Gear Recovery

Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by Hip Hugger, Jul 12, 2014.

  1. Lepton1

    Lepton1 Road Train Member

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    Sorry for the pending boldface, but I think this part is very important and trumps the set list of speed versus gears:

    1. Every truck will be set up differently for speed versus gear.

    As a company driver over the course of the last 14 months I've driven seven trucks. Most were set up similarly with 8 speeds (plus granny low), one was a 10 speed, and one was a 13 speed. Obviously an 8 speed will have very different gear for speed versus a 13 speed.

    Beyond that each truck had it own little quirks. One '12 Cascadia would not necessarily like to start out in 1100 rpm in a gear while another would feel fine at 1000 rpm with a given load on level ground. Some had the computer programs set so I could easily rev up to 1700 rpm when pulling a hill and drop to 1200, while others "hit the wall" at 1500 rpm's consistently and make it more difficult to climb hills and upshift.

    2. The gear you select at a given speed will be determined by whether you want to be slowing down when you enter the gear or maintaining and building speed.


    If I am recovering a gear and simply want to maintain speed, I may get into 5th (in an 8 speed) at 15-18 mph, but may want to get into 4th if I want engine compression to be slowing me down.

    Get to know the RANGE of speed per gear in YOUR truck.
     
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  3. Starboyjim

    Starboyjim Road Train Member

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    It does work, but you should figure two gears, since by the time you do the arithmetic more stuff will have happened.

    Let's see: 1A + 1B / 2A - 2B = C x 1A + 2A / (1AB x 2AB)
     
  4. turnanburn

    turnanburn Medium Load Member

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    Learn to shift by the tach, then sound and feel, and then when you can do that start to pay attention to the road speed. "Doing math" is too much for a student/new driver. Starboyjim is right--stuff is happening rather quickly. That's just my 2 cents, and Ive taught a lot of students that way.
     
  5. Hip Hugger

    Hip Hugger Bobtail Member

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    I realize all that this is useless as tits on a boar hog in real life, just trying to get this homework done.


    By the way, I thought the correct formula was this;
    projectile-motion-formulas.PNG

     
  6. turnanburn

    turnanburn Medium Load Member

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    Yes, but the elliptical arc is composed of two radii that change when you start to mess around with float shifting, so don't get too comfy.
     
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  7. Ridgeline

    Ridgeline Road Train Member

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    You guys and the instructor are overthinking this by trying to condition you to a specific trans. You need to learn how to learn the truck quickly.

    You learn how to shift by the tach.

    Remember that your first few miles in a new truck will tell you what your rpm spread is when you go through all the gears (example the 13 speed I drove monday has a 200 rpm spead between gear splits and 400 between gears). I can figure out how that truck drives within a mile or two.

    Each type of trans has a spread that can be easily learned, 10 speed, 13 or 18 or 9 speeds. Once you understand how to figure out what that all means, then you can quickly figure out how to select the gear for the load to downshift or even up shift.
     
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  8. okiedokie

    okiedokie Road Train Member

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    Grind them to ya find them.
     
  9. bigdogpile

    bigdogpile Road Train Member

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    Sometimes gear recovery starts after you stop...I missed a gear down shifting pulling 80k up the southbouth part of the grapevine in the number 3 lane,and tried to recover as the weight was pulling me back..complete panic that I put on the 4 ways and brought it to a complete stop and started my recovery from 1st gear..Was I supposed to admit to that on a public forum? thank God that was 18 years ago...lol
     
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  10. Lepton1

    Lepton1 Road Train Member

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    Of course the ultimate gear recovery is to set the parking brakes, walk back, and pick them up off the road...
     
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  11. rank

    rank Road Train Member

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    depends on whether you're gaining speed or losing it.
     
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