How to recover from a miss shift downshifting

I don't use roadspeed. I an strictly RPM.

HOWEVER, I do take a peek at the Speedometer to get a idea of what the truck is up to sometimes after missing a gear. Which isnt that often. My ex when teamed with me needed some sort of conversion to road speed with her first manual truck in the T2000. If I remember right I gave her 25 as the max in low range 5th. Anything above that is going to be a high range gear. She had a 9 speed and later a 13 which she was not really ready for. Automatic was her first and best as far as performance was concerned in terms of fuel mileage. And also saved her when we rode out her first jackknife on ice. (The auto actually earned a spot in my heart despite my desire to be buried with a manual only.)

 

Well choose Another gear.Only clutch about "even with top of brake pedal".Above all "AVOID THE PANIC" ."OH my God,Ive gotta get this thing in gear". Take an extra few second.Jake brake or service brake should "hold you" till you get it sorted out.Also "downshifting going down a hill" isnt a good habit.I get a gear at top of hill and stay in it to "drag me down" Just saying

 

Maintain RPM. Search for gear

 

I was beginning to wonder.

I write pages upon pages of mountain school preaching about coming down stairs in one stable gear at a decent speed in balance with traffic etc (Not 6 mph... call it a nice even 30 or so)

As you said ZMOTG I screwed up the downshift. First off why are you downshifting? It's relatively rare to have to downshift again once your stable jacobs speed is reached or even on the more gentle hills your cruise speed is balanced close to that of gravity.

Dare I say the newbie got Bored and have to do something with idle hands and feet? Boredom is the invitational for dat ol' devil to come out and play. And his kind of play isnt what you want or need in knot school.

Maybe a line or two of software can be written so that the computer will have a pre-gate sensor on where you are going with the gear selector in neutral and generally have the engine RPM holding close to the one gear you want to be in. For you foot ball types maybe a audio call will help. Warmer, colder, really cold, really hot etc.

 

I have found ten speeds to be unnecessarily clumsy. Much of the problems with 10 speeds have been solved by either Rockwell short 9's or going the other way into the Rockwell or Eaton 13 speeds double over or under. I prefer the unders because there isn't enough horses yet (Need about 1200 or so.. not piddling 500+) to stay at the speed limit in top gear upgrade on a mountain. Or put against the rig downgrade via the Jacobs and maybe in the future Regenerative or resistivity braking to capture power while downgrade in some way. Once we understand mountains to be no longer a problem, it will become more possible to meet the crazy appointment dates and times promised by brokers and people drivers will never meet or be asked when can they have the load there within HOS limitations and speed governing.

Any company that still governs to 65 or slower in many states where it's now able to do 75 to 85 legally, that 65 mph or slower 18 wheeler is becoming a actual life threatening hazard to traffic. Able to crush any car that runs under the trailer from behind while decapitating the heads of the people inside of them. If that is not a valid insurance risk to cause the Safety people to simply scrap the governor and allow 85 mph running to stay with the flow of traffic I don't know what will.

 

Relax,The CDL schools just get you "started". No,you Wont be able to drive like Jerry Reeds after school.Even the Highway Patrol or whoever rides with you on the "Road Test" knows this.Youll get Better after school.Keep in mind its not at all like shifting a Toyota Camry.All your shifts are in rpm range 1200 to 1500 depending on how "fast rpms fall off.Often those training trucks are hashed out gearbox and clutch from "grinders",clutch riders etc.Ive drove over 70 different rental trucks(some rpms drop quick and need more fuel goosing higher rpms to shift.The reason you shift to Neutral first and have to "Double clutch is the gears arent "synchronized. Go to nuetral to stop em from spinning so theyll mesh together.

 

The two most important pieces of advice I can give you:

1. Do NOT hold the shifter in the palm of your hand. Hold it in your finger tips. If you hold it in the palm of your hand that promotes pushing or pulling it towards the gear with way too much force. Hold it in your finger tips and only apply a LIGHT amount of force towards the gear.

2. Learn how LITTLE you need to move the throttle. I used to be a trainer. Usually after the first few hours on the first day I would have the trainee stop and do a drill. Set the parking brake, turn off the radio (I haven't listened to the radio in years) then I would call out rpm's. "1500" and the trainee would hold throttle position at 1500. "1100" and the trainee would back off the throttle and hold it at 1100. I would have them pay attention to the SOUND of the engine at those rpm's. Then I continued the drill, but with their eyes closed. Initially they might have some difficulty getting the rpm's right, but everyone soon caught on. Then I would start calling out oddball rpm's: 800, 1600, 1300, etc. This drill teaches two really important skills, it teaches you how LITTLE you need to move the throttle, millimeters at a time. It also starts you on the path of NOT LOOKING AT THE TACHOMETER OR SPEEDOMETER. Listen to your truck.

The big problem for rookies is watching the gauges, having a death grip on the shifter, then executing the shift by either flooring it or letting completely off the throttle and going all Mike Tyson at that gear, hoping to time the knockout punch at the split second the rpm's match up.

Instead after going through the throttle drill I have them hold that shifter SOFTLY in their finger tips and move that throttle millimeters as they gently nudge it towards the gear, if it doesn't fall in right away you can feel the teeth trying to match up and SLIGHTLY adjust rpm's to let it fall in like a hot knife through butter. Sometimes you might need to chase it down below 1100 rpm's on an upshift or higher than 1600 rpm's on a downshift. Sometimes if you are dropping speed or picking up speed going uphill or downhill you go to another gear.

Do the drill. Use your finger tips. Turn off the radio. Listen to the sweet sound of the engine. Do all that and you can get into any truck and start letting it teach you how it likes to play.

 

I read most of these replies and in general agree. However what concerns me more is while this driver is doing all this figuring is he still driving the truck? What about when that child might run out in the road? This is what I mean. In Dec of 1972 a flight crew on an Eastern Airlines L1011 flew a perfectly good airplane into the ground because all 3 of the flight crew were too concerned about a dang landing gear light to take notice the autopilot had come disengaged. You miss a gear make sure while you are finding the right gear that you are NOT taking your eyes off that road. Yes, I'm in a crappy mood. However you drive a manual transmission BY SOUND. The sound of the road, the sound of the engine. This is almost impossible if you are listening to that latest song so loud your shaking the truck as you go down the road. Everybody has to learn I know and understand this. However I suggest you learn this by paying attention to these sounds and turning that dang radio OFF while around other heavy traffic or people walking. If I had a dollar for every gear I missed in my driving career I would be making a large deposit in my bank. EVERYBODY has missed gears up and down. If you hear a driver tell you they have not missed a gear that driver is a liar! Solve this problem by learning these sounds, it is the easiest to do. Takes a longer time to master, but is well worth it later. Oh one more thing. My radio comment is a general comment not necessarily directed to the OP!

 

I don't think anyone here can give you any good advice without riding in the truck with you. We really don't know what you're doing wrong to give you good advice on correcting it. I can shift an Eaton 10 speed with my eyes closed by engine sound alone, and during the CDL road test I stalled the thing in the middle of an overpass. I still passed. I really learned how to shift after being thrown into a 10 speed truck and given a preplan to Pennsylvania.

My biggest hang up was backing. It got so bad my instructor got out of the truck and said you do it yourself, without me, I don't think you'll ever get this. Once he got out the truck THEN it all came together and I made a 100 on the 3 backing tests. I was the ONE person who took the longest to get the backing down but the ONE person in the entire CDL class of 36 students to make 100 on it.

I will say we had one student in our CDL class had his CDL but couldn't shift and wanted the auto restriction lifted. He was all over those gears for 4 days of hard shifting and then one day he got it. It just "clicked." He aced the CDL driving test.