shifting uphill from a stop with heavy load

Yes sir. This is how you shift uphill. Fast and smooth. Come to San Francisco. Great place to practice

 

Hi PB, slightly off topic, but about that "driveshaft like a pretzel". I knew a guy that worked at a truck garage, he said a guy came in, and said there was a terrible vibration. My friend said, "pull it in". When he looked underneath, the driveshaft was "corkscrewed " like a drill bit. He never saw anything like it. He couldn't believe it didn't fall out.

 

I suggest the opposite. I haul 140,000 and when I started it scared the #### outta me starting on a incline. 1st gear is just meant to het you rolling and you don't ever need to bring up the rpms in that gear..... the higher the rpm in the first 3 gears, the harder to take it out of gear.

Look up progressive shifting. Same applies here but you may add a couple extra rpm before shifting and as stated do your shift count twice as fast, I don't see any reason to bring a truck to 1500 in the first couple gears at all.

But that's just my heavy haul experience.

 

Don't rev 1st.... That's where you're running into problems. Once you get rolling, you can slightly tap on the throttle and float it to 2nd.

 

[QUOTE="semi" retired;4374149]Hi heyns, you can use the clutch brake, but I've found that puts a lot of strain on the clutch brake. The clutch brake is mainly for stopping the gears when going from neutral to 1st gear. I've seen drivers tear the clutch brake right out of it. Ever wonder why some clutch brakes don't work? That's why.[/QUOTE]
With the transmission going through neutral, the only wear on the clutch brake is the inertia of the input shaft. I always assumed drivers abused the clutch brake by coasting with the clutch fully depressed and the transmission in a gear, trying to stop the entire rig with the clutch brake.

Also, I don't understand these recommendations for shifting faster. If the truck is slowing more than it would on level ground, the driver shifts slower waiting for the rpm to drop enough to catch the next gear at the slower than normal road speed.

 

Dont go wide open throttle..in the first few gears, use about half throttle rev to 1500 rpms clutch then only allow rpms to drop back to 1300 before going to next gear. Dont do one clean jerk...it is a rapid bump bump.

 

It seems to me like you need to ask your trainer a few questions. That is why he is a so called "trainer." Of course if he is just a rookie training another rookie, good luck to both of you. I hope there is not a communications problem here between you and your trainer.

You are getting a lot of advice on here, of course some of it is conflicting, as truckers can't agree on anything. As an example, somebody said something about using your jake break. To me, this sounds totally wrong, turn the darn thing off and leave it off until you need it.

As far as starting out in second, I would think that really is going to depend on your truck, gearing and engine size. But again, ask your trainer, particularly if it is HIS truck. You don't need to find yourself beside the road trying to thumb a ride home, because he kicked you off for abusing his equipment!

 

Sorry to disagree some what with yours, although you are correct, progressive shift is great, that's how I shift, but using RPM can be done easily if you know how, someone with little experience may have a easier time with RPM shifting? But this is just a guess, progressive shift wasn't heard of when I started, at least? With the people I know, and who taught me to drive, but I learned back in the early 80's

 

I agree. Leaving the jakes on makes it very easy to blow shifts when your new..... #### I even have a hard time shifting with jakes on....... probably why I bought a auto.

To add to what you said about starting in 1st or second.... I guess it depends what he's calling 1st, I call bull low bull low but it was also refered to as 1st..... if that's the case once again, I have trouble shifting from low to 1st uphill. .... if you add rpm.... good luck. Hahaha

 

Although I don't do heavy haul anymore, I have never needed first gear with legal weight loads, 1st gear is below reverse, I've been barely legal, and have no problem getting it to roll from a stop on a hill