Learning manual transmission?

They will help you learn, I went to Roadmasters and they took us out on a long stretch of road and had us drive up and down shifting from first to fifth until the ones that needed the time got the hang of it, then we went out on the freeway for sixth through tenth. Trust me, you are not the only one with little experience with a manual transmission. But YES! you will need to know it when you get out in the real driving world unless you can get on with a company that runs all autos. It would be to your benefit to know how to drive a standard though.
Good luck in your career.

 

Not knowing how to drive a manual in a car or pickup may actually play to your benefit. Standard transmissions in cars and pickups are synchronized transmissions, meaning that, when shifting, you can just fully engage the clutch and move the shifter from gear to gear, as the synchronizing of road speed, engine speed, and transmission speed is handled by the synchronizers. Heavy truck transmissions are unsynchronized and you match engine, transmission, and road-speed for it to shift, meaning you cannot simply put your foot on the clutch and go from gear to gear like in a car or pickup. Your wife may make jokes about it, but, she might actually have a harder time learning it than you will. Your first thousand up-shifts are going to be terrible, and your first two-thousand down-shifts will be even worse. Getting good at shifting is about practice. Just be confident about it.

 

Yes, it is practice, practice with a bit of knowledge to help you.
First with the truck stopped and the parking brake on practice using the fuel pedal from 1700 RPM down to 1200 RPM. Hold 1200 RPM with the fuel pedal. After 5 seconds press down on the fuel pedal to increase the engine RPM up to 1700 RPM and Hold with the fuel pedal.

(there is a number of different ways to explain this knowledge point below)
1.) Knowledge point, manual transmissions are designed with a fixed ratio of about 400 - 500 RPM difference from one gear to the next higher gear. At the same road speed you can use one gear at 1800 RPM or the next higher gear at 1400 RPM, So to shift from one gear to the next higher gear, you feather the fuel pedal ( so the engine is neither pulling the truck or retarding the truck) depress the clutch, pull the gear shift to netural, release the clutch, now slow the engine down from 1800 RPM to 1400 RPM (with the fuel pedal HOLD the 1400 RPM), depress the clutch, and shift from netural to the next higher gear position, now let the clutch out slowly, the clutch will then engage and make the engine match the transmission gearing and the present road speed. WIth the clutch engaged, you can roll back down on the fuel pedal to speed the truck up.

I would practice and train my right foot to be able to change engine RPM from 1700 RPM to 1200 RPM then back to 1700 RPM. Do this about 20 times, before you move down the road.
Everytime you shift up, the engine RPM will have to drop a fixed amount of 400-500 RPM. So practice this to help you shift a manual engine. Be gentle and easy with your control of the fuel pedal, realize you control 400+ horse power and lots of torque. You can damage equipment.

Good luck in your endeavors to become a truck driver. Automatics are fun to drive, because it controls the engine RPM shifts between gears.
While driving a straight truck with out towing a trailer, You can shift two gears, by droping double the RPM of a single gear shift. ( like 800 - 1000 RPM) Start in 2nd gear run up to 1800 RPM, shift to neutral, slow the engine to 900-1000 RPM and shift into 4th gear. run up to 1800 RPM, shift to neutral, slow the engine to 900-1000 rpm and shift into 6th gear.

To down shift from 1300 RPM, shift to neutral, increase engine RPM to 1700 RPM and shift into next lower gear.

Realize while your shifting if the the truck road speed increase, you will have to adjust the engine speed to match the new gear a little higher RPM. If the truck road speed slows, you will have to adjust the engine rpm speed a little lower in RPM to match.

Comments welcome, better explanations welcome, too.

 

I would be careful discussing specific RPM's to shift at as it will vary by engine and tranny. I have driven trucks with an operating range of 1700 - 2100 bit currently drive one with a range of 1000 - 1500 so it will vary.

Good advice though on learning to raise the rpm by 400- 500

To the OP... relax go to your local truckstop and look at some of the characters driving today and ask yourself if they can learn to do it, why can't you?

 

Sounds like you aren't as 'sold' on driving a truck as your wife is. If she thinks you are gonna make a ton of money 'out the door' you two need to read some more threads. The first few years are going to be tough!!

 

If you can grasp at least the concept and the motor skills and coordination required in a car or pickup a week or so prior, I feel this would help considerably. Learn how to keep your left foot devoted to the clutch, and that the clutch typically needs to be depressed anytime the brake is depressed while you're at or coming to a a stop (and in gear) And learn how to remember to always begin from a stop in the lowest[er] gear and that you speed and gear selection is closely related, at all times, from stop to hiway speed. Search youtube with well chosen key search words. You'll be surprised what is up there.

Just know that trucks and cars DO behave differently in regards to timing and methodology, but the overall concept is the same. Maybe you know a friend who has a manual transmission automobile? Otherwise, don't worry about it and make the trainer earn his paycheck.