Is it safe to flip the gear selector switch while in neutral?

its always safer if truck is in gear dont take the easy way out learn to skip gears on the downshift .i see so many guys brake hard at last minute and fumble for a gear when light changes .. PS learning to downshift on the flats will pay dividends in the hills it will become 2nd nature

 

I would not go out off gear at 30,like others have allready said.
3 reasons:
1°better control off your rig,specially in winter.
2°most gearboxes have a safety that stops low range from working at a certain speed.
If you flip the switch (while coasting)and the safety is not working...................
3°you will work your brakes hard with that driving style.

Let's put it like this,if i saw one off my drivers doing what you do,there would be only 1 warning.

 

everyone seems to forget about the auto fail at the dmv
of coasting into a stop light

 

Wasn't the OP's question but yes, these guys are right.... coasting in N is a bad habit and you should break it. Basically you're taking the lazy way out rather than learning how to skip gears on the down shifts.

 

I have some stoplights in a 55 mph zone in a city I go through. When the light ahead of me is a stale red light, but I don't know when it will turn green, and I have to use the brakes to slow down, I leave the truck in gear until I slow down to 15 mph and then shift to 6th gear. If the light does not turn green by the time I get to it, then, I flip the splitter to the low side, brake some more and shift to the low side. If the light does turn green by the time I get there I can hit the throttle and be on my way.


If I am headed towards a stale green light and it turns red, there will not be any time to downshift and braking will be needed, and I know I will need to be in the low range, so I flip the splitter to the low side as I am braking, as I know I will have to be in the low range. If I am loaded, I go 10 mph below the speed limit coming up to the stale green light so I don't have to hit the brakes as hard if it turns red on me.

I much prefer a stale red light over a stale green light as you simply do not know when that green will go to yellow/red. Some states have count down timers on their stoplights which is really a nice feature so you know when that light will be changing.

 

I would just run the red light seems like less trouble!

 

Flipping the range shift should not do anything while in gear in the roadranger. The air cylinder activating the range shift is blocked by a slave cylinder (valve) until the transmission passes through neutral. The range shift only happens in a when the shifter is moved through neutral position. That is why Eaton tells you to preload the range shift; nothing is supposed to happen until the shifter moves past neutral.

The splitter is different. There is no valve or slave cylinder blocking that shift. Playing with that can load the shift cylinder and initiate a shift when ever the trans is unloaded.

 

I think that's is what the OP was asking.....To paraphrase the OP, "Is it Ok to flip the range lever while the stick is in neutral?". He is not pre-selecting the range.

 

Waste of fuel? Hmm not sure why that would be. You are still coasting....just coasting in gear instead of in neutral. You should be able to drop 3-4 gears at a time in a 13 OD.

As an example try this: Lug the engine down to 800-900, flip splitter and lever shift from 13 straight toward the dash into 10. Lug down to 800-900 again and lever shift from 10 to 6. Lug it down again and lever shift from 6 to Lo gear (high range). By now you might be almost stopped. While you're stopped waiting for the light to change, pre-select low range and lever shift into whatever gear you want to start rolling in.

Not alot of fuel used there because most of the time you're just coasting in gear and lugging the engine down.