Hello Everyone, I've been reading all the great posts on this forum. All this information in one location is amazing and very welcome. I have a question... I'm trying to put together what I would consider a true super duty van. The engine stuff is pretty straight forward. The transmission is what gets me. For a while now I've been considering taking the two speed rear-end out of a 1960 Chevy C-60 truck becuase it's the only thing I could think of to get the gear ratios that I need for towing and everyday driving. I've been using the van to tow a trailer full of hay, not a huge trailer. But every now and then the van is really straining to the load moving in some of the fields that I have to get the hay from.

My question.. My brother said that I can put a manual trans behind my regular trans and use it as range selector. Has any one ever heard of this? If so, what do you think?

BTW Ford E-150, 302 V-8, C-6?.


Thanks Everyone for all your posts!
AdamL

i think you should have a bigger engine... when you do alot of towing you need more torque... and the only way to get good low end torque is a bigger engine.

More gearing will get you going but be gentle or you will break axles/ujoints.
Yes you could use a manual tranny behind your auto. -same idea as a underdrive-overdrive just take out gears 1,2, reverse use 3rd as underdrive and 4th as direct. You will have to mod. you driveshaft[s]

Thanks Hipo225, would you think that the auto trans would soften it a bit? Although I could probably still rip the rear end out if I tried.

It seems to me that I should leave all the gears in the second tranny. Just put to gether a shifter that I can reach while driving. That way I can adjust the how slow I need to go.

Has any one seen it done?

Thanks,
AdamL

the removal of the extra gears will save weight and eliminate grabing the wrong gear
lots of old and new truck tractors used 2 transmissions one main with an auxiliary behind it

Plymouth Champs used a range selector box, that was high and low, they were FWD but same concept, don't see why it would not work if you can get a tranny cheap enough. you should leave the reverse in tho, because reverse is a low gear ( a little lower then first ) so if you need a really low gear, you shift your truck into reverse and the trans in reverse, it should make it go forward, but giving you a double low gear, or what most would call a granny gear

reverse gears are weak stay away