300+ rebuild

[Freightrain]

9 minutes ago, mowerman said:

always nice to ask questions constantly about oils,,,, i will be doing the same thing soon with a triplex,,,,i would have just put 90 weight in it,,,bob

I got some Sheaffer oil for my Triplex.  Go back to my build and I have it posted.

[BottleHauler84]

2 hours ago, Freightrain said:

I asked the shop I got this from and he explained it to me why not to make a phony 18 spd.  I could have had him do the bearing upgrade for me then but I don't have any real reason to need splits on the low side.

Right. Yeah I actually did the upgrade on a RTLO20913A thats in one of my trucks. Its a simple upgrade and its not terribly expensive to be honest.  It just consists of changing the splitter gear that incorporates the extra bearing, splitter gear, reduction gear and mainshaft (output). 

Here's the parts you change to build the auxiliary box of the 13 to the 18 specs. Then you can split it. Like you said though Larry,  not really needed unless your doing heavy work in my opinion.  

[Joey Mack]

Great info Bottlehauler...  👍 

[tjc transport]

we have an 18 speed in the 2000 Kenworth W900.

i only split the low side of trans once, just to show someone how it was done.

[Joey Mack]

When I was a younger youngster, (1999/2000) I drove a '97 RD Tractor with a 400 and a Mack 18 speed.  That truck out pulled the new to us, E-Techs with the 427's and 13 speeds.  I did split the low side a lot because I was pulling a dump trailer that was off road as much as on road and grossed over 100,000 lbs quite often...   ( according to the Maine State Police) who liked to weigh us A LOT !!!!!

[Geoff Weeks]

I grossed 160K-170K several times with a 13 spd and never felt a need to split the low side. I could have used a lower starting gear, but once I was rolling, it didn't take much to get up on the high side. This was before I had 2 spd rears in anything.

May be if I was in steeper terrain, but I doubt it even then. 

Low side is mostly below 25 MPH. If you can't pull below 25  without splitting, then you likely should stay in a lower gear until you can shift without splitting. 

Plenty of times I wished I had a lower 1st or reverse than a 13 provided but never wished I had smaller jumps between gears on the low side.

My guess that is why we didn't see 18's until 2spd and aux transmission started to become a thing of the past. 6x4 or a 13 with 2 spd would be my choice for hauling heavy.