my question of the day - downshifting

Personally I would forget about first and second gears as you will probably never use them in real life, maybe second if you are ideling in slowed or stopped traffic but unless you are going to be into really heavy haul stuff you will never see first gear

 

Beezle, I think your instructor is wrong to teach you to rev up the engine during upshifting. We've called this shotgunning and it shows you're inexperience. Just relax and shift in the power band but don't nail the engine agains't the peg. You don't have to hit every gear going down either. Like when I'd get off the freeway or interstate on a simple 10 speed I'd let the rpm's drop way down and skip gears that I knew would match the road speed. It just takes a little time and you'll find out that the trick is getting the truck to work for you and not you working the truck.

 

AMAN Gashauler!! You have to let the truck do the work and not let it over work you. Shifting a transmission takes practice. Each and every transmission (even ones that are speced the same with the same engine, transmission and gear ratio in the rear) will shift different.

The best shifting method that I found when I first started driving was (with a heavy load) starting out in 2nd gear (this is in a 10 speed and most any other transmission as well) then wind this gear to around 1200, shift to 3rd gear and wind it to about 1300, fourth gear at around 1400, 5th gear at around 1500, then 6 -10 at around 15 to 1700. That normally gives a pretty smooth ride going up in the gears. Comming down, normally I think that downshifting at around 1000 to 1200 rpms and revving the engine to around 1500 to 1700 rpm's normally does the trick pretty smoothly as well.
Good luck and happy trucking!!!

Keep the shiny side up
And the oily side down
and keep'er between the lines!!!

 

we dident rev during an upshift unless our rpm had dropped significantly like 1000rpm usually we just drove till it was like 1800-2000rpm and shift at 1500 i dunno if that was this specific truck but she said its for alot of em usually at 1000-1200rpm it wouldent go into gear itd just grind till it eventually fell in but at 1500 it popped right in usually with no sound or the occasional click

 

lol, why bother.

just grind em till you find em


LOL

 

Wow! It sound like you have great trainers(sarcastic statement). They should ecplain this stuff to you not just throw you in a simulator and let you go. Shifting a truck is nothing like a car, trucks don't have synchronisers like a car. You have to synchronize the transmission speed(road speed) with the engine speed while shifting up or down.

My instructors taught us the basic about shifting first before we got in a truck. Then our first day on the road they taught us how to shift in the truck on the road. We all got it pretty good the first day.

Upshifting: accelerate until you tach is at about 1500 on level ground and depress the clutch a couple inches until you gan pull it out of gear then release the clutch. Line up your next gear and start putting a little pressure on the stick towards that gear(not enough to grind) and deppress the clutch until it falls in, then release the clutch and repeat for every gear on the upshift. Now if you going uphill you are going to loose speed when you let of the accelerator pedal so you get it up to aroun 1700 or 1800 depending on the incline. On a downhill you need to shift a little early so you don't pick up to much road speed to mesh with you engine speed so shift at 1300 or so depending on the downgrade. If you do get a little high in the tack and can't get it in the gear, you can either skip to the next gear or just slow the truck down a little with the breaks before shifting. But like it was previously said in this thread try not to downshift on a hill unless you must.

Downshifting: downshifting is a little more complicated than upshifting. When you are in a gear and you are cruising with your tach around 1500 and its time to start downshifting, first you need to slow the truck down so when you go into a lower gear you are not going to fast for it. slow the truck speed down until the tach is at about 1000 rpm(once again this differs for up and downhill, uphill you don't need to slow as much unless you intend to skip a gear so downshift at 1200 or 1300, downhill you are going to need to slow more, around 800 rpm or so). When your slowing down and you tach is around the right speed, deprss the clutch and pull it out of gear, then emediatlly line up the next gear as you are releasing the clutch,(here is the go up 300 part that you obviously intelligent instructor did not explain) press the accelerator quickly to make the engine rev to around 1300 to 1500 rpm, and depress the clutch again and put in the lower gear and release the clutch.

Summery:
Upshift level ground - accelerate to 1500 rpm and clutch to neutral and then clutch to gear

Downshift level ground - slow down until the tach read 1000 rpm, clutch to neutral, release clutch and rev to 1300 to 1500 rpm and clutch to lower gear.

This is the way it was put to me when i learned to shift my first day. It is really a lot easier to shift if you know how the proccess works and why you have to have it at certain rpms to shift and downshift. Oh and by the way you should never have to rev it to 2300 ro more rpm.

 

Find out what your operating range is...1500 to 2000; 1300 to 1800 etc.

Then find your up shift drop and down shift rev...400 drop; 500 rev etc.

So, If my operating range is 1500 to 2000 rpms and my up shift drop is 400, down shift rev is 500...To up shift for instance, I would take my shifter out of gear at 1900 rpms and place into neutral while aligning with the next highest gear. Then I would shift into the next highest gear once my rpms dropped to 1500 rpms. To down shift, I would take my shifter out of gear at 1500 rpms and place into neutral while aligning with the next low gear. Then I would rev 500 rpms to 2000 and shift into the low gear. I'm a newbie, so I shift using the double-clutch method, but you may also float your shifter. Some say this decreases the wear and tear on your clutch.

 

how fast are you going when you try and shift? slow the truck down with the brakes first, until you just about feel it bogging down, and then take it out of gear , rev the engine according to how fast you're moving (the faster your moving the higher you have to rev) and it should then slip into gear.

 

OK, real newbie here. In school currently. I've asked this of the instructors once or twice but not getting real clear answers. Slyydady says find out what the op-range is ... ok, how do you do that if you've never been in a truck before (or in that truck before)?

Once you've got that, how do you figure out what the RPM drop and rev should be, again talking about a truck you've never even sat in before? The school is nice
enough (not to mention it helps save their trannies) to hand out a sheet listing, for each truck we'll be driving the op-range, the drops and revs, and even a couple of skip shift points.

I'm just not clear on how I figure this all for myself if (when!) I need to. Do I just beat up the boss mans tranny until I get it? How do you guys do it?

And for skip shifts, how exactly do you pro's do it? If you want to drop down to (let's say) 10mph and 1200rpm before going 10th to 4th; how much off the accelerator versus use the brake pedal do you use to get it down to 10mph? When, as you're doing that do you take it out of 10th, and line it up for 4th?

Maybe I'll get this as I spend more time learning but right now I just can't quite get my brain in gear (sorry, bad pun) with it.

Thanks