 1st shift! LMAO! Good job Jockey!

  • Back in the day before you had 500hp diesels and 18 speed trans you had trucks with aux. trans. The mack was two units mated togeather I think while others had the aux. trans divorced from the main box. some were under under direct some were under direct and overdrive, and so on. you would have three of four speeds for each gear of the main box depending on the combo.

  • oh my god yes .that reminded me of a friend gt johnson in his 73 pete wigh 5x4 .god what would i give to learn how to drive one of those .now this guy is a real trucker

  • holy shit man thats skill

  • I'm only 27 but learned how to drive in a 74 twin stick 6-speed mack, but after watching this that was a piece of cake.

  • A twin stack Mack with no shack on the back.

  • A 2 stick Mack with a window in the back =)

  • Some of the older drivers used to either weld an extention or bend the tops closer together with the 2 sticks closer together they could shift both with one hand

  • Wow this brings back memories of when My late Uncle Raymond taught me to drive a B-62 MAck in the truck tard when I was a kid,, Been driving for over 34 yrs now.. Buit todays drivers have no clue what it was like to use a 2 stick, In Canad some guys still have Pete's with 6X4 set ups,, When you get both against the dash thats the "Go HOme" gear lol

    Thanks for posting

  • 7 x 4 quad? 28 speeds (if interchangable), and theoretically.. any combination could be requested in those old trucks.