Eagles International Forum

I have a retarder on my B500 Allison and 3 stage Jake Brakes on the series 60 at over 50,000 lbs it comes in handy and besides the MCI has good brakes also Eagles were a little shy on braking, the drums on my tag axle are larger than Eagle used on the drive axle.My MCI doesn't have the curb appeal as my Eagle did to me but it sure has better brakes

Another possibility here is to use a Fuller Road Ranger 10 speed manual transmission if it's up to the torque of the 6V-92T. It is basically two transmissions, one behind the other. There's a five speed and a two speed. The idea is the two speed is the high or low range selector and the five speed is the main transmission. It takes a bit of effort to make this work but it's a world of difference afterwards. It doesn't change your horsepower but it uses it to its best advantage. If you're starting out on the flat with a light load, you may not need the low range at all. On the other hand, it's a lot of help in hilly or mountain areas. There you would start in the low range and shift up to 5th. Then you change the range (there's a button or small handle on the shift lever) and keep going as fists in the low range becomes sixth in the high range. The idea is to keep the engine at the higher end of its RPM and power at all times. It also gives you extra engine braking as well. A number of Eagles have had this conversion done and the owners have been quite pleased. The only problem is the shift pattern is reversed so the gears won't be where you expect to find them. This change will also require a shorter or shortened driveshaft.

Looks like I can no longer edit my post above so here's a small addition to it.

To get the same road speed as an 8V-71 at 2100 RPM in fourth gear with a 3.70 drive axle ratio, you would need a drive axle ratio of about 4.60 with an 8V-53 turning at 2600 RPM. You can see what that will to to your tourque (25% increase) and acceleration. An 8V-53T could really do the job in spite of the smaller engine displacement.

I wonder how an Allison six speed automatic would work in this situation. Any comments?

By the way, a ten speed Roadranger in an Eagle would have a shift pattern like this...


5-10...3-8...1-6

...........N

4-9....2-7.....R


The 5-10 and 4-9 positions would be closest to the driver.

Sorry for the dots but I needed them to maintain the correct distance between columns.

The road tractor I drove in the mid eighties had a 400 cummins, 370 rears and a 15 speed with over drive. I didn't drive the northwest a lot but always smoked the brakes going down cabbage (not sure if that's correct name) mountain in Oregon. I did have a jake brake on the truck. I don't remember having any trouble going down donner pass but every time on cabbage there was smoke. Not sure what I did wrong and never felt scared, just afraid I'd catch the brakes on fire.

Has anyone done that with their eagle? Brakes on fire?

Don't try to compare Jakes on a 4 stroke engine to the 2 stroke Jakes on the 6v92 are not much but they sound good