“(and for people not familiar, back in the day, clutches were not synchronized, as they are today, and thus were much more difficult to operate)”
I’ve driven those old devils. One was a 49 International 2 ton truck. These old rigs were seriously under powered, to make up the difference they were geared accordingly. I had fun with this old girl, where the engine would turn so slow at idle and it was so low geared, that I could literally shove it into 1st gear without using the clutch.
The sister and brother act required no shifting, just getting it going in the field out to dad’s combine so he could dump the hopper, then drive it back to the road. So I’m guessing Sonny (my brother) would push on the clutch, Sis would put it into 1st, then Sonny would just pop the clutch. With those old geezers they’d just take off with out killing the engine or spinning any tires.
Yes, those trucks did not have synchronized transmissions, to shift required double clutching. A seasoned driver did not use the clutch at all between gears if he coordinated the gas pedal and shift lever operation properly. To this day I still shift manual transmissions without a clutch. Professional over the road rig drivers used to do the same.
NICE! Thanks for the story!