Can someone try and explain gearboxes and ratios to me?

[Gerustroncio]

Honestly I know eff all about cars, engines and stuff and I'd imagine such knowledge would come in handy in this case.

But anyway, I don't understand how you're supposed to use gearboxes, no matter what ratios I try it doesn't help any, the RPMs do go up significantly depending on the ratio, but the speed always goes down in comparison to 1:1

[Beginner]

Powered gearbox work in Ratio 1
Powered and enabled gearbox work in Ratio 2
A is first gear, B is second gear
For upshift (more speed) you will need bigger B (arrows should point to the engine)
For downshift (more torque) you will need bigger A (arrows should point from the engine)

[mevelom]

Try to use more engines (2-4 small engines per 1 water prop) then gears will be useful.

[Beginner]

Originally posted by mevelom:

Try to use more engines (2-4 small engines per 1 water prop) then gears will be useful.

Wrong advice. One small engine can easily handle two small props even at 1:3 upshift ratio

[Gerustroncio]

Originally posted by Beginner:

Powered gearbox work in Ratio 1
Powered and enabled gearbox work in Ratio 2
A is first gear, B is second gear
For upshift (more speed) you will need bigger B (arrows should point to the engine)
For downshift (more torque) you will need bigger A (arrows should point from the engine)

Oooohhh, I thought that the arrows in the gearboxes should always be going from engine to prop

Like for instance, I got a boat with 6 small engines, all connected in one "drive shaft", which then goes to 2 gearboxes (one for reverse and one for more speed, each connected to one another, an then a clutch), so then I have to connect the reverse with the arrow going from engine to prop and the one for speed with it going from prop to engine?

[Delle(DK)]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1529931887

[Gerustroncio]

Originally posted by Delle(DK):

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1529931887

Ah, thanks.

But yeah I tried it out, putting a single gearbox in the collective driveshaft of 6 engines (with the arrows pointing toward the engines) and it only gave me like a 2 or 3 MPS increase at best :P, which was the 1:3, and it was the exact same for 4 props and 8 props, so perhaps I'm doing something wrong still.

But eh, an speed increase is always welcome.