Floating Gears

Welcome to the trucking industry, oh boy are you in for a trip lol (pun intended)
Anyways,, as far as floating gears,, this is how I do it and how I've trained student drivers in the past
the typical power curve of semis' are between 1400 and 1600 on the tach. Having said that, i'm going to say don't shift by the tach, listen to the engine. You will be able to tell when it's time to shift by the sound. When your trainer is shifting close your eyes and concentrate on the sound of the engine. Its just like martial arts,, muscle (your brain and ears) memory. When your shifting up, take the tach to around 1500 and start to pull the stick out of the gear your in, while doing this your going to have to slightly ease up on the throttle and the stick should slide right out of gear and right into the next higher one. When you get to where you have go to the high side of the tranny take it right up to 1600 till you get comfortable with the switch cause you have to do move the stick further and give a sec to flip the switch and then go through the high side like you did the low side.
Down shifting is the same thing except you might have to push down on the throttle just a bit to get the stick out of gear. Now when floating gears, if you do it smooth enough there is no reason to "bump" the throttle like you do when you double clutch. But if for some reason it doesn't just slide into the lower gear, once again, add just a little pressure to the throttle to match rpms and it will go right in.
There is not magic spell or trinket or whatever to learning how to float gears. It comes with time and practice. No amount of yelling or hollering by your trainer is going to make you learn it sooner. Tell your trainer to take a chill pill or find one with more patience.

 

So I did a test today. 15sp OO w/ a 3406b model cat. Put on some headphones so i couldn't hear the engine. No problem shifting. It's in the timing. You can use the tach or the engine sound, but it all comes down to timing your movements.

 

Never coast in neutral. You'll failed the road test by any state because they say you can lose control. There's no need to anyway.

 

^^^^ It's in the CDL book, it's not an opinion.

 

Any pics of that truck? Details, man, details!

 

I'm sorry but there is a serious problem here. When you cut out your hearing you're removing one of your senses in driving. It's fine to do that around the yard and such but not out on the road. Just reading some of the technics these driver trainers use scares me. It looks like they have very little training themselves and could use some more.

Out on the road it's much easier to be on top of the game when driving. But driving around town you need all your senses to be safe. Especially with no or some little experience as new drivers have. I would drive down the interstate and then when I came off to make a delivery I would turn the radio down and crack the window some and became much more alert.. The senses you use are hearing, seeing, feeling, and smelling.

I'll give you a situation that happened to me so you can understand better. I'm driving an over size tanker truck and trailer hauling gasoline and most of our driving is done on the surface streets. I was returning back to the loading rack to get another load. I was on a 4 lane surface street with two lanes on each side. I came up to a signal light which was also had a street with 4 lanes crossing over the intersection. On my side I was driving in the right lane and the speed limit was 45mph. I had all my senses working but the road was very dangerous, but you really couldn't tell by looking at it. Along my side was a block wall that protected the houses and cut down the sound from this well traveled street. The light was green and not stale. So I came up to the intersection with caution. On the street at 90°to my right there were very few cars stopped at the light and it had palm trees planted in the middle island for beatification and sound reduction. I could only see the few vehicles at the front of the intersection.

As I entered the intersection just as I came across the closest crosswalk an ambulance with it's red lights and siren going came into sight right in front of my truck. It was also in it's right lane across my right side so I had time and space to slow down enough to not hit it. The palm trees had deadened the sound and the wall block my sight of looking to the right as much as I would have preferred. If I did not have my senses working I would have not slowed down and there could have been a major accident.

I don't know if I would have been ticketed or not. Most likely I would have and that would have hurt. You've got to be on top of your game all the time because you never know. Even situations that are normal that give you a feeling of something might not be safe you must trust you'll feelings and take appropriate action. I was lucky that day but that is why we train so much. The company brought in the Smith System long before that and we all knew after we started to use the program it would be much safer.

 

It's a beater. That's what you drive, local dirt trucks. DOT leaves them alone for the most part. Heck nothing would get built around here otherwise.

 

Except for the show queens, every truck is a beater.

 

You could ask 10 truck drivers what is the best way to get from Atlanta to Charlotte and you will get 10 different answers and you can count on 2 or 3 of them to argue about it. My statement was whimsical I know, but my underlying point is not. In a lot of cases there is no BEST answer. The way I was taught was to listen to the engine and learn about torque. The sad thing about this topic is in another generation only a few of us grey hair old guys will even know what the term even means.

 

Boy howdy. Just jumped in this Mack belly dump. Sweet ride. Not! Gear selector is so loose good luck on finding a hole.