Downshifting help

Don't drag me down that road. I have the same opinion.

But they are out here. On the road every day.

3 man teams, never run out of hours.....ever. They get an additional 4 days work, for every 32 days out, over a 2 man team. Provided the loads are there.

How it pays. I have no clue.

 

###### drivers, who put the booger on the dashboard?

 

Oh yeh, I can imagine.

Getting along with one co-driver is bad enough....but 2 ??

 

We run Eaton 9's, so I'm not sure how close this would be to your truck, but for me... when I approach a turn, I get the truck around 18 - 20mph asap and drop to 4th, then, if I need to, I'll slow down and go to 3rd. For 4th (in my truck) to 3rd it's an easy blip of the throttle in most cases, if even that.

In a Eaton 10 Freightliner I was doing most turns in 5th, occasionally 4th.

 

The 2 awake can always talk about the guy sleeping.
My (and most) trainers make you sleep on the top bunk. That was tough.

 

My students got the top bunk, when we were parked. But if I drove and they slept for any reason. It was bottom bunk ONLY.

 

that was one of the questions in the trainer eval. at USA.

 

I've actually met people who took a dive off the top bunk.

One:

Wife was driving, husband broke foot on the shifter, when she got down in the brakes.

My opinion, he was lucky they weren't removing it from his chest.

The guy swore he could not sleep on the bottom bunk, while it was in motion. So he slept up top. Claimed the extra rocking helped him sleep.

 

Kind of depends on what you want to spend on fuel. I average 6.75 MPG loaded to 79500. I run Bakersfield to Vegas, LA, Flag, etc. even with the mountains and grossed out 80 to 90 % of the time I still average 6.75 to 7 MPG. I use my jakes, but for down hills, not city driving. Jakes cut into your fuel, at 2.00+ per gallon, Id rather save the fuel.