Truck and Tractor low gears

[Murdoch]

How are those supposed to work in this game?
I'm coming from ETS2 / ATS gameplay here, I have thousands of hours in that, love those games. I can not figure out what or how the low range is supposed to be in the Sewage truck.

The low range, if thats what it is seem way too low, its def no split gears. The tractor I can see, its a low and high range, makes more sense I guess. I've driven tractors of similar type and age, infact, might been older then the one in game.

I drove old Volvo BM 430 and a smaller model, not sure what it was called. BM something.... :P Not sure they even had a low range, it was just 4 gears I think, and top speed was about 33 - 38 km/h maybe. Was a few years ago now so I struggle to remember, was at a farm. I also drove larger John Deere 4xxx? model from the mid to late 70's.The Volvo was late 60's I think.

Either way, the SiSU truck as I read its based on is weird, so if someone wanna explain how it is meant to be and if this is normal. I love trucks so I like to nerd out on this♥♥♥♥♥♥.. xD

I have a G29 with shifter so I enjoy shifting the gears! :)

Dont get me wrong here, I can drive them both just fine! xD Just find it odd... and it grinds my gears! ;) haha just a tiny bit...

[Penny Buns]

A-C tractors from around the same time as the Kekmet appears to be tend to have a high and low range on a hand clutch, I know. Most of the D series has a button release lever or just a Power Director lever on the newer end, like the Kekmet.

As for the truck, the low gears are for hauling full loads, but also not uncommon equipment. I've never looked too close, but the toggle could be on the shifter. I've driven a couple trucks with it there, anyway, but I'm by no means a professional.

[Augustus Shartfire]

the low range is for when the thing is full of poo and you need accurate, high torque movement when lining up for excretion extraction, and for towing stubborn stuff like a Japanese project car with no wheels, those are the things i use them for anyway. if the tank is empty the thing has enough power to just use gear 5 in low and 5/6 in high, which makes it as economical as our player character's recycling of plastic juice bottles.

[Crbn46]

yeah low range is for climbing up mountains/hills or when the truck/tractor are stuck.
i also recommend turning on the diff lock when youre getting out of sticky situations like hills or water.

[joridiculous]

Originally posted by Murdoch:

How are those supposed to work in this game?
I'm coming from ETS2 / ATS gameplay here, I have thousands of hours in that, love those games. I can not figure out what or how the low range is supposed to be in the Sewage truck.

It works exactly as it says: Low gears is Low gear and High is high.
Pretty much how it is on both my tractors, and truck/cars with Low/High range.

Low is for crawling around pulling (pushing) heavy loads and driving everywhere (well, for my 4x4 tractor anyway).

High is for driving faster (at lower RPM) and for when you dont have that much load on or not heavy work. :P

[Murdoch]

The truck should simulate a 13 speed range-split Eaton Fuller box, that seems to be what was normally used on this model truck at the time. A hell of alot nicer gearbox to deal with. Not that it needs it for what it does in this game, but... for realism! ;) And I freakin love the layout of the Eaton Fuller boxes. You got 1-4 and then 5 - 8 is splittable gears, and also a crawler gear and ofc reverse.

Downside is on a gaming wheel, like the G29 I got you have no buttons on the shifter so you need to use the buttons on the wheel to split gears and it can be abit annoying but it works. Atleast works well in ATS and ETS2. There are mods like the SKRS and others that you an buy but I have not done that yet. They use a real Eaton Fuller shifter knob and buttons and turn them in to switches that works on a PC. But they cost 100$ or more depending on options. Waiting time on them is ... forever, they cant keep up with demand. Since the truck sims has become super popular now.

RL-1-3
CL-2-4

RH-5HiLo-7HiLo
CH-6HiLo-8Hi-Lo

Then like Scania's and Volvos and their 12 speed got odd layouts where there is one less position for the forward gears because its not needed then, and it feels un natural to drive.
Goes for all 12 speed gearboxes I guess. Since only 3 out of the 4 positions are used.
3x4 = 12..

I'm not sure how heavy of a load a tanker like this would be, guessing pretty heavy. Would it reach max weight? Also guessing this truck is based one of the later models.

And look, I've made another massive post... :( wtf is wrong with me! xD

Dont mean to make a big deal out of it, whats in the game now works, I would just enjoy the Eaton Fuller style more, but not gonna loose my mind over it... xD (My post here says otherwise I guess..)

[Augustus Shartfire]

the tank can hold 10000 litres - 10 metric tons, with enough torque left over to tow the tractor with trailer attached, and also probably every other towable vehicle in the game.

[Murdoch]

yeah, thats not that heavy, true.. I get how it works, I just dont get why its like it is in the game, seem odd still to me. but I guess its just 1-6 low and 7-12 high range and the low gears just used for extreme use, but its like having 6 crawlers almost as it is now... and that seem crazy. Would make more sense if it had say? 1 or 2 crawler gears and 6 forward gears or something then, for this application and as I said above, if its suppose to mimic the real truck it would most likely have a 13 speed Eaton Fuller box wich this sure is not. :)

[Augustus Shartfire]

i think that may have been the intention but there hasn't been the implemented technology to have a different number of low range gears in the game, that sounds really complicated to program, and it's a low priority compared to most things the dev has to do. to be honest very few people care very much, it'd be nice if the gearbox made sense, but only lorry geeks like you would see any real benefit from it.

[Murdoch]

yeah or he could just put in a simpler transmission lol like I said, not a huge deal but would be cool :) a 10 speed in that truck would perhaps make sense. then its just a range, no splitter. :)

[joridiculous]

Could have same type gearbox as my 4x4 tractor. 16 gears (you also get it in 32 gear variant) :P
4 hi, 4 low, and split on all gears giving 16 total for both forward and reverse.
Splitter is just push a button.

How the gears work in the truck in game is pretty good really. You can easily shift between low and high gears with just one button, and it works pretty good for most driving sitatuations in game :)

Sure would be smooth to have a 18 gear or something though LoL

[Murdoch]

The old tractors I drove was so old, so they only had 3 gears and hi and low range so 6 gears in total like the one in the game. I think it was 3 gears atleast, might been 4! :D

Splitter in a truck is a button too, you just push it and release the throttle and it split the gear. :)
But yeah, tractor style would be crazy. I think there are some super heavy duty trucks that do have more then 18 gears even. And the US trucks when they say 18 they include the crawlers gears not counting reverse.

I would love to drive a modern 4x4 machine with lots of gears. But its still a manual gearbox with clutch huh? I figured most modern machines have semi automatics or fully automatic these days. :D Depends on what type of machine you got ofc.

[joridiculous]

Yeah, mine is manual with clutch. The splitter is electronic. And quick-shift forward / reverse (looks like a second gearshifter with forward/backward motion) but it needs clutch.
A few years newer and it would be "auto-clucth" gear shift (and some other cool stuff to minimize cabin-work LOL)

My other tracktor (MF 35 (Industrial version of the 165)) is also 8 gears (4 H/L) and you need to use a lever to get it low/high.
My 4x4 is using the gearlever to shift from high/Low by pushin lever sideways.. Easy. Tractor must be stationary though.. :|
Everything else on the 4x4 is electronic. Like shift from 2x2 to 4x4 and diff on both axels. Makes it pretty darn good "drive-anywhere-you-can-find-traction" machine :P

[Murdoch]

I bet! :)

I wish I could get in to machines like that, do it for a living, would fit me well, something where the machine does the heavy lifting and work and I just sit in there playing with joysticks! I got to try an excavator once, they show you how it works and you manage it for a minute or so, then your brain forget everything and you have no idea whats up or down... :D most impressive thing you notice is the insane power these hydralic gigant arms have, you can take a something like a car and make in to a tincan, or lift big boulders out of the ground, so cool stuff! :)