Truck driving is a tough job. There’s the need to be safe to rack up hundreds of thousand and even millions of accident free miles, the pressures of living on the road and the ever inflating price of fuel. One of the things that has advanced nicely is the truck itself. Today’s rigs have comfort and power that truckers of old would have killed for. Modern transmissions are smooth shifting masterpieces and automatics are becoming more and more present in rigs but not the glorious old Kenworth in this video though.
Sporting two sticks and a shift pattern that looks to have been designed by Rube Goldberg when he was drunk, the transmission in this 1971 Kenworth truly needs to be handled by a guy who knows what he is doing. The driver of this truck seems to do a hella good job working both handles, but then again we’re not professional truck drivers, so he could be hacking it all up too. We impress easy, so forgive us.
Pay attention at about forty seconds in. Things get really nuts. How the hell did someone learn to drive these things back then? Oh, and it looks like the power steering option was not selected on this KW when it was built!
Good driver, not using the clutch to shift…
you only use the clutch for backing or when completely stopped in a semi. but still, those twin sticks require a skill not often found in modern truckers.
Makes me feel tired just watching
Armstrong steering as well.
Dad was a master of the 2 stick trucks!
Yes he would shift clutchless too…
One of my best memories is of him in the Coast Range, shifting up and down trying to hit some speed going up, then down with a full load of Alder in the 58 Pete…
His last truck was an 18 speed with an airplane dash in front of him! And drove 99% on the freeways
My childhood was “runs” to other mills in the truck all up and down the coast..
Even went to the ship yard in Bremerton when it was full of bombs waiting to be loaded on ships bound for Viet Nam.. Shore Patrol rode on the foot peg out the door, watching to make sure we didn’t snap pics..
One time he was trying to hook onto a chip box, it kept sinking before he got under it.. After 3 or 6 tries he set the browning in high and the main in reverse and THROTTLED IN… I was 14 and right there watching sparks fly and reached in to lock the pin..
Nowadays everything is so sanitary and proper!
The State of California is taking all these old rigs off to the crusher in the state’s own version of “Cash for Clunkers.” All those beautiful old Kenworths, Peterbuilts, Whites, etc. that California highways are so famous for will be no more. Perfectly good trucks, that an owner/operator can work on and fix himself, will all be replaced by state-subsidized, overpriced, brand new rigs that require a computerized specialty shop for servicing. Idiocy.
this because you do not know the truck FNM Brazil, it’s hard to go into gear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX05SIoRAAg
Twin-stick in a cabover KW…that old 855 Cummins sounds happy. Have ran the dual-boxes before, but modern duplex transmissions(that started coming about in the early to mid-70’s) really ARE better for normal interstate driving. Now, heavy-haul applications…I can see the merits of keeping the old twin-boxes, but even then, the automatics are becoming so reliable that even the modern manuals are becoming a thing of the past(though I prefer to row my own…somethig to be said for tradition if nothing else).
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