Ok my drive test for the school is tomorrow so wish me luck. I start with May on monday (if I ever get this money for my license, lol). I can shift a 9 speed and 10 speed because we have those at the school. I keep hearing the 13 speeds have a button that split the upper gears. I was in a truck at the school that looked like at one point in time it had a 15 speed but upper spliter was missing but it looked like it might've been a slide switch. I understand the shifting is the same as well as the down shifting. From the expirenced May drivers, what is May's set up, please? I know spliter down move through the gears to 4 or 5, spliter up and go into high up to the top gear. NOW, y'all make sure I got this right, I push in(?) (or slide) a button and start the pattern all over again? Is this correct? This is what I've gotten from a few of the instructions. Can you float the gears up that high too?

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One Jedi is not worth a hundred battledroids, more like a thousand.

The best confidence builder is experience.

A 13 is an 9 with the top four gears split. All you have to do is when you go from 4th to 5th the side lever will be back. your in 5th low .Push it fowards with your thumb let up on the gas and it will shift. you are now in 5th high (6th) Get back on the gas till you get to the the top of the rmp and flip it back down. May wants you to shift at 1300 and 1500. Move the shifter to 6th low (7th). Most people find it easiest if you think off it as 5th low/high 6th low/high ect. all the side button dose is give you a low and high side for 5th-8th. It's called a splitter because it "splits" those gears. Before you do anything tell the tester you want to take a minute a see where everything is in that truck. look at the shifter and you will see the pattern for that tranny. This is what smart drivers do. And is what the tester is looking for. he won't help you. he's there to make sure you can drive. And yes May expects you to come out of school KNOWING how to drive. They don't have trainers. They have "Mentors" who's job it if to show you how May wants things done. He isn't there to teach you how to drive. You won't be with him but about 7-10 days.

If you had never driven that particular transmission before, and it was vastly different than any transmission you'd ever driven before, it would seem more like you'd be an inexperienced, experienced driver ---
but just wouldn't admit it. Right or wrong.

I sure hope they don't ask you to fly an airplane.

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Pontificating Dogmatist

I sure hope so to. Cause I'm no pilot. I am a professional Drive. With the right license for that job.

If your INexperienced in how to operate the tranny on a truck then you can hardly call your self an EXperienced drive. If I hired some one who had 5-10-15 yrs of experience driving truck. I would expect them to be able to operated ANY tranny I had in my trucks and to back up ANY size trailer I had. Trannys are not that different from each other. Would you except the excuse from a driver who just backed up over your hood that he has been driving 5 yrs but this is the 1st time that he has backed up a 20 foot pup? He's use to a 53'. Or that he can't back up a trl with a tri-axle. I sure as heck won't.

I know the controls of locomotive, does that count? I know for a locomotive engineer it takes about year and half of training to become an engineer for Amtrak, I don't know the other railroads, I'm sure it similar. Amtrak sends you to Choo-choo U in Willmington, DE for 6 weeks initially and then you go back to your crew base and train w/ other engineers for a year and half.

__________________
One Jedi is not worth a hundred battledroids, more like a thousand.

The best confidence builder is experience.

Ok so let me get this straight, on a 13 speed, you shift up to the gears when flip up the splitter, we'll say fifth to make it clear for me, then you when you go to 6th, between 1300-1500 rpms (it's the way we're trained at the school) you slide the slider/spliter back, then going to 7th-slide it forward, 8th slide it back, blah blah blah, Do I have it right? Do I pull the shifter out when I slide the slider and put it back into gear? Or d oI just leave it in? Now do I do the same thing down shifting? Letting the rpms drop to about 1100 to 1300, slide the slider whatever direction for the gear I'm going into, rev the rpms up about 1500 to 1700 and drop into that lower gear? Do I have this correct? Can you float the gears on the May trucks? Does the May tester want to see me double clutch, or does it matter?

I totally understand looking for the gear patterns when you get in the truck. I do to any vehicle I get in. I don't care who ya are, that's part of controling the vehicle and you can't move the vehicle without knowing how the vehicle moves forward and backwards, lol. Thank you for your info.

__________________
One Jedi is not worth a hundred battledroids, more like a thousand.

The best confidence builder is experience.

They did hook it up to the computer and that is how they found the overspeed code.

I also ran into the previous driver of that truck because I was sitting in the yard on a break and he asked how is it running and I told him about the turbo issues.

His response to me was they still have not fixed the truck? I told them about it several times.

#1 Shift the low range gears like you do in any truck pull up the range slector and go to the next gear take it up to 1500rpm

#2 then slide the splitter switch forward go to 1500rpm again

#3 then slide the splitter back and move the shifter to the next hole take it to 1500 again

#4 then just keep repeating steps 2,3 that until you run out of gears

So i don't have to shift the gear shift out and back in when using the slider, just clutch them? or float them? Down shifting the same?

__________________
One Jedi is not worth a hundred battledroids, more like a thousand.

The best confidence builder is experience.

Nope!
I'd call them careless.
Maybe even dangerous, if a driver with 5 years "experience" backed a 20' pup over or into ANYthing.
Get
Out
And
Look
Is such a simple concept.
And I'd expect ANYone with ANY Big truck truck drivin' "experience"
to do exactly that --- ESPECIALLY with equipment they're not familiar with.

Other than job-hopping, how do you suggest a Big truck truck driver get
the "experience" driving ALL the different transmissions and equipment there are
to be found?
Or, are they destined to be below your "experienced" standards
for their entire career?
And, according to YOUR standards, never reach the lofty perch of an
"experienced" Big truck truck driver, such as yourself?
Or, do you admit that you're NOT an "experienced" driver?

It seems, by YOUR standards, MOST Big truck truck drivers are
"inexperienced". Would your definition of "experienced" also include
twin-sticks? And, if so, which truckin' companies run them now-a-daze?
How about an old chain drive truck?
Electric trucks?

Following your logic, if a Big truck truck driver hasn't driven an Oskosh with a 6x6,
hauling a 100,000 pound transformer up a narrow, winding, dirt, mountain road, ......
they'd be considered "inexperienced".
Have YOU done that?
Unless you have driven EVERY possible type and combination of vehicle(s)
there are out there, wouldn't YOU, also, be considered "inexperienced" ---
by your OWN standards?

IMO, there are different levels of "experience". And I sure wouldn't
consider a Big truck truck driver with 5 years behind the wheel
pulling only 48' or 53' box trailers "inexperienced".
Nor would I call that driver "inexperienced" if they had only driven a few different
transmission types.
LIMITED "experience" would seem, to me, to be a better description.

If I were the owner of a truckin' company, and a new employee with
NO "experience" with the equipment I ran claimed it was no problem
for them to just jump in and drive it, and they made even the SLIGHTEST mistake,
they'd still be lookin' for a job.
Overconfidence can be a killer.
So can cockiness.
And those full of bovine excrement --- need not apply.
Just because a driver SAYS they can, don't make it so.
I've heard newBees, fresh outta drivin' school claim
I can drive ANYthing.

Now, if they admitted they had no "experience" in my type of equipment, I'd
go out of my way to insure they received the proper instruction.
Mainly because if there were ANY mishap with them behind the wheel,
I'd consider it to be, at least partly --- if not entirely, MY fault for
allowing them to be in a position to cause that mishap.

But to paint a Big truck truck driver with years of "experience" with
certain equipment as totally "inexperienced" is, IMO, not accurate.
Perhaps they're "inexperienced" in certain equipment, and capable of
learning how to properly operate said equipment, but I wouldn't label
them totally "inexperienced".
Give credit where credit is due.

Instead of using the words "experienced" and/or "inexperienced",
I prefer the words 'seasoned' and/or 'well seasoned' to describe their
"experience" level.

And I'm well aware that some Big truck truck drivers are more naturally
inclined to be quick(er) learners than others.
HaiL! ..............
I've known drivers with only a few years driving a Big truck who are
superior to some who have driven a Big truck for decades. I believe that
has to do with their aptitude, and attitude.
And I've NEVER met a know-it-all who actually did, including those who
re-define words to make themselves sound better than they really are, ---
and/or to give the impression that others are beneath them in ability.

In conclusion, would you suggest that a Big truck truck driver with,....
oh,....... say, 10 years of steering wheel holding write in "INEXPERIENCED" on an application that asks
Level of "Experience"? ----
Rather than relate that there is equipment that they have
no "experience" with and/or in?

If so, wouldn't claiming to be "experienced" actually be a lie,
and subject that driver to immediate disqualification?

And how about "experience" operating the equipment they'd be hauling, --- including, but not limited to
Personal watercraft,
Snowmobiles,
Boats,
and motorcycles --- up and down split ramps into and/or
out of a standard flat-floor freight trailer?
How many one million dollar, custom, calendar motorcycles have you,
personally had "experience" with?
One, even LITTLE, scratch on the gold-plated brake rotor, and you'd
"experience" termination.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again,
Give credit where credit is due.

I seriously doubt you, or ANYone else, can just jump into equipment
that you're/they're not familiar with, and operated it as well as someone
with more "experience" with said equipment.
And that would make you/them "INexperienced" ---
until you/they can.

__________________
Pontificating Dogmatist