Eaton Fuller 7 speed transmission

[Hay Dude]

Anyone ever have the pleasure/pain of driving one? Or know the transmission extensively?

Not an 8LL, 9 speed, 10 speed, 13speed road ranger or 18 speed. Those are great, but wondering if anyone has ever driven a Eaton Fuller 7 speed?
It’s a twin countershaft transmission, model # T14607B

I owned a Spicer “Easy Shift” 7 speed, but that’s a smaller/lighter duty trans.

 

[herringchoker]

Well, I had the pain of driving a few. When I drove ready mix, some of our older trucks had this box. They are heavy duty and I'm not aware of any durability problems with them. I was used to Eaton Fuller 13 and 15 speed RoadRangers and my ready mix assignments were usually 8LL's. The 7-speed worked and shifted fine except it had (IIRC - it's been a lot of years) 3 creeper gears and only 4 road gears with one gigantic step between them, so they were a bit of a dog on the highway. These were behind L-10 Cummins and 3306 Cats. An older driver clued me in to just drive it like a 5 speed, no range shifting and not all those creeper gears, but still a dog.

 

[Hay Dude]

Well, I had the pain of driving a few. When I drove ready mix, some of our older trucks had this box. They are heavy duty and I'm not aware of any durability problems with them. I was used to Eaton Fuller 13 and 15 speed RoadRangers and my ready mix assignments were usually 8LL's. The 7-speed worked and shifted fine except it had (IIRC - it's been a lot of years) 3 creeper gears and only 4 road gears with one gigantic step between them, so they were a bit of a dog on the highway. These were behind L-10 Cummins and 3306 Cats. An older driver clued me in to just drive it like a 5 speed, no range shifting and not all those creeper gears, but still a dog.

Drive it like a 5 speed as in skipping lower gears, or skipping over some of the middle gears?
Like start off in 3 and row up to 7? Or use 1 through 5?

 

[herringchoker]

As I recall, use 1 thru 5.

 

[Farmer495]

As I recall, use 1 thru 5.

This pattern the pattern?

Pardon Our Interruption...

 

[herringchoker]

No....this pattern:

Eaton Fuller 7 Speed Low Low Transmission Shift Pattern RTO, RTOF 20464 | eBay

Les meilleures offres pour Eaton Fuller 7 Speed Low Low Transmission Shift Pattern RTO, RTOF 20464 sont sur eBay â Comparez les prix et les spécificités des produits neufs et d'occasion â Pleins d'articles en livraison gratuite!

www.cafr.ebay.ca

 

[herringchoker]

That's 1 thru 5 on the main transmission, which on the shift pattern would be LO, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Sorry for confusing things.

 

[Hay Dude]

This pattern the pattern?

Pardon Our Interruption...

View attachment 2392323

Above is the shift pattern for the twin countershaft heavy duty Eaton/Fuller. It requires double clutching until you get familiar enough with it to shift without clutch.


Below looks like the Spicer “EZ shift” 7 speed I had in my 94 International. This was not a twin countershaft and did not require double clutching. You shifted it like an ordinary pickup truck manual transmission.

View attachment 2392324

 

[Hay Dude]

No....this pattern:

Eaton Fuller 7 Speed Low Low Transmission Shift Pattern RTO, RTOF 20464 | eBay

Les meilleures offres pour Eaton Fuller 7 Speed Low Low Transmission Shift Pattern RTO, RTOF 20464 sont sur eBay â Comparez les prix et les spécificités des produits neufs et d'occasion â Pleins d'articles en livraison gratuite!

www.cafr.ebay.ca

Thats a different pattern than the “straight 7”.
That has a electric shifted lo-hole switch. Never saw one.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

When I was an apprentice ( about 40 years ago ) we had some old hi-line trucks that we used all the time that had a transmission with 2 gear shift sticks, seems like we did most of the shifting with the far right stick and the left stick was more of a hi-lo/ super low type gear, but I think they were like 5 speeds with reverse in the main gear shift pattern, it's been a long time but I could still drive one today after studying it for a minute, it used to be comical watching anybody new to the crew jump in the cab and see those 2 gear shift sticks.