10 Speed Shifting

Am a CDL student. Doing OK with most things apart from shifting the 10 speed. Getting up to speed/upshifting and driving the truck I'm generally OK. the problem is during downshift. I tend to panic when approaching areas I know I have to slow down and downshift, probably because I'm having to think of other things, downshifting just doesn't come as naturally as upshifting, sometimes I'll completely panic and forget the shift pattern, I will sometimes hold in the clutch when revving for the sweet spot, I have a mental block. Sometimes I manage to do it cleanly but a lot of times I end up grinding, on some occasions my instructor has had to pull on the shifter to get into gear whilst shouting FOOT OFF CLUTCH/REV THE ENGINE!!!, which makes it even harder! I know the theory and what I need to, i.e the revs I need to apply etc but has anyone got any advice on how to stay calm or an easy aide memoire that could help! I have my test in a couple of weeks and desperate to pass it!

My only advice is just repetition. When I was in training we had 2 full days in the simulator practicing the shifting patterns. Then I spent the next 2 weeks in an automatic. To come back and test in a manual. I had to slow down and go over all that I learned in those two days in my head at night when I wasn't driving. Well anytime I wasn't driving really.

Spent two more months in training after my test again in an auto, and now I'm solo and I got a manual. I grind gears and miss gears, and yes even run into shifting mistakes everyday. But the repetition is teaching me what I can and can't do. I have seen my shifting getting better. You'll learn what gears to go from and at what rom you need to be at. You'll learn to hear the engine and know when to shift, etc.

It's like everything else in this job, repetition. The more you go it, the easier it will be.

I'm currently in school and this has been a tough one for me as well. The "steps in a turn" that they've taught us has been a huge help for me.

Here's how I practiced gears......

This shows 2 different 10 speed trans... a standard and a super... for simplicity we will use the one on the left...

You can either toss this up on your screen or print it and pin it to wall.. now get you a plunger (yes bathroom plunger) and plop in next to you in while your in a chair... look at the pic and move the handle of the plunger like it's a gear stick.. this helped me learn 10 speed as I had driving my first 6 months in a 8 speed.

You are brand new and can't shift? I'm shocked!! (Sarcasm here lol)

You aren't going to master shifting for awhile. That will come on the road with your company training. They just want you to know how to do it and to recover for the test. The points you get for missing gears is minimal...like 5pts regardless of how often you do it.

I know people that took two months to downshift. If you have a great company trainer, they will give you lots of practice by putting you on US routes, heavy traffic and hills so you can learn. It will come as second nature eventually. But no one expects you to be perfect now, and even experienced drivers miss gears and grind every once in a awhile.

Chin up and keep practicing.

Am a CDL student. Doing OK with most things apart from shifting the 10 speed. Getting up to speed/upshifting and driving the truck I'm generally OK. the problem is during downshift. I tend to panic when approaching areas I know I have to slow down and downshift, probably because I'm having to think of other things, downshifting just doesn't come as naturally as upshifting, sometimes I'll completely panic and forget the shift pattern, I will sometimes hold in the clutch when revving for the sweet spot, I have a mental block. Sometimes I manage to do it cleanly but a lot of times I end up grinding, on some occasions my instructor has had to pull on the shifter to get into gear whilst shouting FOOT OFF CLUTCH/REV THE ENGINE!!!, which makes it even harder! I know the theory and what I need to, i.e the revs I need to apply etc but has anyone got any advice on how to stay calm or an easy aide memoire that could help! I have my test in a couple of weeks and desperate to pass it!

I have EXACTLY the same problem. Just read my training diary on page 5 update that was just posted for 06/24/2017. Mental blocks are a big problem for me. I have to keep thngs going. Thank god for the Smith System because that keeps mental block from happening.

I'm currently on my 4th day of company training and I still have a hard time shifting especially down shifting my trainer has repeated himself to me a hundred times about finding what gear to be in for curves and hills. He says it will come to me over time, I hope so because I've angered a lot of people that get stuck behind me.

When you're having trouble finding a gear once you've messed up a down shift in a ten speed, keep it in high range, bump that throttle slightly and go for sixth gear. That gear has a wide RPM range, and when you're in a bind you can usually get it to go into sixth gear. It was always my "go to gear" as a rookie when having trouble recovering from a missed down shift.

I'm currently on my 4th day of company training and I still have a hard time shifting especially down shifting my trainer has repeated himself to me a hundred times about finding what gear to be in for curves and hills. He says it will come to me over time, I hope so because I've angered a lot of people that get stuck behind me.

Your fourth day? omg you'll still be learning on your fourth month. It takes time. Don't sweat it.

And listen, this is super important. A ton of rookie mistakes can be attributed to worrying about making other people mad because you're holding them up, especially in parking lots. As unnatural as it may seem, try very hard to get that out of your head. Don't worry about making people wait. You're overriding responsibility is to move that rig around the country without putting a scratch on it. If that means you have to move super extra slow in parking lots, and get out and look ten times when you're backing, and take hills extra slowly then that's exactly what you do. Because if you think people are mad waiting for you, wait til you see how mad people get when you run into them!

When you park that rig safely at the end of the day, all of those worries about people being impatient will turn to pride and satisfaction, and those people will be a distant memory, and they'll be lucky to be sharing the road with someone who cares that much about safety.

Seriously, you've spent your fair share of time waiting on others to do things, and they'll just have to understand that you're in a big rig and it moves slowly. That's life. Cry me a river, right?

If four wheelers hit their horn and give you the finger, and they will, just smile big and wave nicely. If truckers tease you a little for being clumsy and slow at backing, smile big and enjoy the fact that you got the job done safely and own it. That's life, and that's part of being a rookie. We've all been there. We're just glad it's someone else's turn to be the new guy!

None of us want to hold people up, but we have to do what we have to do to stay safe out there so the rest of the world can run to Walmart and the grocery store and get anything they'll ever need to live the easy life.

When you're having trouble finding a gear once you've messed up a down shift in a ten speed, keep it in high range, bump that throttle slightly and go for sixth gear. That gear has a wide RPM range, and when you're in a bind you can usually get it to go into sixth gear. It was always my "go to gear" as a rookie when having trouble recovering from a missed down shift.

It's funny how true that is! But 6th really does seem to be an almost magical gear. It's surprising when you're new just how low the low gears are. I mean, you're basically crawling on the low side. So just like Old School said, when in doubt keep it in the high range and grab 6th.

You'll rarely even need to downshift lower than that anyhow. Your trainer might want you to do it just for practice, but realistically you're not going to be downshifting all the way to a stop. You'll downshift a couple times maybe, probably down to 6th or so eventually, and then at some point you'll likely pop it out of gear and coast to a stop. I know, they teach if you're out of gear you're out of control. Maybe I'm a daredevil, I don't know, but it's hard to feel out of control when bicycles are passing you.