Needing Some Serious Helpful Advice....

So would CDL School - orientarion be easier if you already mastered Shift stick in a car or civilian truck? I had the same problem as the OP

 

Not really. Cars and pickups have fully synchronized transmissions, North American heavy trucks do not. We're actually kinda lagging behind the Europeans on that.

 

Except in orientation they don't want you floating. They treat it much the same as the dot does and push use of the clutch.

Having experience with a car's transmission both helped and hurt me. I got the pattern down faster as a whole, but downshifting gave me lots of trouble.

Nowadays, I rarely use gears 1, 3, and 5 and will skip 4 gears on the downshift. It's as much about knowing how to shift as it is knowing your truck. I don't float, but I can.

 

Every truck is different to a degree downshifting. My Mac I clutched to neutral, revved it up by one punch on the accelerator pedal,and as engine slowed a bit without the clutch it slid right into whatever gear. After a while your engine will let you know by sound. Rev it up, wait a second or 2 For things to mesh and it will slide right down in. Or you can clutch to neutral, clutch to gear. With practice you'll find yourself not even using the clutch.

 

even if they say they don't want floating, you can still apply the same principal. only to get around their requirement of no floating, just barely push on the clutch at the time you shift, even if it is so slight that it doesn't affect anything. know what i mean? and on a downshift, you never really push the clutch in, at least I never have and have never had any problems.

 

You sir need a conjested highway.
Traffic will be your best trainer.
First..second...third..second...first...second...first..second..third..fourth..third...second..first...

Thank me later

 

True enough. Knew of one guy that floated the dot exam but did what you're describing to make it look like he was using the clutch.

The instructor probably knew, but I thought it was amusing.

 

Oh dear lord... I saw this before but I just took a second to think about it...

That, is funny... But you're right, the song about matches the shifting pattern.

Time to head to the Charlotte oc to see what all the fuss is about...

 

Happens to us all. I missed a gear going up a hill yesterday and one of our competitors flew right by me on the highway, honked his horn laughing and proceeded to pull into the dock I was headed for. He jumped out of his truck and said "miss a gear and that's what happens". Lol. Cost me an hour sitting there waiting for him at that dock.

My point is don't be so hard on yourself. It'll come (and go sometimes, apparently- lol)