Downshifting Question

It takes a lot of time and practice.That old truck probably has a lot of wear already on the transmission.Just shift towards the gear you are going to and use light pressure,if it grinds slightly rase the rpms and it should drop right into gear.Double clutch for awhile and soon you will see the right rpm it likes and you can just shift without the clutch.It takes time but you will learn.

 

I don't use the clutch. A light increase in rpm as you take it out of gear and another to get it in the lower gear. I rarely grind gears, absolutely hate it when it happens. It's all about feel and sound. You'll get it.

 

Try shifting at 1500-1650. Higher for heavy loads. Practice with a light load. It should drop into the next gear around 1200-1350. That’s ok fir most newer engines. Heavy Loads usually require a little higher RPMs. You’ll figure that out quick, once you get the basics down practicing with light loads. Light loads are much more forgiving. Heavy loads can damage a driveline, if you’re not careful.

 

Make sure your jake is off and that will help and split the gears down all the way. It gives you good practice using it and it keeps the gears close enough you rarely have an issue.

 

Can't find 'em, grind 'em,,,the biggest mistake people have with downshifting, is they over rev the motor. As road speed drops off between shifts, it may only take 2 or 300 rpms, not 4 or 500, like you mention. Just when you get it down, they'll switch to automatics. Don't worry, you won't hurt the transmission much, they can take a lot.

 

EVERYONE usually pushes the clutch too deep, which activates the clutch brake, which makes it hard to get into gear when downshifting. EVERYONE has more trouble downshifting than upshifting until "it clicks" and you get about 90% better in one day.
Carefully note exactly how much RPM difference there is between gears. Do this for the low-range and also the high-range. In most of my trucks the low-range difference between gears was about 300 RPM. The high-range diference between gears was 500-600 RPMs.
What I mean by difference between gears is the following. Say you are in 4th gear, that's in low-range most likely. Smoothly and slowly wen you get into 4th gear add a tiny amount of throttle and SLOWLY accelerate until you normally would upshift. While holding your road speed (odometer) exactly steady, no variation, ZERO. Now look at your RPMs and your speedometer.Memorize both numbers. Slow down a little, like the middle of the RPM range for 4th gear and begin a slow accleration toward the RPM where you shift to 5th gear, hopefully that is also in low-range. Shift into 5th gear and then speed up or slow down SLOWLY until you are exactly the road speed (speedometer) you had at the top RPM for 4th gear. That's to say at that speed you could maintain that speed by using lots of RPMs in 4th gear or you could maintain the same speed but be in 5th gear. The RPM difference while you maintain that EXACT roadspeed will be the RPM increment between low-range gears. Memorize that RPM difference in your truck. Now do the same thing in 2 high-range gears, say about 15-20 miles per hour faster than when you were in low-range gears. The difference in RPMs to maintain an EXACT speed in high-range gears will be your high-range increment. It will likely be slightly higher than your low-range RPM increment.

First thing to do is just use only enough clutch to slip out of gear and no more. You might only use 15-25% of the clutch travel.Most people will push the clutch AT LEAST 50-75%, which is just going to make it more difficult to downshift. If you use the clutch, now is not the time to start learning to float the gears, or use no clutch. If you are already floating the gears, you might try using the clutch, remember just barely enough clutch, for downshifting. I would bet you are using too much clutch, I did, and everyone I know also used too much as newbies.

 

True. I was picturing him trying to float. Some trucks have a kick out switch for the jake on the clutch and if you leave the jake on it’ll help you see where you need to push the clutch to when the jake deactivates.

 

Been driving stick the last two years and this what i do I found the easiest….fyi It also the wrong way but it rides extremely smooth
Ok this how i downshift….








i don’t , ever. I never touch the clutch unless pulling off or stopping for a redlight (and rarely touch it to stop just rev up to take out gear )

I float up and let it fall in gear , when traffic stops or slows down I take it out gear and let it roll , if it speeds up I find the gear , it will find itself if you learn the right direction to put it in. Once I learned it I never grinder or harsh shift just be real easy on gas when you doing it until it’s in gear and you’ll barely feel it fall in gear. The trick is to never overrev

 

Not downshifting is a bad shortcut. It's not necessary to downshift every gear as one slows, for example if you are approaching a red light and know you are stopping. You can leave it in gear and only downshift just before you lug the engine so you downshift half as much. When I'm in an unfamiliar truck for the first time I have coasted in neutral. I learned, if you are going to coast, it's better to push the clutch in rather than yank the gear lever to neutral and free roll out of gear. Short cuts work sometimes, some are illegal, all of them produce bad habits. If someone important rides with you you'll likely want to try the "DOT way" but you won't have enough practice doing it that way so you may be judged as not much of a driver.