Going to orientation, what to expect?

it depends on what the company has. we use both 10 and 13 speeds but it depends what truck the driver will go into. Get on youtube and there is a short video that goes over the gear pattern.

 

Prime uses 10 spd trannies in all of their trucks. Whatever you do in a Prime truck will be in a 10 spd. Beyond that I don't know as I came into Prime through the PSD program and acquired my license through the in-house training program.

Edited to add- i wasn't aware there were any 13s in the fleet. I know you won't encounter one on the training yard in Springfield.

 

I assuming you won't be floating the gears? The 10 speeds seem to work very well starting off in 2nd gear, accelerating to 14-1500 step on the clutch, allow rpms to drop to 1300 and drop back into gear. If you can think in your head... lift throttle and pull into neutral... quick pause then drop into the next gear. After 5th, flip high range and go back to where 1st gear location would be. Like others said, study the shift pattern.

When decelerating, lift throttle, slow until rpms get down to 1100 , clutch, go to neutral, rev to 1400 and drop into next lowest gear release clutch.

One thing to note, when shifting , only depresess clutch pedal a few inches. You only take it to the floor when at a stop and going into a gear. On the road test, don't shift into neutral and coast to a stop, try to keep it in a gear at all times.

 

Most 10 speeds shift on a 1 - 2 count.
As you shift just do the count.in your head.
Down shift varies between 300 or 400 RPMs on tach on straight 10s

 

for a road test always start in 1st gear,,some trucks will do OK starting in 2nd or 3rd but you will not know until you drive the truck how well it will do,,9spd,10sd are about the same a 13spd , 15spd and 18spd will have a splitter button and you should be able to split gears OK,,as long as your don't grind gears and force the trans in gear you should do OK,,progress up and down the gears and take your time, think about what you are doing, remember they number the gears 1, 2, 3, 4 etc for a reason,, double clutching is easy again THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND DON'T GET IN A HURRY

 

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...27-new-prime-inc-what-expect-springfield.html

this is what to expect for orientation