Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

3.31 was a factory optional gearset for Speedsters; it's documented somewhere in the factory literature though I can't quite lay my hands on it at this moment.

yes, when I drove the boattail for George in a parade once, it had the dual transmissions, the second one mounted in reverse. It was just a result of George's "tinkering". Normally you left the 2nd trans in High (direct drive, 1:1)so it had no affect. I imagine George had some fun playing with it, just imagine - 4 gear ratios in reverse, just for starters.

Just out of curiosity could BOTH transmisions in the boat tail be shifted from INside of the car while driving??

I.e. it had two shift levers that could fully operate all gears in each transmission???

So lets think about this for a minute. Reverse is a (usualy) a very short ratio. LEts say 3:1 just to have a number to work with.

So if Reverse is engaged in BOTH tranmissions at the SAME time then a 9:1 fORWARD RATIO is output to the rear axle.

One hell of an overdrive!!!

During the depression of the 1930'sand into WWII many of the very large powerful cars that became salvage were converted into trucks such as wreckers.

So the dual trans may have been a product of that era/trend. Select low in BOTH transmissions at the same time and it becomes a stump puller of stump pullers, logging truck, wrecker or any other low speed heavy duty aplication.

Just out of curiosity could BOTH transmisions in the boat tail be shifted from INside of the car while driving??

Yes.