How many of you guys have a short shifter on your 6spd (or 5spd) trucks? I am looking into getting one after talking to a member of the forum about his. My truck has the 4.10 rear end and it gets old throwing the shifter around so much.

BD makes a pretty good looking kit.

What do yall think about the short shifter kits? also, if you have one, can you post some pics up for me?

Let me know your positives and negatives about them!

Here is the one I am looking into:

http://www.genosgarage.com/prodinfo....ber=BD-1031055

Thanks!

-Chris

 

i've got one but i really dont care for it,it made the shifting really notchy and it's definetly not any faster shifting.

 

^^^^ What he said. Grew to hate mine and sold it!

 

I've had one for a few years now. I personally like it as I felt there was too much travel with the stock shifter. Pros were reduced motion in shifting gears. On the minus side, gears can be a bit notchier, and it took a while to get used to the new arrangement so to speak. You will not see any increase in speed of shifts.
As I said, I am happy with it overall as it did what I expected it to do with minimal drawbacks; however I do also know that most people do not care for it at all and end up going back to stock.

 

Jason and the boys pretty much summed it up. I have a love-hate relationship with the shortshifter. I do enjoy less throw in the shifts, have grown accustomed to the additional notchiness (its not too bad, at least in my truck), but hate the 4th to 5th gear throw, almost have to direct it far right before it'll let you move up into 5th. This becomes a big problem when trying to speedshift, because it always has a hard time hitting 5th and not jamming.

But I'm so used to it I don't think going back would help me much. I drive others 6 spds and recall the long shifts. I'd rather have the short shift personally.


If anyone gets one, expect to have a love-hate mindframe about it.

 

Well guys that pretty much nailed it right there. That is what I wanted to here. So no faster shifts but the throw is a little better than stock? Sounds good to me, I think I am going to look into getting on here shortly.

Thanks!

 

I broke 2 in 3 years with normal driving and BD doesn't seem to care.

 

will one of these shifters make it easier to get into reverse. I have the nv5600 on my 2004 cummmins and it is hard to get into reverse sometimes.

 

Probably won't. The trick for an easier time sliding into reverse is to go into 5th gear first.

MikeyB

 

Did not help for me at all, but I find it easiest to put in in 2nd before reverse, and then it goes right in...

 

Not at all, at times can make it harder. The kit changed the pivot point of the shifter, and with the natural firmness in reverse its still hard. I always begin in first before trying to engage reverse, i have a habit of putting the truck in 1st upon shutting it down. 2nd would work well also.

 

I was probably one of their earliest customers for this kit. I do like the short throw, but as others have mentioned, it does make shifting a bit notchy at times. I like being able to have my arm on the center consul and just use my wrist to change gears instead of the whole arm.

 

Mine broke while I was towing a load 400 miles away from home. At first I freaked out and figured I'd have to call a mobile welder to weld the shaft back on to the threaded section which is where it broke off. After I took a deep breath I grabbed my multi tool and cut the leather shifter boot and saw I had about 1.5" of stub shaft to shift with. I found an adjustable wrench and was able to move it up into 3rd and down into 4th gear enough to drive around town. I was thinking " just give me high gear"(Days of thunder reference) but I didnt have a way to move the 1" shifter nub over and then I though about my star lug wrench under the back seat. Low and behold it worked and I took it out for a test drive banging gears with a big star wrench.

I got home safely banging gears for 400 miles with a big star wrench and called BD and they sent me a new pice for $$$ of course.

So if you have a BD short shifter I recommend a star lug wrench under the back seat.



the precious cargo

 

I was advised by a local service guy (who really knows his stuff) to not use the short throw shifter. Reason - your notchy feeling is actually the gears being shifted too fast, so the syncros cannot brake the gears fast enough so they crash together a little. all these crashes over time = blown gearbox.

Friend of mine has 750,000km on his 6 speed from new. No problems. These boxes are HD and are not designed to shift fast.

 

I have to agree to disagree, the notchy feeling is from the pivot change which changes the leverage of the shifter. If the synchros are having an issue most of the time it just wont let you in. other times it will grind.

Guys the short throw shifter does not make shifting that much quicker at all, between all the missed 5th gears from the pivot change you have to be really seasoned like I am now lol to use it to an advantage.