HiTekRedNek

My sister can't see the big E on the old school eye charts.

My kid barely can, as well. They're practically blind without glasses.

Instructions unclear, now my server is slowly floating into the sky....

20 years ago:

"We need to stop using paper bags! They're cutting down all the trees!” (a renewable resource)

"We should use plastic bags instead! They're recyclable!” (so is paper, and it's far more economically viable, but plastic is made from petroleum)

So now we use plastic bags made of a much heavier material, so we can reuse them, or cloth bags for a similar reason.

Cloth bags are made from cotton, like paper is made from trees.

It's too late, he already broke his car while going around the corner.

Nah. We need to hack the planet.

Cable TV providers in the 70s: "No commercials when you pay for our services!"

Cable TV providers in the early 80s: "Ok, we actually meant no commercials on premium channels, but local channels will, and it's not our fault."

Cable TV providers in the late 80s: "Fine. What we meant was no commercials on movie channels."

Cable TV providers in the 90s: "Uhm, so only on-demand shows will be commercial free."

But that would require me installing epic games.

Nope.

Layer 0 obfuscation error.

I tried wearing a bra once.

Boy was my wife pissed. Yelling about wearing out the elastic and shit. I haven't tried since.

Sooo: 2-Low?

Because, technically speaking, an 18 speed is just an 8 speed with power dividers.

1L, 1H, 2L, 2H, 3L, 3H, etc up to 8L, and 8H.

So where it gets interesting is low and reverse. Observe:

The gear shift only has 6 positions: R 1, 3 on top, and L, 2, 4 on the bottom. Then you flip the range selector to High and then the gear shift becomes: R-High, 5 7 and Low-High, 6, 8.

But there's also a power divider on the shift, usually thumb activated that further divides those gears.

Which means Reverse can be split again.. But so can reverse High. So you wind up with Reverse, Reverse High, then reverse High low and Reverse high high

And Low becomes even funnier: Because you can split low into low and low low, and low high into low high low..

But what's even more interesting is that generally, gear ratio of Low high and 4 are very close, almost identical.

I don't know anyone who starts in 1st even with a full load. Maybe some very heavy haul guys.

In a bobtail, I would routinely take off in 4th or even 5th, in a 10 speed.

Another thing to consider is the amount of torque available.

I have on occasion went through every gear without ever needing to accelerate. Did you know that in a semi trucks, bobtailing, in top gear, that idling the engine will still have you doing about 40 to 45mph.

And due to all the torque, it won't really be lugging the engine either to idle in gear while rolling on flat ground.