How to learn manual transmission?

Personal preference, most companies have gone to auto's. Maintence is less for the comoany, new trucks probably get better fuel milega out of the auto as well. I personally prefer manual, but here at Heartland I will probably not be issued a new tractor they seem to be autos, but a amazing number of the current drivers only drive autos anyway. So Iam glad they keep buying companies that have manuals in there fleets, keeps a bank of manuals that need the mileage finished off.
If you want to go auto, go auto. I dont believe it will hold you back in anyway, autos are the way th industry has been going for the last 20 years anyway.

 

I think hard going by sound for new drivers because you’re not maxing out the engine RPMs . Plus you want the engine at max torque when pulling hills or just use everything every gear has. If you miss the max torque RPMs when pulling hills it won’t pull the next lower gear. The higher the RPMs that harder it is to match the gears. You can tell a new driver or explain they are shifting to fast because they did not let RPMs drop enough and that’s why it won’t in gear. They can be too slow and miss the gear also. So then they just need to bring up the RPMs a little.

If someone can do it by sound it better but it pretty for a new driver usually. I’m surprised most people never explain the 400 RPMs step between gears.

 

Without looking at the tach every time you shift, there is nothing left to go by but sound. This process is either going to be visual or it is going to be audible, or a combination of both. NO, a green driver needs to learn how to do this at least at first by observing the tach, but at some point, they need to learn those sounds. It's hard to explain, but after decades of driving, shifting becomes muscle memory, and I did it without thinking about it.

I know I am not the only pilot who uses TTR. This reminds me so much of learning how to land an airplane. There is an aviation maxim that goes A CFI's job is to show you how to land an airplane and protect you and the aircraft while you master how to do it. Operating a manual transmission vehicle is like this. You have to master the process. It's not something you will do overnight. It takes time. It is not like doing brain surgery; it's not complicated, it's just something that has to be done correctly.

 

One fleet owner back in the 80s said the smoothest driver he ever hired was a retired drummer. Had rhythm down pat. Only truck I ever watched the tach at all was a VNL I drove for a while. It was so quiet I couldn’t hear the engine good enough to shift smoothly right after I got it lol. Used the tach first couple of days, after that, drove by feel and the little bit of engine noise it made.