just need advice:(

They are tricky but can be backed up.

 

What type of trans?

 

If the hill is that steep. You'll find it easier to start in 1st

 

Heck, I've missed shifts on hills and had to start from stopped, lets just say "more than once". And I'm a farm kid that's been driving straight transmissions since I could push the clutch in..... The key is to relax when you miss a shift, pick a much lower gear (say four or five gears lower), and wait for the truck to slow down to that gear.

When the truck speed matches that gear, pop it in. The first few times, just pull up to the top of the hill in that gear, because your confidence will be shot. Sooner or later, you'll be able to recover without a problem.

 

You are trying to back TWO trailers, as in Doubles or rocky doubles? That's for a rare expert. It's vanishingly small group of truckers of that kind of skill born of extreme pathological obsession honed over decades to be able to dare to back up two trailers at a time. The slightest angle on one will drive the other out of line and there you are. Stuck.

Don't be backing two of them, come on. You have plenty on your hands with one.

Regarding mountain work. When you are going uphill... you have to for lack of a better word grow a pair. Im not trying to be sexist or anything but you need to make yourself a 50 pound right foot leave that engine on the floor and down shift at or above torque which I think is 1200 for a 500 horse detroit. If you keep it above that and not miss gears you will beat the mountain upgrade.

Anyone can climb a mountain. It's the getting down that's divides the boys from the men so they say.

If you are running two of the trailers my hats off for you. I wont do it. I would do the aussie road trains or the michigan B's at a drop of a hat but they are set up with 5th wheels that can be worked with rather than the doubles with the bogies.

If your trainer has a habit of losing temper or showing impatience or difficulty with you then it is possible that he is either asking you to do something pretty difficult like backing two pups or you two need to find another trainer you can work with.

Don't look at me, Ive done all sorts of trucking, but I know nothing about running doubles. I don't want it. I rather not deal with them. I hope things work out for you.

Remember that you drive and own the tractor trailer. It does not OWN you. You are the captian of the ship in that drivers seat. what you decide goes.

 

No truck can pull a hill in the wrong gear....and downshifting is not the solution either, because you lose torque in the process. The general rule is to pick a gear that keeps the power range at max and speed maintained even if its in granny, second or third gear, the higher the gear, the less pulling power on a steep grade. You might find climbing a big hill means crawling up it with flashers blinking. Gravity is always going to win that battle.

 

How is "not downshifting" ever going to work when ascending a steep grade when heavy?

 

Im saying get the truck in the correct gear, by downshifting before the the gravity takes the speed and rpm to a point where she has to stop on the hill and start over. Didn't she say she was having trouble climbing hills?