"Three on the tree"

[quneur]

To this day I prefer a manual transmission, and mostly have driven them, but now bad knees and feet make me look wistfully at automatics sometimes.

I once owned a 1859 Simca (French car imported by Dodge) that had four on the column. Kind of different in other ways too.

Did it have four horsepower? From actual horses?

 

[boatme99]

My first car was a '65 Chevy Bel Aire s/w with a aftermarket (junk) 3 speed Hurst floor shifter.

The only 3 on the trees I drove were when I was in the A.F.
Never owned one.

 

[CajunBass]

1964 Ford Falcon four door, 170 CI six, AM radio, lighter, and 440 air conditioning...and three on the tree.

First car I ever drove was my dad's 1967 Chevy Impala 4 door, 327 four barrel, with three on the tree.

 

[Hamster65]

I learned to drive in an early 50's Ford something or other convertible with no roof, no seat belts, no doors, a HUGE bench seat and 3 on the tree.

I ended up taking my driving test in a borrowed 1981 Ford Escort Wagon because nothing we had would have passed the safety inspection.

 

[soFlaNative]

Dad taught just about every kid in the neighborhood how to drive in a '65 Polara with a 383. If they happened to be in the car and were about 14 once back in the neighborhood he'd simply stop, slide over and say "You drive". We were thrilled. 3 on the tree for me was '79 F-100 with st. 6 300

 

[blujax01]

Learned to drive with my dads 67 Chevy van 3 on the tree...

I had a '66, then later a '69. Loved the way you sat over the front axle. And that big ol' flat steering wheel, felt like I was driving a bus...

 

[Brian41]

My first car was a 1964 Ford Falcon with a three on the tree. My girlfriend would shift for me when I had my arm around her driving.
Later three on the trees were a 1970 Ford Maverick and 1967 Chevy pickup. I once had a 3 speed on the floor in a Chevy work van that had a long shifter and real pain in the butt to shift.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

In 1974 I got my hands on my father's pickup truck... 68 Chevy stepside w/ 3 on tree. Oh the joy of driving that truck! I never used that little Chevy to see the U.S.A., but I used it for everything from general driving to heavy work. Pulled tractors with that thing! Learned how to work on the straight six motor, do the points, etc., replace clutch and such. Used to race folks coming out of the city dump after we'd get rid of a load of junk. That little truck beat a lot of much bigger trucks. Wish I could have gotten it permanent, but my father had the title. Came home one day to see the truck gone, my father had sold it to one of the employees. A few weeks later that employee got into an argument with his wife. He'd gotten drunk or something and showed out. She waited till he was asleep, went outside to the truck and dipped a rag in the gas tank. Then she set it on fire. There ought to be a law against such desecration!

Was it white with red vinyl seats?Did it have just an AM radio and heater? If so then it is the twin of the old 68 Chevy we used to ride around in and make dump runs with

 

[DeadAye]

I learned to drive on a Rambler station wagon with 3 on the tree.

Cool - Mine was a '63 Rambler American 220 wagon
Flat head 6 with 3 on the tree.
By the time it died I had to use premium gas because the head had been shaved so many times .
What a bomb!

My first motorized transportation was a '45 45. 4 on the tank with a rock & roll clutch. It was stolen I still miss it.

 

[loknload]

My first car was a 56 Dodge with "Push button drive". I did learn to drive 3 on the tree in a Dodge Dart though.
My greatest love though was learning to drive a 55 Diamond T fire truck when I became involved with the fire department. It was 5 speed and you had to double clutch every shift, you missed a shift you knew it and it was very unforgiving.
Sad thing, I loved that truck and had a chance to buy it when it was put out of service, could of had it for $1800. dollars and I didn't do it. I was involved in restoring a 1950 Seagraves at the time. Should of grabbed the old Diamond T instead!

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

1951 Studebaker Champion? Either that or Commander, whichever was NEXT to top of the line. Three on the tree, of course, and overdrive. I seem to recall that it had a hillholder.

 

[Alpo]

A "hillholder"? Is that like a "honeyhugger"?

 

[deanodog]

1940 chevrolet was the first I drove (in a vacant lot) and the first I owned was a 1950 ford both with three on tree.

 

[Old Corp]

In the late '70's the 4x4 rage was ON in my area. My 2nd vehicle was a '68 Toyota Landcruiser that was three on the tree. It was about worn out and expensive to fix, hard to get parts for in the pre-internet days. Sold it and bought a '76 Ford Bronco 4x4 (the old short body style), 302 ci, three on the tree.
Loved that Bronco - it drank gas, but wish I still had it.

 

[wbraswell]

Dad taught me to drive in Mom's fishing car when I was 13. It was a blue and white 4 door '56 Ford Custom. A 272 V8 and 3 on the tree.

 

[ImprovedModel56Fan]

A hillholder was an automatically-operating mechanical device, rather simple, I'm told, which, when you were stopped headed uphill, kept the brake engaged when you took your right foot off of it to use the accelerator while using the left foot on the clutch. It disengaged when it was supposed to. Rather convenient.

 

[NYlakesider]

Getting in this a bit late and did not read every post. I started driving in the late 1950s (a bit illegally but the statue of limitations is long over I HOPE)

The 3 in the tree transmission back then were the old type non Synchronizedfirst gear boxes. They made doing a slow role into a traffic light fun if the light changed before you made a full stop. At that point you had 3 choices, accelerate away while lugging the engine in 2ed gear and looking like you do not how to drive a stick too well or mastering the "Double Clutch" technique or slamming on your breaks, stopping dead and then shifting the box into first gear.

I opted for learning the Double Clutch and once that was mastered by carefully balancing your vehicle speed, the transmission speed and matching your engine revs you could shift between gears without hitting the clutch pedal.

My first car I bought when I turned 16 was a 4 year old 59 Chevy 283 with the then sort of rare 4 speed floor mounted shifter (that trans did have a synchronized first gear)

Another thing we did a lot of back in that era was change a three in the tree to a three by the knee.

 

[huk_finn]

1960 ford station wagon, 3 / tree. 289 cubic inch. sure could pack a lot of my pals in there. ugly as hell, but was a lot of fun for $100.

 

[Herknav]

Learned to drive on a Ford 8N pretty early. One day, we were burning a native grass field, and the fire jumped the fire break. Dad shouted for me to drive his pickup to the fetch the 8N so we could plow a new firebreak. I think he questioned his decision momentarily when 10-yr-old me's first time in a real vehicle began with a cloud of dust and two large rooster tails.

The company that Dad worked for had a Chevy pickup with a 3-on-the-tree. There was a hammer on the floorboard that you used to bang on the linkage underneath in order to get it out of reverse.

 

[gtk]

I grew up on a farm, and was driving tractors long before trucks. When my legs got long enough to reach the clutch pedal in my grandfathers truck, I would drive it all over the farm. At 13 years old, I was driving to football practice on my own.

How many folks learned the hard way, about NOT putting your arms through the steering wheel on vehicles without power steering? It took me one trip through a cornfield to learn the lesson why !