[Mike Bell]

Originally Posted by Eric Falce

Mike, the Scammel box was a proper gate box, had three or four neutrals, if you left it running in between 1st and reverse it would seize the box up as the oil pump was not driven. Gear changing was an art in itself, going up the box the knob was held firmly in the palm of the hand with pressure to the right. Going down the box pressure was to the left. If you made a balls up of gear changing you more than likely had to come to a standstill and work your way through the gates till you got to 1st or 2nd. On the 32 tonners we would leave them running between 1st and 2nd neutral to get another half gallon of EP80 to help cooling, as the box was designed in the 1920 s by some one who was either a genius or ****ed.
Actually the box was a three. Speed box which changed from high to low range between 3 and 4 manually by itself, hence my option of the designer.

Sounds great fun...... not! Think I’ll stick to the namby-pamby i-shift.