Shifting The Truck....AAARRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Topic 9606 | Page 2
I spent a lot of time in school watching others shift,and found a few hints. 1 Pause a second,while in nuetral, 2 hold shift lever against gate,while waiting for speed and rpm to match. 3 getting in to low range will require slowing to under 15 mph,so mainly stay in 6th gear as long as possible. practice makes perfect.
OWI:
Operating While Intoxicated
Only apply enough pedal to release clutch.Going too far with the pedal,and getting into the clutch brake,can cause problems.
1st off, get the tranny out of the truck! No riders! Lol. Seriously; downshifting is essential to diving a truck. Don't just drive the truck young Jedi, feel the truck, be one with the truck. RPM's, MPH, sounds, they all for a symphony to shifting. Once you learn the synchronicity of all these factors, then you will be able to downshift smoothly. (Drop rpm's to 1200, tap on throttle, bump shifter out of gear, Rev to 1500 rpm's, then slide it in.
Also, wait until the RPM's come way down before you try to downshift. Get them down in the 1000 RPM area (or even lower) and then downshift. If you're downshifting with the RPM's too high you really have to kick the RPM's up sky high to get it to shift into the lower gear. At higher RPM's the engine wants to lose RPM's more quickly so your timing has to be more precise. At lower RPM's it's a little more forgiving.
So try letting those RPM's drop really low before downshifting.
Took the words out of my mouth. At around 1000 rpm you need to kick it up to about 1400-1500 depending on transmission type to go into the next lower gear.
If it doesn't go into a lower gear, just tap the gas and try again from neutral. Don't force it though. You can tell without jamming it if it will go into gear or not.
Don't sweat it. Persistence pays off. Just a few month in and I'm driving the thing like a pro. Double downshifting and splitting up and down with no problems. Keep at it and you'll get to the point where you don't even need the tach anymore.
HOS:
Hours Of Service
HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
Thanks fellas, back at it at 7:00 am!!
Ok, heres what works for me....use the clutch, (single) On upshifts. On down shifts I am clutching (to get it out of gear) and goosing the throttle to get into the next lower gear. At this time that is what is working for me. Phew, this trucker stuff is tough.
OOS:
When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.
Wow. This is really helpful to me, too. I could never get the hang of downshifting, but now it's making more sense. The guy teaching me was too used to doing it to tell me what to do.
Thanks for posting all the info.
Well....after almost a full week of trying different things, mainly the last description I gave, my instructor asked me to attempt to float. Suprisingly, I did it pretty well today. Really smooth once it came together and not too terrible on the downshifts either. We have friday and all next week before the class ends so we will see how I progress. I did ALOT of observing from the back seat as we had a cpl of guys in the truck practicing for their driving test who floated the gears really well. I got to watch the tach as well as any foot work involved. Really helped me out.
Well....after almost a full week of trying different things, mainly the last description I gave, my instructor asked me to attempt to float. Suprisingly, I did it pretty well today. Really smooth once it came together and not too terrible on the downshifts either. We have friday and all next week before the class ends so we will see how I progress. I did ALOT of observing from the back seat as we had a cpl of guys in the truck practicing for their driving test who floated the gears really well. I got to watch the tach as well as any foot work involved. Really helped me out.
from what I have been reading though I'm pretty sure you have to dbl clutch to pass the actual cdl driving test... if this is true you may not want to get too comfortable with floating gears until after you have your cdl tests passed. I don't know if they'll fail you for not double clutching but I guess that's something to ask.
CDL:
Commercial Driver's License (CDL)
A CDL is required to drive any of the following vehicles:
- Any combination of vehicles with a gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of 26,001 or more pounds, providing the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of the vehicle being towed is in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any single vehicle with a GVWR of 26,001 or more pounds, or any such vehicle towing another not in excess of 10,000 pounds.
- Any vehicle, regardless of size, designed to transport 16 or more persons, including the driver.
- Any vehicle required by federal regulations to be placarded while transporting hazardous materials.
Floating Gears:
An expression used to describe someone who is shifting gears without using the clutch at all. Drivers are taught to "Double Clutch" or press and release the clutch twice for each gear shift. If you're floating gears it means you're simply shifting without using the clutch at all.
Double Clutch:
To engage and then disengage the clutch twice for every gear change.
When double clutching you will push in the clutch, take the gearshift out of gear, release the clutch, press the clutch in again, shift the gearshift into the next gear, then release the clutch.
This is done on standard transmissions which do not have synchronizers in them, like those found in almost all Class A trucks.
Double Clutching:
To engage and then disengage the clutch twice for every gear change.
When double clutching you will push in the clutch, take the gearshift out of gear, release the clutch, press the clutch in again, shift the gearshift into the next gear, then release the clutch.
This is done on standard transmissions which do not have synchronizers in them, like those found in almost all Class A trucks.
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Don't let your double clutching get rusty. Even after being out here for awhile, sometimes I'm just not feeling it when floating downshifts, so I'll go to double clutch.
Double Clutch:
To engage and then disengage the clutch twice for every gear change.
When double clutching you will push in the clutch, take the gearshift out of gear, release the clutch, press the clutch in again, shift the gearshift into the next gear, then release the clutch.
This is done on standard transmissions which do not have synchronizers in them, like those found in almost all Class A trucks.
Double Clutching:
To engage and then disengage the clutch twice for every gear change.
When double clutching you will push in the clutch, take the gearshift out of gear, release the clutch, press the clutch in again, shift the gearshift into the next gear, then release the clutch.
This is done on standard transmissions which do not have synchronizers in them, like those found in almost all Class A trucks.