Having trouble shifting gears and lots of shaking from engine

You need to ease off the clutch a little faster it sound like. If your holding it in that engagement point the whole tractor will be hopping. Also dont use any gas when letting the clutch out its not a car. Ease the clutch out get it rolling hit the gas.

 

Practice, practice, practice is your answer, your instructor should see that and insure that you have the proper road time in to properly execute shifting and braking before you get to your CDL road test.

 

The only time you 'give it fuel' is when you're downshifting, to get the tach up.
If you're upshifting... (like socal said) take your foot off the fuel!

One of the guys in our group was notorious for not taking his foot of the accelerator - he 'thought' he was taking it off, but wasn't - the instructor would pretty much repeat... 'Foot up, Clutch-Shift-Clutch, Give it fuel'... and inevitably have to repeat 'Foot up, Foot UP, FOOT UP'... until he finally got it in gear and got rolling.

Try to watch the speedometer when you upshift - see what the speed is for each gear - to help with downshifting.
Use the brake to slow down and watch the speedometer. Don't clutch until you drop to the speed of the next lower gear, then 'Clutch-to-neutral, Rev, Clutch-to-gear'.

You have to get down to 3rd gear for turns - so plan to get to that gear before you come to a stop, or turn.

I was driving a 9 speed most of the time, but also drove a 10 speed. There was a slight difference between the two, in the gear-to-speed.

I pretty much divided the speed I wanted to get to by 5 to figure out what gear I wated. So, if I was going 45-50, I would brake to slow down to 40 (divided by 5) shift to 8th gear, then slow to 35 (divided by 5) shift to 7th gear, then slow to 30 (divided by 5) shift to 6th gear, then slow to 20 (dvided by) shift to 4th gear, then slow to 15 (divided by 5) to shift to 3rd gear. I would brake to about 10 mph for the turn, but leave it in 3rd gear on a green light. This was an old truck, and the gears were worn pretty good - I just had to figure out what RPM to use - to keep from grinding on the way down. I never downshifted below 3rd. If I was coming to a light, I would use the brake to slow to about 5, then clutch-in and brake to a slow stop... and leave it in gear. If the light changed before I could stop, it depended on whether I had slowed enough to go to 2nd.

Try wearing tennis shoes instead of boots - it might help you get a better feel of the pedals too.

 

in case the other replies didnt make it clear.

when starting from a STOP, do NOT add fuel. pick a gear to start in (1 or 2 if way heavy, 3 or 4 if heavy, if MT 5 works for me--on level ground) let clutch out/ truck starts moving apply throttle.

good luck

 

part of it is not understanding that the newer trucks do not need you to push the accelerator when starting out, also you only have to push the clutch at most a couple inches not all the way to the floor; all the way to the floor will engage the clutch brake used to stop the transmission when in neutral to get it into gear. Next after starting out the shifting is progressive normally at 100 rpm increments. So if your first shift is at say 900 rpm and you go to 1400 rpm, then you would shift at 1000 rpm into your next gear. and so on until you are in your highest gear. Down shifting you want to let your rpm/speed drop to where you have about 1000 rpm on your tach, shift out of your gear give the accelerator enough push to take you to about 1400 rpm shift into your next lowest gear.

 

The state exam requires you to double clutching all gears . clutch to go in gear and clutch go out of gear.... you must not have the truck in neutral or you fail.

The whole truck shakes is because the RPM have dropped to low to put the truck into a higher or lower gear.

This all depending the truck and at the rpm you are at
(Low RPM ranging from 500 RPM to 2000 RPM and High RPM can ranging from 1500 to 3500 RPM)
.... I do not use the clutch very much at all.... I listen to the sound of the engine... and then change gears

But what you can do is this....

What is the ideal speed... 500 RPM to 1000 RPM(you can not change down or up gears below that point)

#1 start off in first gear and bring it up to the highest RPM and listen to the sound of the engine.... look at the RPM gauge and what does it say.... record the info

exp.... could be 2500 RPM...

#2 then quickly let the fuel off and change up to a higher #2nd gear by double clutchingand see what happens.

When the RPM drops it should let you put the truck in a higher gear

But it take time to learn and every truck is different.

to go down a gear... say if you were at 1500 RPM at #2nd gear

then quickly clutch to neutral and nail the fuel to bring it up to the highest RPM then then quickly off the fuel double clutch to first....

Try it and see what happens....

Problem stopping simply #1 Never Tail gate anyone #2 keep a good distance away from whats in front of you #3 look far ahead for problems and have a ear to the CB for problems ahead #4 gear down.... "DO NOT PANIC".... If you do, keep the clutch in the take the power off the drive shaft and hit the brakes calmly

 

When you double clutch just resting your foot on the clutch pedal is probably enough. try shift at 1500 in all your gears, your learning so I'am presuming your empty. Makes it easy when down shifting reduce your road speed to 1100 as you release the throttle easy it into neutral power rpm's up 1500 as you do keep slight pressure on the shiftier and it should slip into gear.

The clutch just lightly touch the pedal as it drops into neutral, release and then again as you slid it into gear.

 

double clutching is old school like when u drive a 5 an 4 transmission, they were a true new drivers nightmare. its like swimming you didnt start out very good, but u got better the longer u swam. just take your time pay attention to what you are doing and it will come to you. and before you know it, you will do it without even thinking about it. jon