What is your favorite gear?

[Clara]

What is your favorite gear?

Recently I've really been enjoying second gear. Been driving around town a lot, and there are a few hills. I've been taking the windy or steep back roads and just really loving second gear, pulling up hills and so on. How about you?

[Danwvw]

What's the maximum speed in 2nd?

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[Clara]

With the speedo your posted, with stock tranny and 36hp engine, VW recommends 20mph max.

In the bus I was driving, with stock big nut trans and 1600, VW recommends 25 as max:

Coming over the bridge and around the roundabout traffic is about 15mph then up Harrison hill accelerate to 25-30mph.
Shifting up to 3rd on steep hills at 25 is asking to lug it, you need to be at 30 to shift up to 3rd on a steep hill.

[joe cool]

I have always been partial to third. My bus with 1600sp almost feels powerful (for an old bus) in third. Plenty of torque, a little bit of speed, it feels good.
When I hit a hill in fourth I often see the speedo creeping downwards all the way 45-50mph and the pedal is to the floor. That doesn't feel good. But it feels better when I downshift to third and feel a little power again.
I don't spend much time in first. Only in bumper-to-bumper traffic and it is kind of jerky, I don't enjoy that.
Second gear would be my second favorite. I use that a lot on shasta trips. Pedal down and I go, ease off and I get engine braking. Useful on a loose surface where braking isn't so good.
Sometimes I lust for a fifth gear, but I believe that is expensive and maybe not that robust?

[EverettB]

3rd gear because most of my town is little and big hills and I feel like I am bogging it down if I go into 4th on the little hills.
Plus 4th is too easy to exceed the speed limit around town.
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[curtis4085]

I love 3rd gear in my 62! It's not a stock engine 2110 if I'm correct. Big nut tranny. In 3rd It pulls very nice.
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[campingbox]

I like neutral best because this is selected when I push the bus on and off the trailer.

[Big Bill]

I picked 2nd in the poll, but really like third better. Cant really use 2nd too much in town, unless I want to get flipped off and or ran off the road.

[G-wood Todd]

I have a small nut tranny and third seems to get me around town nicely. On the highway, I dream of a 5th gear.

[Don66bus]

Let me put in a vote for fourth gear. On a country road with curves, minor hills, and no need for speed, cruising along in the low/mid range of fourth gear can be blissful. There is still some torque and not much noise. At the high end of fourth, with reduction gears, the bus is thrashy and not as pleasant to ride in.

I also like reverse when I am trying to get up a steep hill (and the big window in the 66 bus for backing up).

[oakman]

I enjoy cruising in fourth gear around 53 mph in my 67 kombi with 1600 dp and stock trans. I live on the edge of the Mojave Desert and there are lots of looong straight two lane roads up here. Bus climbs the long gradual inclines nicely in fourth as long as the wind isn't blowing.

[marklaken]

my 1776 DP with kads and bignut boxes is happiest in third gear. Runs about 35 to about 55 mph, which is perfect for 2 lane paved country roads.
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[floyd1969]

[zuggbug]

[mandraks]

for driving 3rd is a good one, basically from rolling speed to 45mph, almost like automatic, but there is only one gear i love, and that is unsynchronised first, love that sound
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[UZI]

i like third because when my starter is stuck, i can put it in third gear and roll it back a few turns, then the bus starts. it also doesn't poo out of third when i''m driving.
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[crukab]

I like the feel of 4th gear, rolling down the highway, Max speed. In N.J. last weekend, the trucked loved the flat land, 55- 60 mph all day long.
3rd is for most of Vermont , off the Interstate.......
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[Cuñado Wear]

3rd in my bus. I love feeling the power in this gear.
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[j.pickens]

At the Trailbash last weekend, we drove a bunch of buses over 45 miles of dirt roads, and the vast majority of it was in second gear.
Yay SECOND GEAR RULES!!!!

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[dvance]

4th. Means I'm on a highway going somewhere. Usually camping for a few days.
Keeping it around 55. Enjoy going slow and steady. Hwy 1 on the Olympic Peninsula a favorite.