Now Saviem goes for floor stick shift
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SAVIEM has introduced a floor-mounted gearchange in place of the steering column type on its SM 36280 and SM 38280 tractive units, for the UK. The company believes that this move will increase the acceptance of the vehicles by British operators, who are often sceptical of column gear changes.
The conversion, which is done at Saviem's Manchester headquarters is very neat and easy to use, writes the Technical Editor.
I've never been a great fan of column changes — probably stemming back to the old days of the woolly type on the Vauxhall Cresta — but Saviem tells me that operators that have bought vehicles thus equipped are often loth to go back to floor sticks.
The column change, which controls a ZF six-speed splitter box, is very precise, but it does require a great deal of thought to remember first which gear you are in. It is sprung towards the centre plane — that is third and fourth — and first is selected by lifting the lever up against a light spring pressure and then pushing it away from you toward the screen.
A switch controlling the splitter is built into the lever at the centre close to the hand grip. The rest of the gearchange movements are logical, with the lever pulled straight back to second, released to drop into the central plane and pushed toward the screen again into third.
Fifth and sixth are selected by downward pressure from this plane.
Although this arrangement works well and I'm sure is easy enough to get used to, I found the floor change conversion much more acceptable.
In this set-up, the lever is mounted directly onto the low engine cover and is one of the smoothest to operate that I have come across.
The pattern is arranged with first and second nearest the driver, with the higher ratios further away.
Again it is sprung to third and fourth, but the movem across the whole gate is v small. It is an extremely y cise change which I'm s will find favour with OE tors.
To allow the cab to til telescopic link is fitted to floor change conversion.
When the cab is drop back after tilting, any forw gear has to be selectec order that the linkage resu its normal selection. If di' not done, the gear lever i sloppy as a wooden spoon bucket and it's not possibl select the gears.
The conversion is offere standard for the UK, at no tra cost — but the colt change will still be availab