Clutchless Shifting

I'd say the majority of drivers do this. It's all about finding your perfect RPM range. Then you just pull it out and slide it in, nice and smooth. Get your mind out of the gutter.

Whether you should do it, thats debatable. Transmission manufacturers say don't do it, most others say do it. Seeing that a lot drivers can't double clutch to save their lives, you mine as well go for it.

 

it's called "floating".

You match up rpms and road speed and it sorta slides right in. Pretty easy actually.

........... and, yeah most drivers with any real time in the truck end up doing it most of the time.

I did it all the time when I was driving. However it's one of the things that I'm really lousy at explaining. The only way I can teach someone how to do it is "watch and listen".


............... Jim

 

There are a whole bunch of arguments against it. From driving instructors to transmission manufacturers and ...... most drivers still do it.

Maybe some of the real carreer truckers like BlackW900 will chime in. Because I know that the wear and tear on a drive train from floating properly is much less than if you double clutch. Unfortunately I don't have the years of driving experience to back that up like some of the posters here do.

But, I have been around the industry for the better part of the last 25 years and, I'll say that from my expeience it tends to be true.



................ Jim

 

Sometimes the transmission itself won't allow it. If new and tight, for example. Some brands are better for floating than others, too. Eaton-Fuller seems to get with the program a lot better than Molitor.

 

I was taught to float through the gears. When I tried to double clutch, the grinding was awful. I do it in my pickup now and even my kids have been taught to do it in their cars after the tranny loosen up.

All you gotta do is learn by "feel" when the rear end, transmission, and engine are synchronized and the shift is smooth as fine Kentucky bourbon! Upshift, downshift, skip a gear on quick deceleration, it will come in time. This was on 9-10-13 and maxidine (old Mack) transmission.
Autocar had a 9 speed I drove awhile in oilfield.

You will get it...it will have a clear "feel to it".

Merlin

 

I float pretty much 99% of the time......there is that occasion when I need to double clutch.

 

You can use the clutch to disengage a gear and then float into the next and only feel half guilty.

 

I never use the clutch unless I'm sittin' at a light and need to shift into gear.
I was taught to "float" when I learned how to drive and have owned many trucks with both air shift and two stick transmissions and have "floated" them all with no damage to the gear boxes.

It is a bit of an art but it is fairly simple to learn.

I will not try to explain it to you here but find yourself a driver that knows how to do it and get a lesson or two and you'll be "floating" like the rest of us in no time.