Floating Gears

Floating gears gets to be second nature after a few months or years, depending. Most of us long term drivers know when to shift by feel, not by looking at the tach. Same goes for speed. I know when I am going over the speed limit without looking at the speedometer

Of course when using a different tractor often with a different motor, one makes adjustments.

Some motors rev up and slow down faster then others, so that will make a difference in when to shift floating gears and you often end up having to feather the gas pedal on some rigs and not on others.

 

That's correct. It shows everyone that can hear you that you don't know much about the truck.

 

Yup, I couldn't agree more. I'd also like to add, that a properly executed double clutch DOES NOT put added wear on the clutch(something I hear from super-truckers that ONLY use the clutch to start and stop)

 

Shotgunning = letting rpm's fall too fast and missing, then having to rev back up to hit the gear again.


What kajidono is talking about is simply rev matching the next gear when floating while upshifting. If you were to run the jakes and float, for example, it gets the transmission to take/release the gear. If you don't do it, you get the shift followed by the BRRR of the jakes, or a rough jumping. Chances are it's something that is done so commonly, that people don't think about it. When I shift, I do not take my foot off the pedal, ever, there is always a little bit of a press on it so I can get the gear to release, and so that the next gear engages smoothly.

If I were to divide the pedal into 10ths, with normal acceleration it would be:
Engage clutch... accelerate until desired speed/rpm is reached, ease up on throttle to release gear, then ease up until there is about 1/10th of the throttle still pressed, while moving the stick into the next gear at the proper rpm.

The shift is still one fluid motion, the gears just disengage and engage softer.

At least that is what I was reading... that is what I had to teach my co-driver to do because his slamming and jerking gears when I met him was just ridiculous.

 

I am going to try using that method for upshifting, how do you do your downshifts then?

 

Just rev up until it matches. Make sure you're going slow enough to get into the lower gear first though.

 

There I went and did it again today. Trying to drop a gear on a ten speed at 65mph, lol.

 

lol... You could hit it though, just need to get up to what, 3500 rpm? Higher than I ever go with the rpm's in any case, lol.

 

Not happening with a cat engine, lol.