What am I doing wrong

Try using your toe to accelerate. Sounds crazy but just follow me for a second. Put your foot a little higher on the pedal and try to use your toe to gently apply the accelerator. It might sound crazy but it never failed me. Just remember, you don’t need to pound the heck out of the accelerator. Just be slow and easy with it and the truck will get moving.

 

If you are wearing western square toed steel boots (Steel toe..) with about a inch and change heel, you can rest on your right heel and put just enough foot on that long metal plate to get moving. If I remember right, there should be a notch in that metal going across. You can fit the heel into that notch and just gently push on it. If it's a drive by wire truck, the chip under your foot will send a binary count to the ECM computer on your engine to decide how much fuel how fast to apply.

What you don't want to do is tromp that fuel pedal all the time. That's a form of abuse of both tractor and your own body rocking her when you try to shift. Put you all out of sorts in a hurry. Shes beating you up. Trying to teach you something. Just like when you add too little power and not enough clutch riding, she will hop on you frame and all. If you had too much jake then she will nose down and buck on you.

Trucks are very simple minded mules. It's YOU who needs learning a little bit. When the ride gets much easier and shes purring off a light or something you are doing well.

But if you are taking off with too much power and shes violently rocking and maybe hopping, I know exactly whats going on with you inside of there. It would be nice to calm things down a little bit and give her a lighter touch. She'll do it for you. Trust me. It's not like the old iron days where your foot is mashed on the floor all day.

 

Check out this thread... It is a different question but has a lot of good info about shifting... Especially in pages 3 and 4 I think it is.

FIRST 4 GEARS

 

You didn't say what engine/tranny combo you are driving but 1500 rpm in low range is way too high to shift a 60 series. Pretty sure 1200 is the maximum comfortable and IMO it shifts better around 900rpm. If it's an Eaton 13 Speed, the last shift up into high range you will need to let your revs build higher as there is a longer gap in the ratio between those two gears. Then in high range you should be shifting in the 1500 range.

 

If it's bucking when you're starting from a stopped position, you're either giving it too much throttle, or coming off the clutch too quick OR, a combination of both. If it's bucking when you shift and you're floating, I would suspect you're using too much throttle putting you into too high of an RPM range. In low range, I always shift in a pretty low RPM range and the gears move like butter. At the end of the day it comes down to muscle control, and being able to move your feet smoothly etc, whether it be using throttle, or coming off the clutch when starting (assuming you're not double clutching.)

I can't remember the last time I looked at the rpm's when shifting, I just listen to the sound of the engine whether I'm up shifting, or down shifting, regardless if it's a truck I've driven a 100 times, or a truck I just hopped into for the first time, regardless of what type of engine/tranny etc a particular truck has, which is something you'll learn over time. Try focusing on elegantly pressing the throttle, and coming off the clutch in the same manner. Some people just have a knack for it, and some catch it later on. Reminds me of riding motorcycles, or driving a car for the first time. You'll see people that are smooth practically from the get go, and some that for whatever reason, whiskey throttle it, and brake too hard etc. One day it'll click, and it'll be no big deal. Good luck.

 

The pivot on the heel is great advice and foot further up the pedal is good also, people use just the toes gassing up the motor of a car, need to break that habit
Alot of newer trucks have colors on the tach, green area is optimal operating range, clutch should be about 1 inch from top as you roll in to the throttle, all this has to happen simultaneously, quick and steady with clutch release and throttle.
You may be shifting to fast or too slow?

 

It’s your clutch.
Practice letting the clutch out, starting in first gear, without your foot on the gas pedal at all.
You should get to where you can easily start out like that in fourth. Just bobtailing.
You’ll learn.

 

Also don't shove the clutch all the way in. There is a device at the bottom (Top) of it that will slow the gearing down at a red light so you can get out of nuetral and into any gear.

Halfway should do it.

Keep in mind if you are getting leg shake holding that clutch too long, put her into neutral first before the leg muscle dumps the load. When major muscles shake on a human body that's a warning, take the load off it before it will dump you.

I forgot about that until just this week, I have a hip joint going bad, it's either the major nerve serve the entire leg being pinched at the spine or the inside of the ball joint itself bone failure. I got a scan coming up. But because of that problem the major muscle group fails to take my body weight on that leg. And i recalled the same problem in trucking with big clutches if you hold it too long.

It has nothing to do with ego, manhood, weakness or any of that. It's just a straight forward physical symptom warning you about what's going to happen once your leg comes off that clutch in gear, you are going to hit the car in front of you with a big lurch.

I hate to think that's what I try to be good at helping others with these little details.

 

What type of truck are we talking? I have driven 2012-13 Peterbilts that were so sensitive they would be bucking and jumping like I had never driven a truck before. Same thing with my dad's 2007 T600, had to show him you barely push the pedal with the middle part of your foot or it's rodeo time.