Low gear

I've been hauling a quad chip trailers for a while now, and before that was hauling b-train tankers but something has left me a little curious:

I see a lot of guys who don't use low gear starting off. We all regularly haul maximum weight (55,000kg), and I see these guys starting off in first or second and having the clutch making the truck "jump/hop" while loaded. I'm one of the few who actually will bother to start off in low gear. Am I the odd one out here or are some of these seasoned guys just getting lazy about it?

I know it's a pain to start off in low but it seems to me that it would be significantly easier on the clutch to start in low and float your way up to 18.

 

Interesting. I'll have to play with it next time I'm in the truck, when I'm unloaded I still start off in 1 but not low, however loaded I'll always start in L. I work for an owner op so I do my best to maintain his gear, just curious. A lot of the guys I see doing what I described are company guys running in Cascadia day cabs.

I understand where you guys are coming from - but I would hazard to say that starting in L vs even 1 saves a reasonable amount of wear/tear when running 55500.

 

I'm almost certain they're Eaton 13s and 18s.