Downshifting at 800 - 1100 RPM

And swatting your cup out of the holder, trying to find the shifter.

 

Do not float the gears on your cars transmission the synos will not last long doing that. The heavy truck transmission if done correctly it ill not hurt.

 

lol, dieselwrangler. So true, i keep reaching for the shifter still find myself reaching for my brownie tower in my personal truck , even after all these years... I still drive my f-350 like a big truck , just habit.

To sdaniel , very good point i forgot to include that. Thanks.

 

Sure you can float a car but I would save that until one has mastered floating a truck. Like JimRoy said a car has synchros made out of brass and are expensive to change. They don't take well to grinding the gears as they can crack in two. It's been awhile back but there was three of us were about two hours from home when my clutch fork rusted a hole in my old '74 pickup. The push rod had nothing to push against. My friends were like we're screwed, lol. I said no problem. We rolled her off and I floated the gears perfectly. The only obstacle I had was about 7 red lights when we got home. Luckily I timed them all right and we made it to the house. I wouldn't make a habit of it but it can be done.


To the OP Steve the 1100 and 1500 is just your trainers idea. That's more of a little tighter shifting for a more experienced driver. When I went through school I was taught 1000 and 1600. This is just to get you started. Later on you might find yourself doing 1200 to 1500. The less revving you do the better the fuel mileage and you are easier on the drive train. A sweet spot is more like knowing the cam on your engine and peak torque where you can get the most out of the engine.

About the road speed thing to simplify explaining with a little stretching.... imagine your rear drive tires turning which turns the drive shaft. Not only does your drive shaft turn the rear wheels when you are coasting the rear wheels are turning the drive shaft. Now imagine a gear on the end of that drive shaft turning with it. It's going to spin in correlation with the rear tires.

Now on the other end is the engine with a gear off the crank shaft. You try to mesh these gears they won't because they are spinning different speeds The closer they get to the same speed you start grinding them. When they are spinning the same speed they slide smoothly together. So this is your goal is to get the gears spinning the same speed. When you change gears you go to a different gear size. So naturally a smaller gear has to spin faster. This is where throttle adjustments come into play. The whole purpose of double clutching is when shifting, first clutch is to seperate the gears and give the engine gear a chance to slow down the gear to match the one next in the transmission, then clutch and and put them together.

One reason starting out going down hill you have to shift quicker is gravity making that drive shaft gear spin quicker. Just the opposite starting out up hill as you are fighting gravity where that gear will slow quicker.

The main thing new drivers do is they tend to over rev. Go lighter on your bumps until you get the hang of it. Starting out learning is why one tells a student about a 600 rpm spread on the tach is because they do over rev. Try 1000 and 1600 for awhile until you start improving. It's alot easier to start a student that way and as he improves he can work on progressive shifting. Meanwhile try to remember your road speed in correlation to what gear you are in. What gear do I take turns in and such. Double shifting try 700 and 1600.

Eventually you'll get good enough it's second nature and you don't have to think much about it. You'll shift by sounds and your surroundings. Practice makes perfect. There is no rushing learning how to shift. It's more like progressive learning over a year or so. You'll learn how to shift in the next 6-8 weeks. But it will take a year to get decent and about 2-3 years to master.

 

Your best bet in mastering your shifting is to do it by sound. Not staring at your dashboard/rpm's! The less you wind out the engine the easier it is going to be to shift. The higher you run up the rpm's the longer you have to wait until you drop it in gear. The less you run up the rpm's the quicker you can drop it in gear. Whenever you are shifting and the engine fan kicks on you will also have to drop in gear quicker because the fan draws power and runs the rpm's down faster.

I think most newbies get too technical with shifting and its just a simple art of timing and rhythm. Ultimately its best to shift as soon as possible without revving up the rpm's or winding out the motor. This makes shifting easier and fuel consumption less. You aren't in a race, take your time, up shift as low as possible without bogging down the motor.

Same with down shifting. The faster you are going or the higher you are in a gear the more you will have to rev up the rpm's when you take it out of gear and drop down to the next. The the truck slow, let each gear run down toward the bottom the you just have to slightly rev and drop it in. Of course you want to do the opposite when climbing a steep grade and you want to grab the next lowest gear as soon as possible. So as soon as your rpm's start dropping just enough, rev it up high and hit the next lowest gear so that you aren't losing any power or speed.

Hope this helps and isn't too confusing.

 

yea you can feel and sense it too

after awhile it all just happens

 

That's what I was talking about. I couldn't tell you the RPMs... I'd do it by the engine sound. Never fails.

 

about the only time i look at the tach sometimes is to make sure i'm in top gear

 

I did not notice anyone directly addressing your question. The reason you can pull it out of a higher gear, not change the RPM and it will go in to a lower gear is that while you were in neutral the truck slowed down. This could be because of excessive time in neutral on level ground, or because of an incline along with possibly excessive time in neutral for the incline.

As a training method I will not comment, but in the overall scheme of shifting, while not necessarily false, it is not the entire truth either. Consider RPM difference as more true, and the difference needed can change due to external factors, or you can change the difference needed with your shifting methods.

Best regards

 

The key to shifting, as some have stated, is nothing but timing. Forget the numbers on the dash! Mastering timing is nothing but experience! It changes more than can be typed on any forum.

Uphill upshifts, downhill don't shift!

Uphill downshifts! Very hard for newby drivers. The road speed drops so quickly you may need to drop two gears. If you miss it, you may need to just come to a stop and start over.

Upshifting in snow. Your engine RPM is topping out, but road speed is nil. Where do you match that for floating the gears? Heheheheeee

The key is to not get flustered. You passed the licensing exam so you have a bit more than minimal ability. Take your time and learn. I have had a few times when I missed gears, lost where I should be, and had to just stop and start over.

If you don't hit anything, or anyone, then you are still golden! Pride blemished but not broken.

Mikeeee