Three on the tree......Am I gettin old??

I love vent windows, rolling down windows, manual choke and a 3 on the tree; my daily drivers for well over 25 years. My kids can conceptually see how to drive my truck, but have yet to try.

 

I had to learn 3 on the tree when I took my '53 Ford for a test drive 2 years ago- then drive it home 7 hours! Couldn't figure out why 1st gear was so tough to get into while I was rolling 'til I talked to an older hot rod guy down the road who explained the "non-sync".

I love drivin' 3 on the tree- just plain fun!

 

Ha I'm 27 and that pretty much sums up my daily driver!! Hell, that old '56 International was here long before me and is probably gonna out live me too!

Brian

 

I remember when U haul had real trucks with manual transmisions. Like everything else they dumbed those down for the public.
I remember when I was a kid people asking if somebody knew how to drive a truck from U haul to help them move.
Im replacing my old 3 speed in my 49 and keeping the newer one on the tree.

 

Boy, do I ever!! On my 62 Falcon and especially on my 65 Dart. If you really want to throw 'em for a loop, put 'em in my 51 Chevy truck and tell 'em to start it...then after the engine doesn't turn over when they're turning' the key and they look really confused, show 'em where the starter pedal is...It's SOME FUN!!!

And, NO, you ain't gettin' old. You're just lots more "Life Experienced"...

 

Some of you guys make it sound like kids don't know crap. I'm 14 and have known all about that stuff since I was little....if it werent for my Grandpa (attastude) I probably would be one of those kids. My grandpa's 52 stude used to have 3 on the tree and I loved wathing him drive it..especially with glass packs and he down shifted....

 

i love the old 3 on the tree, 19 only 19 and ive grown up around them, but i can say when i would drive my nova to school (235 3 on the tree) the other kids at my school would look at and wonder what it was

 

Ha ha,this is so fynny.
In Sweden,if you cant drive a manual gearbox youre lame!
Its verry hard for me that live in a country when almost everyone drives manual to understand that people dont know how to drive a manual car.

 

I learnt to drive on a 3 on the tree in 1965, but I ripped it out of my 41 Willys and replaced it with a 38 floor shift box in 1966. I used to drive an old Hillman with a busted starter, no problems, I just used the crank handle to start it! (Imagine asking a modern kid to crank start a car!)

But I had to teach my wife how to drive a 4 on the floor in 1985, she'd learnt on an automatic and only driven autos, until I bought her a little wagon with a 5 speed stick.

My hat goes off to my mum though. She was only a little thing, and she learnt to drive, and drove for about 15 years, a 1929 Chev sedan with a 3 speed crash box! She was so little, she used to vanish below the dashboard as she let off the hand brake.

Cheers, Glen.

 

Quite a few Jap pick-ups and vans had 5-on-the-tree in the '80's

 

In New Zealand if you sit the Restricted (like probationary) part of your drivers licence in an auto you aren't allowed to drive a stick-shift until you have a full drivers licence.

 

Pretty much same in Norway. You take your license with an auto, can only drive an auto. Take it with a stick and you can drive either. Though, i dont think the DMV folk would have any idea what you were talking about with a 3 on the tree...

 

I'm in the process of restoring a '62 Lincoln. When I first brought it home, my wife was sitting in the drivers seat looking at everything. She looked down at the floor, and asked what the little button on the left was for... Oh, the humanity!!

My first car was a '76 Maverick 4-door... It had '3 on the tree', foot push-button for high beams, manual floor vent (for "fresh air"), and a rear window 'de-fogger'.


I think it should be a mandatory requirement to learn how to drive a stick before you can get your license.

 

Yes we are getting old...so what!



I miss my 57 292 3spdw/OD. so I'm replacing it with this...





The 223 has been replaced with a 352 but the 3 spd/OD trans stays. If you are lucky enough to have a 3 on the tree remember to leave it in low gear when you park. If you leave it in reverse or 2nd, my buddies and I will probably think it's in park and walk on by.

Yeah I'm old and have a fetish for the 3 on the tree.

Remember a 30 YO was born in 1980. I have plenty of rod run shirts older than that....most of them have shrunk around the middle.

 

The last American 3 on-the-tree was used in the 1986 Ford truck.

 

Amen brother. I don't own a modern vehicle, but I work on them for a living. Cars are being designed and made with the ignorant in mind. Don't know how panick stop? No problem-ABS. Don't know how to steer into a skid, or work your way out of an icy spot?- Traction control. They have computers to controll everything in cars now. Radar, daytime running lights that you cannot turn off, and my favorite- a big assed video screen right in the middle of the dash called a nav. system. Its ok though, because if you crash while staring at it there are a dozen airbags to save you. Won't be too long before young drivers don't know what car keys are, or what a paper map is. I'll bet there are a lot of kids that don't know how to read a non-digital clock.

 

235? Non V8 Novas had 153 4Cyl. 194, 230 and 250 6Cyl. Anyway Used to drive Dodge vans with a 3 on the Tree when I worked for Sun (the Engine Tester/TACH Company) The vans had ARMSTRONG POWER Windows and little vent windows.

 

On a related note,
I let a kid move my 64 Plymouth at a car show once. After 5 minutes of head scratching, he asked how to move the car. Its a push button automatic!

 

Now THAT'S funny!

 

I still think that tail light gas doors are cool as hell today.

I have a hell of a time finding the freaking pull lever on a new car to open the gas door.
"I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is."
FG

 

AWESOME!!
My MOM (a petite lady of 5'2") drives a 105,00LB Kenworth Asphalt paving truck now... BUT she started in a good 'ol Mack with that Quara-Plex setup...I rememer her shiftin both boxes on the fly at the same time...

Also the 1st car i ever drove was My dads '57 Ranchero 3spd on the tree.... he made sure I learned to drive a manual trans before he ever let me drive an automatic

 

well, i haven't gotten to drive a three on the tree yet, but i'm planning on making a four on the tree once i get a different transmission for my 64 galaxie. i started out driving on a 42 john deere, and i still can't make an automatic work to my satisfaction.

 

Hadn't thought of that lately. I did it on my '40 Ford and later on my Henry J. Other than being "cool", that left my right arm free to hold my girlfriend.

 

For the dimmer, I had an 82 GMC 1/2 ton with the dimmer on the floor.

My daily driver is an 87 chev 1/2 ton with a 4 speed. it has the non syncro first (bull low) gear. It will only do about 5 MPH in low but makes for great rubber into second Most of my friends (late 20's early 30's) can drive a stick but most of us were country kids. You had to learn to run a clutch to be able to move any of the farm equipment. 90% of the "city" kids could not & can not drive standards. Throw a three on the tree into the mix & even most of the guys I know that can drive stick can't do it. My dad had (& still does have) a 39 dodge with a flathead 6 and 3 on the tree that I rode in a lot as a kid so I learned how at an early age.

 

My buddy has a '65 Chevy panel with 3-on-the-tree. I love driving that thing! In the day my cousin had a '66 Ford truck with a 352 and 3-on-the-tree. It was a blast...

The newest one I've seen, my cousin's ex-husband had an '82 Chevy half ton truck with a 250 six and 3 on the tree.

Dimmer switch on the floor stopped in about '84. On the trucks anyways...

 

im 25. just strated drivin my first 3 on tree a month ago. ive always known what it is though. always knew it was something evrybody changed out.im leavin mine. though as i was leaving a light one day i had that feeling somone was starin at me. looked over and dude was watching me shifting with a WTF look ! LOL

 

1979 Ford F-100 pickup 3 speed column shift is the last one I can remember.
As for the floor dimmer switch, the last known model I’m aware of was the 1980 F-350

 

My daily driver when I was 16 was a '65 Checker, 250ci Chevy 6, 3-on-the-tree...

 

most young guys dont understand all of that. With them its mostly about how much boost they are running on their hondas.

 

I had a 1965 Datsun Truck with 4 on the tree.