11 thoughts on “I do hope they come back…

  1. My pickup is a 2018. Looks just like that under the dash. I had to look lots of places to find a manual transmission and a Diesel. Bought it brand new. A service tech I spoke with while changing the fuel filters ( I was on vacation and didn’t have the tools) said it’s the last year they came out like this.

  2. I tutored my grandson in a 3/4 ton Chevy the fine art of 4-speed transmission shifting out in the pasture. Then up and down shifted without the clutch. A great WTF expression was my payment.

    • Good on you, Jerry.
      I learned how to speed shift when the brand new aftermarket clutch in my 87 F150 ended up being garbage right from the install. It shuddered and chattered like it was slipped with a load on. I could shift it up and down at speed like a road race car. After rebuilding the engine it got a new FoMoCo clutch and pressure plate. It fixed my issues, but I still only used it to take off and go in reverse.

      Leigh
      Whitehall, NY

  3. Comment made to me, by my brother, after watching me clutchless down shifting the Freightliner. ” Don’t let anyone else see you doing that. I don’t need to be replacing the trans when one of them tries that.”
    FL120 with a Series 60 Detroit making 430 HP with a 10 speed Road Ranger transmission. I only needed the clutch to take off and back up. Just burp the Jakes to upshift. I used to downshift it like a Trans Am car at Watkins Glen – on the brakes Jaking hard, goose the throttle and stick it into a lower gear. The Western Star with the 8V-92T was just as much fun, except you got to listen to that two stroke.
    Damn I loved corn season.

    Leigh
    Whitehall, NY

    • I drove a 2001 Freightliner with a cat C-15 6NZ with 475hp mated to a 18sp Eaton Fuller in an extended day cab with two drivers pulling a 48′ O2 Tanker for Airgas. I used to get pulled over frequently going through the hills of Longview, Wa because the state troopers and local yokels thought I was going too fast with a full load doing 70mph, the posted speed limit and passing all the other trucks up the grades using my cruise control… I would make them look at the monster under my hood.

  4. My two sons are in their 30s. When each was learning to drive I taught them on my old Toyota pickup with the manual on the floor that died later on. They learned the basics on driving with the clutch and handling it through streets and traffic. It gave them something that most people do not have today.

    Both own cars with manual transmissions. My oldest is a GM Master Mechanic. I learned first on manual transmission cars by my parents and later on automatic transmission cars via school in the early 70s.

  5. leigh, did ya haul corn from OH and goto Parkersburg,WV to get iced? This was early 80s. I crawled up in the trailers and blew 1 ton of ice on the corn.

    • No, Danny. I was hauling chopped corn for my brother’s farm in Vermont.

      Leigh
      Whitehall, NY

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